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How to help more of Hong Kong’s non-Chinese-speaking students reach university

The percentage of non-Chinese-speaking students who sat Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams and were admitted to the city’s public universities has remained…

By Samantha Johnson / August 17, 2026
The percentage of non-Chinese-speaking students who sat Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams and were admitted to the city’s public universities has remained persistently low over the past five academic years, with no clear signs of a change in sight.

Veteran educators who teach such pupils, classified by the government as NCS students, attributed the trend to three main factors: high failure rates in core mathematics; deficiencies in Chinese-language studies; and a lack of performance targets by schools despite heavy public funding.

According to data from the Education Bureau and the University Grants Committee, the proportion of NCS students sitting the DSE who secured government-funded undergraduate places averaged around 10 per cent annually for the past five academic years.

In the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years, the NCS student admission rate stood at 8.8 per cent and 8.9 per cent, respectively.

It later increased to 12.2 per cent in 2022-23, but dropped to 11.6 per cent a year later and declined to 10.5 per cent in 2024-25.

The trend contrasts with the rate for the general student population, with a quarter of all DSE school candidates going on to study at publicly funded universities.

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