Study university in Hong Kong

Do you know that less than half of the Hong Kong students prefer studying in university?

47.2% to be exact. The figure is way higher in other places though, with 80.9% in South Korea and 70.2% in Singapore. It’s not really healthy for a modern society like Hong Kong, is it?

How about we consider this: only 18% of the students in Hong Kong gain admission to publicly funded university, while South Korea has more than 80%.

What about the remaining 82% students? Well, what else? They pay the school fee themselves.

Some researchers suggested that the fierce competition and the school fee scared the students away and worried that since the students are not expecting university education, they may not put much effort in their study.

Aside from the financial burden, Hong Kong students also have to worry about the “usefulness” of a university degree.

A recent study shows that the median income of Hong Kong fresh university graduates has dropped by nearly 20% in the last 20 years. That seems to be the result of the huge increase in university places over the years. The abundant supply of university graduates means employers have way more choices and can offer a much lower salary level. Not to mention the increase of university places without careful planning leads to the mismatch between the degrees available and job vacancies.

So in other words, the value of university degree is depreciating.

And the government officials plan to make Hong Kong’s economy a knowledge based one…

Good luck, because they will need it, lots of it.

I mean, who would want “knowledge” if it’s not affordable or practical?

Kindergarten in Hong Kong

Do you know Hongkongers start fighting before they are 3 year-old?

No, we are not gladiators from some proud warrior races. I am talking about the competition brought by our education system. Pre-school education here, to be exact.

People are not kidding when they said “competition in Hong Kong is fierce”. If you want a successful life, you need to study in a prestigious school; if you want to study in a prestigious school, you will need to attend a good kindergarten…With this logic, everything traces back to “what you should do for your child when / before he is born”.

What is ridiculous is that people DO follow this logic. Parents have their children attend those “play groups” to learn how to socialize with others when they are only 10 month-old.

Then the kids (actually they are still babies) have to participate in those extracurricular activities like playing violin or piano, because that gives you bonus for the kindergarten interview. Some parents even have their child learn English, Mandarin and Japanese… at 3.

Then the parents enroll in the kindergarten like crazy. They don’t just enroll in 1 or 2 schools, but as many as possible. Like, 12, as suggested by some parents on the news.

It’s not over yet. When you have enrolled in that many schools, you have to prepare for and participate in all the interview. Overwhelmed by the stress and workload, some kids even refuse to speak to the interviewers, rendering everything pointless.

Poor kids… They are only 3, and this is only the beginning of their suffering.

All those work and preparation really put my job applications to shame. I guess that is why my job sucks and why I am so underpaid.