Higher Education Policy in Hong Kong: Adaptation to Mainland's Development

1. Higher Education Policy in Hong Kong: Adaptation to Mainland's Development Wenjie (Mandy) Ying March 14th, 2013

2. Outline • Cultural and Historical Background of Hong Kong • Overview of Major Actors & Trends in Higher Education Policy before and after 1997 • A Further Look at the Internationalization Strategy and Geographic Representation in Graduate Programs • Competitiveness or Marketization?

3. Hong Kong • Historically…

4. HK today…

5. Culturally… East Meets West

6. Outline • Cultural and Historical Background of Hong Kong • Overview of Major Actors & Trends in Higher Education Policy before and after 1997 • A Further Look at the Internationalization Strategy and Geographic Representation in Graduate Programs • Competitiveness or Marketization?

7. Overview of Major Actors in Higher Education in Hong Kong • University Grants Committee (UGC) • Education Bureau • Legislative Council • Education Institutions • Other HE Agencies • Students and Parents • Civil Society

8. Statutory universities: • University of Hong Kong (HKU) 23 • The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) 40 • The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) 33 • Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) • The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) • City University of Hong Kong (CityU) • LingnanUniversity • The Open University of Hong Kong

9. Major Trends After 2009: plus Mandarin 3-3-4 + 1 or 2 Liberal Education Geographic Representation Before: • English and Cantonese • 3-6-3-2-3+1 or 2 • Specialized Education • Non-compulsory

10. Enrollment by Level of Study

11. Enrollment by Area of Study

12. Research

13. Employment

14. Outline • Cultural and Historical Background of Hong Kong • Overview of Major Actors & Trends in Higher Education Policy before and after 1997 • A Further Look at the Internationalization Strategy and Geographic Representation in Graduate Programs • Competitiveness or Marketization?

15. Non-Local Enrollment

16. Continued on Non-Local (2011/12)

17. Internationalization and Adaptation to Mainland’s Strategies • UGC (2010): “Internationalizationand engagement with Mainland China as the key to Hong Kong's future, and that it should be actively pursued by the UGC-funded institutions. ” • Higher Education Review (HER) Report (2010) : “Internationalizationshould become one of the central themes of all UGC-funded institutions and should permeate the whole gamut of institutional activities. “ • a strategic dialogue with the Heads of Universities Committee (HUCOM)

18. Internationalization and Adaptation to Mainland’s Strategies • Civil Society/Public: “Internationalization has exacerbated the inequality condition in Hong Kong… Non-local undergraduates in Poly U (5914 in 2011 academic year compared to 241 in 2001) have enjoyed 10% of the scholarship in undergraduate programs in 2011 (compared to 1% in 2001). In addition, the number of non-local graduates (including master and PhD students in art majors) has increased from 1469 (in year 2001) to 4747 (2011), making up a percentage from 34% to 73%.” • “Internationalization of the higher education sector was far from successful since 90% of the non-local students studying in Hong Kong came from the Mainland.” • “ Local graduates have become the ‘minority’ of graduates in Hong Kong now and Hong Kong’s internationalization strategies in Higher Education have mostly benefited mainland students, using revenue from Hong Kong tax payers. “

19. Internationalization and Adaptation to Mainland’s Strategies • Legislative Council (2011): “However, members noted that for the purpose of internationalizing the education sector, the non-local student quota of the publicly-funded programmes had been increased to 20%. The number of non-local students in Hong Kong had increased from 7 900 in the 2007-2008 academic year to 9 200 in the 2008-2009 academic year, representing a rise of 16%”. • “Some 5 600 local students who had attained the minimum qualification for university education were not admitted to publicly-funded degree programmes every year”. • “Some members were of the view that the Administration had misplaced its priority in developing education services, overlooking the education need of local students.”

20. Internationalization and Adaptation to Mainland’s Strategies • Administration: “The recurrent expenditure on education was around 25% of the total expenditure of the Government. The current financial position did not allow a further increase of recurrent expenditure on education.” • Both local and non-local students could attend such institutions, and there would be a prescribed percentage for non-local students. • The focus of internationalization of the education sector was to develop self-financing post-secondary institutions. • Currently, non-local students enrolled mainly in self-financing programmes. • The issue at stake was not subsidization of non-local students but a need for an increase of university places.”

21. Outline • Cultural and Historical Background of Hong Kong • Overview of Major Actors & Trends in Higher Education Policy before and after 1997 • A Further Look at the Internationalization Strategy and Geographic Representation in Graduate Programs • Competitiveness or Marketization?

22. Some major discussions here… • ‘Limited’ Funding v.s. Internationalization? • Undergraduate (caped) v.s. Graduate (no cap)? • Quality Education (Competitiveness) v.s. Marketization? • Managerialismv.s. Decentralization? • Internationalization or Equality?

23. My own points… • Inequality to whom? • How much does the Quality of High School and Undergraduate Education matter? • What do the local students think? • What is the ultimate goal of Higher Education development in Hong Kong?

24. Some chose studying overseas…