The University of Hong Kong will set up a special scholarship for first-year students from the Chinese mainland in response to an upcoming rise in tuition fees for non-Hong Kong students, officials said yesterday.

 

The scholarship fund now contains 8.4 million HK dollars (US$1.08 million). Sixty mainland students will be entitled to a full scholarship worth 140,000 HK dollars (US$17,975) each year starting in 2008.

 

Mainland students need to take a one-year preparation course at local universities before heading off to Hong Kong. Students taking those courses will be eligible for a one-year scholarship worth 30,000 HK dollars. Last year, the university offered scholarships ranging from 40,000 to 130,000 HK dollars to 40 mainland students.

 

Starting in 2008, tuition for non-Hong Kong students will rise from 80,000 to 100,000 HK dollars a year. "We have to make ends meet by recruiting overseas students who receive few or no government subsidies," said Henry W.K. Wai, the university's registrar.

 

(Shanghai Daily December 4, 2006)