Universities and Higher Education

Education in Hong Kong has entered a new era. With the introduction of the new academic structure, our undergraduate programmes last for four years rather than three from 2012 onwards. The new system is more aligned with the academic systems worldwide, and allows more opportunities for student exchanges with other parts of the world. Taking the opportunity of an additional year, our higher education institutions have revamped their curriculum with a view to nurturing global citizens with academic excellence and international outlook through inter-disciplinary studies, service learning in local and global settings, exchange programmes and enriched learning experiences.

There are 22 higher education institutions in Hong Kong with local degree-awarding power. These institutions offer a wide array of high quality programmes from sub-degree to doctoral levels. Apart from these, there are 22 post-secondary institutions offering a variety of locally-accredited sub-degree programmes.

Hong Kong has many world-class institutions. Of the 22 local degree-awarding institutions in Hong Kong, three were ranked within the top 50 by the Quacquarelli Symonds and another two within the top 200. Hong Kong universities also host the world’s best executive business management programmes. They also offer a wide array of joint programmes in collaboration with prestigious universities around the world.

Other than local academic qualifications, there are 1 107 non-local courses conducted in Hong Kong by institutions outside Hong Kong, leading to the award of non-local higher academic or professional qualifications. Distribution of countries of origin of the non-local courses conducted in Hong Kong are shown below.

Countries of origin of Non-local Courses
	Australia (10%) USA & Canada (8%) China (4%) United Kingdom (76%) Others (2%)

Non-local courses conducted in Hong Kong must be registered or exempted from registration under the Non-local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance (Cap. 493), and are monitored by the Non-local Courses Registry of the Education Bureau. Among the 1 107 or so non-local courses, 137 of them have been locally accredited by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications and the relevant qualifications have been placed on the Qualifications Register.

You may now have a quick view of our institutions below. Of course, you can obtain more in-depth information at the institutions’ websites.