Education incentives to lure HK talents

A series of measures aimed at benefitting Hong Kong students on the Chinese mainland have created various incentives for the city's youths to live across the boundary.

The measures, which were progressively revealed by the central government in the past year, covered aspects like scholarships and employment support for Hong Kong students, as well as access to mainland education resources for children of Hong Kong people living there.

To Ng Shu-king - a 27-year-old hailing from Hong Kong who had studied on the mainland for seven years - the most vital step taken so far has been the establishment of a national-level scholarship in October last year.

The scholarship, worth up to 30,000 yuan ($4,367) each year, is open to undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students from Hong Kong and Macao, as well as overseas Chinese students enrolled at higher educational institutions on the mainland.

Ng said the new scholarship is a big improvement with a bigger amount and a higher number of recipients that will draw more Hong Kong students to the mainland.

Besides financial incentives, the recently announced relaxed residence permit policy will also be a major factor in luring more Hong Kong people to stay on the mainland, said Ng, who now works as a business consultant on the mainland.

Applications for the new residence permits will start on Sept 1. Eligible Hong Kong residents, after having obtained the permit, will enjoy access to public education resources on the mainland. Their children can attend public schools with six years of primary and three years of secondary education.

Hong Kong scholar Song Sio-chong said he now expects more Hong Kong people to take the initiative to live on the mainland. "The latest policy change is definitely good news for many Hong Kong people who can't afford the high fees charged by the mainland's international schools and have difficulties in sending their children to public schools," he said.

Cheung Wun-man, a 24-year-old Hong Kong postgraduate student at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said the series of measures have created employment incentives to attract more Hong Kong people to explore opportunities on the mainland.

She noted that THU has started issuing two categories of documents that were previously provided only to mainland students to enable Hong Kong students to get jobs on the mainland.

One of the documents is the Employment Agreement, which would be signed by the student, the university and the prospective company the student intends to join, according to Cheung. The agreement would protect the employment rights of students. The other document is the Employment Registration Certificate, which graduates must present to employers when they report for work on their first day.

With these documents, students can enjoy better protection with regard to their employment rights, and negotiate with potential employers more efficiently, Cheung reckoned.

Following the introduction of these measures, many technical problems involving documents or procedures that used to inconvenience Hong Kong students have now been solved, she said.

However, disparities in culture and education systems between Hong Kong and the mainland are still hindering Hong Kong students from full integration, she pointed out.

To address these problems, she suggests that mainland schools and universities offer more transitional courses for Hong Kong students. More networking activities and interaction programs will also help them adapt to life on the mainland.

Song called for more efforts to familiarize Hong Kong students with mainland culture.

He urged mainland educational institutions to provide more psychological counseling services to help Hong Kong students deal with the cultural shock they may encounter in the initial stages of their studies on the mainland.

bingcun@chinadailyhk.com