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tel places fails to catch up with the eight universities across the city. easy to earn enough hostel credits to
surge in demand. Hostel shortage at CityU was the secure a bed place on campus.
Lilian Ho, executive officer of the most alarming, requiring 3,167 hos- Kevin Xue, a Year 3 Mainland stu-
UGC, says the eight UGC-funded uni- tel places to be developed. dent of CityU, who is also a tutor of a
versities only allocated 16,500 hostel Under the current policy, inter- residential hall of the university says
places to a total of 22,200 applica- national students studying in Hong it has become more difficult for non-
tions from international students Kong universities for a four-year local students to get a hostel place
studying UGC-funded programmes bachelor’s degree programme are since a change of policy in 2018.
this year, including around 3,300 only guaranteed to live on campus “Although the number of vacan-
applications by exchange students. for two or three years. For the non- cies of each hall varies, the Students
The allocation ratio is 74 per cent – guaranteed year(s), they need to earn Residence Office (SRO) gives the
which means more than a quarter of “hostel credits” by participating in same quotas to non-local students
these non-local students failed to se- school activities to compete for the in each hall,” the Computer Science
cure a hostel place on campus. limited hostel places. student says. He adds that under the
Figures from the UGC reveals previous policy, SRO did not give
there was a shortfall of over 13,000 Adapting to U-life specific quotas for non-local stu-
hostel places in 2018/2019 at the For non-local students, it is not dents.

Source: University Grants Committee, CityU, HKBU, LU, CUHK, EdUHK, PolyU, HKUST, HKU