Admission rate for NCS students sitting university entrance exam has remained persistently low over past five academic years
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenWilliam YiuPublished: 8:30am, 17 Aug 2026The percentage of non-Chinese-speaking students who sat Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams and were admitted to the city’s public universities has remained persistently low over the past five academic years, with no clear signs of a change in sight.Veteran educators who teach such pupils, classified by the government as NCS students, attributed the trend to three main factors: high failure rates in core mathematics; deficiencies in Chinese-language studies; and a lack of performance targets by schools despite heavy public funding.
According to data from the Education Bureau and the University Grants Committee, the proportion of NCS students sitting the DSE who secured government-funded undergraduate places averaged around 10 per cent annually for the past five academic years.
In the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years, the NCS student admission rate stood at 8.8 per cent and 8.9 per cent, respectively.
It later increased to 12.2 per cent in 2022-23, but dropped to 11.6 per cent a year later and declined to 10.5 per cent in 2024-25.
