Some 40 percent of students taking part in this year's Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS) on Wednesday received offers from nine local universities, with the Chinese University accepting the most top scorers.

There were 39,523 students vying for an offer this year – the lowest number since 2012 – down from more than 40,600 a year ago.

Official data showed 15,857 applicants will get a spot at either a publicly-funded or self-financing bachelor's degree course, or a higher diploma programme at the Education University of Hong Kong.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong secured six out of the eight top scorers who took this year's Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams.

Five of them will be studying medicine, while the other high-flyer will join the university’s quantitative finance and risk management science programme.

Meanwhile, 3,465 applicants have been accepted to undergraduate programmes under the government’s Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions.

Authorities had said the scheme is designed to nurture talent to support the development of specific industries, such as architecture and engineering, computer science, creative industries, and financial technology.