Mainland Chinese students turn to Hong Kong universities amid gaokao, US visa worries
The city has overtaken the US to become the second most popular study-abroad destination for mainland students in 2026, a report finds
The Blue Book on Mainland Students Studying in Hong Kong released late last month underscores this trend, attributing it to geographic proximity, cultural familiarity, and pragmatic considerations regarding career prospects and residency planning, even as admission becomes fiercely competitive.
“In the past three to five years, the scale, structure and underlying logic of mainland students pursuing education in Hong Kong have undergone a qualitative change,” wrote the authors from Peking University’s Sustainability Research Institute and two education companies.
“What began as an elite pathway for a small number of top-performing students has evolved into a complex ecosystem spanning schooling, multiple undergraduate admission channels, a large-scale influx into taught master’s programmes, and ever-closer links between study, career planning and long-term residency status,” according to the report, unveiled in Beijing on April 26.