Source: Admission Office

2012 is the first year that Hong Kong graduates of both the old style preparatory school and the new style high school apply for colleges. In order to reduce the academic pressure in Hong Kong, 63 universities from mainland China planned to enroll altogether two thousand HK students. From May 5 to 6, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and SYSU organized interviews in the University of Hong Kong. Among three hundred candidates, more than half of them were interviewed by SYSU.

Different from the individual interview of the independent recruitment in mainland China, the open admission in Hong Kong mainly adopted group interviews. There were six examiners in two groups. Each group interviewed five to six candidates in each round. Candidates needed to do self introduction and then discuss common issues. Interview questions included discussions like “Take the example of the fact that both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates didn’t finish college but become worldwide successful people, please give your understanding of the meaning of college education” and “Please illustrate with examples that the advance of science and technology result in the ‘decline’ of human ability”. Topics related to the study and life experience provided by their electronic personal statement were also discussed. The interview mainly focused on the student’s expression, collaboration and communication skills, knowledge structure and etiquette. Students can speak Mandarin, English and Cantonese based on their own conditions.

The offers of open admission for Hong Kong students will come out before August 3.

SYSU adopts three ways of admission in Hong Kong, that is, open admission, separate entrance exam, and unified entrance exam, by which recruits the number of Hong Kong students as many as about 60 percent of the total number of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan students every year. It is reported that SYSU will set a separate entrance exam for Hong Kong students on June 2. By now there are already 370 applicants. On May 5, SYSU held an Information Seminar in Hong Kong and more than 260 students and parents attended this seminar.