Admissions through routes other than the Diploma of Secondary Education rose 63% over seven years to account for close to 30% of the roughly 15,000 publicly funded first-year places, the South China Morning Post reported on Aug. 24.
The newspaper analyzed University Grants Committee figures on first-year first-degree admissions at all eight institutions in the city from 2019-20 to 2025-26, including the University of Hong Kong, which ranks No.1 in QS World University Rankings: Asia 2026.
Over the same period, admissions of students who sat the DSE, the route taken by nearly all pupils in the city's public school system, fell 7%, and their share dropped from 82% to 72%.
The DSE share of first-year admissions has fallen to around 60% at the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the latter ranked 6th in QS Asia list. The rate is the lowest among the eight institutions.
Admissions through other routes at the two universities climbed 156% and 87% respectively.
