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Almost half the eligible students will fail to get a university place

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  1. #1

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    Almost half the eligible students will fail to get a university place

    It's mentioned here: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_d...493&con_type=1

    "The DSE results are out today. The authority said 28,418 students gained sufficient points to meet university requirements, but only 12,000 places are available to them."

    12,000 places a year seems very little to me.

    I don't know what's wrong with the HK government. It has so much money it is forced to refund some taxes, and yet they don't want to sort out the problems, such as insufficient university places. They want HK will remain a place with poorly qualified people who work for the minimum wage?

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  2. #2

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    It doesn't seem to me that there's a shortage of graduates, so providing more places would just be a waste of taxpayers' money - you just end up with a load of graduates in the lower paying jobs they would have had anyway


  3. #3

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    If the university's are not educating people for the new economy you might have a point Grunty. I know in Canada that the provinces can mostly say every kid can get to university these days as they take all comers - that is because they priced the degrees so much higher than when I went to university. Then we had great summer jobs and great jobs after graduating.

    HK needs to develop new industries and that means smarter, better educated people but they should be a leader in innovation in areas they can grow in.


  4. #4

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    What kind of new industries? Manufacturing - I don't think so. Knowledge based - perhaps. Do universities in Hong Kong prepare young people for this type of job, or do they mainly end up in desk jobs in service industries which basically just require a high school education?

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  5. #5

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    No need - look at the surfeit of talent in the government already.

    It's a shame, they could afford the best educated workforce in the world. Guess those at the top don't want too much social mobility to threaten their advantages. They can always get what they need from the mainland too.

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  6. #6

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    Awaiting for someone to say "blame the mainlanders, it's their fault"


  7. #7

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    Sometimes I'm almost tempted to say a university education is overrated, job-wise. These days, too many locals still cling onto this notion that so long as they manage to get a university place and graduate then they can enjoy the "good life" with a high paying job, family security and access to the luxury goods. Maybe that was true 30+ years ago when university education really was accessible only to the elite of the elite in HK, but nowadays, even with stiff competition, there are no shortages of university graduates. A university graduate in HK nowis nothing special, many in fact end up earning the min. wage doing some menial task because they could'nt land their "ideal" job.

    Thus the bigger problem is whether the skills of those graduates fit the market needs, and I suspect not, or not really well. There are cases where some locals chose to forgo a university place and went into the vocational training routine and end up landing a better job on graduation with better pay and career prospects than many university graduates. Unless you go into a professional route (i.e. medicine, law, engineering) or some promising fields career-wise, a grad with a liberal arts degree (i.e. English lit) is not going to find an easy time in the job market.

    Last edited by Watercooler; 16-07-2013 at 03:37 PM.
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  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Watercooler:
    Sometimes I'm almost tempted to say a university education is overrated, job-wise. Unless you go into a professional route (i.e. medicine, law, engineering) or some promising fields career-wise, a grad with a liberal arts degree (i.e. English lit) is not going to find an easy time in the job market.
    Yes, but as long as they're going to pay me to teach them, I'm not going to object to the non-nonsensical nature of their degree.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by cheepo:
    It's mentioned here: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_d...493&con_type=1

    "The DSE results are out today. The authority said 28,418 students gained sufficient points to meet university requirements, but only 12,000 places are available to them."
    You missed out this bit.

    "About one-third of the 82,000 candidates sitting this year's DSE exam, or 28,418, obtained the minimum entry requirement for university - or "3,3,2,2" in the four core subjects."

    With grading on the scale of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5*, 5** , it would be pretty hard not to achieve those scores (in Chinese,English,Maths and Liberal Studies). The fact that so many failed to reach that minimum should be of greater concern. And it says very little for the quality of the degree courses if that is all they require.
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  10. #10

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    Looks like what I wanted to say has already been said.

    Educational inflation + unrealistic expectations.

    What percentage of jobs being created in HK actually require a B.Something?

    (Old fogey retires to back of cave, to read a book printed on paper).

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