HKU bags most DSE top scorers, followed by CUHK

35.4 percent of applicants offered bachelor’s degree programs

The University of Hong Kong netted six of the nine top scorers in the city’s Diploma of Secondary Education examination this year, including Thomas Wong Tsz-hang, the first to achieve highest mark — 5** — in nine subjects.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong admitted the other three top scorers.

The results came after the city’s full-time undergraduate programs application system — Joint University Programmes Admissions System — announced university offers on Monday.

Data from JUPAS show that 16,538 Hong Kong students — 35.4 percent of all applicants — have been invited to attend bachelor’s degree programs run by the nine universities under the system.

The data also show that some 7.7 percent of applicants received offers of associate degree and higher diploma programs — often regarded as an inferior substitute for a bachelor’s degree.

The students who failed to receive offers in the main round of admissions still have a chance to be enrolled in the clearing round of offers in late August. They can also apply for self-financing programs.

The undergraduate programs related to medicine and law are popular choices for the 2018 DSE top scorers. They achieved 5** in seven subjects or more in the DSE.

Wong and another top

percent

scorer, Josie Lam, were accepted by the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery program at HKU. A six-year curriculum, it is one of programs with the highest admission score requirement in Hong Kong.

As for the other four top scorers admitted by HKU, the university offered them places in its Bachelor of Laws degree, Bachelor of Business Administration (Law) and LLB, Bachelor of Social Sciences (Government and Laws) and LLB, and Bachelor of Dental Surgery programs.

The three top scorers who received CUHK’s offers, respectively, chose medicine — Global Physician-Leadership Stream, Global Business Studies and Global Economics and Finance programs.

JUPAS is Hong Kong’s main route to assist local students to apply for bachelor’s degrees, associate degrees and higher diploma programs run by nine local universities.

The participating institutions of the scheme include HKU, CUHK, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Lingnan University, the Education University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Open University of Hong Kong.

Beside of OUHK’s self-financing bachelor’s degree programs, other programs listed under JUPAS are all funded by the city’s higher education grants authority — University Grants Committee.