Secretary for Education Christine Choi on Saturday said the government might consider further adjusting its ceiling for the number of non-local students attending universities in Hong Kong.

There are currently, she pointed out, more than 30,000 such students in the city and some universities have already filled up their quota.

The government had doubled enrolment caps for non-locals to 40 percent from the 2024/25 academic year, and the limit will be increased to 50 percent from 2026/27.

Speaking on a radio programme, Choi said there would be no impact on local enrolment, no matter how many non-locals were admitted to the SAR's tertiary institutions.

"The 15,000 spots for our local students will remain unchanged. Our school-age population is decreasing, but we never adjusted the number of first-degree places offered for locals," she pointed out.

"Moreover, universities admit non-locals on an over-enrolment basis, which means the institutions admit our local students first, followed by non-locals."

Choi said the number of hostel places would rise to around 14,300 in the 2027/28 academic year, as part of the government's efforts to accommodate increasing demand for student accommodation, following the establishment of the Hostel Development Fund in 2018 to that end.

As for teaching staff in universities, Choi said, non-locals account for 70 percent, which makes Hong Kong's institutions attractive as it reflects internationalisation and diversity.