Selection completed for inaugural cohort of School Nominations Direct Admission Scheme
6.7.2022

The Education Bureau (EDB) today (July 6) announced the completion of the selection process of the inaugural cohort of the School Nominations Direct Admission Scheme (SNDAS). A total of 766 valid SNDAS nominations were received from 403 secondary schools for the inaugural cohort. In the past few months, the eight University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded universities participating in the Scheme have arranged interviews for all nominated students and carefully considered each nominee's merits. Firm offers were eventually made to 195 successful nominees prior to the release of the 2022 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination results, of which 186 have accepted the offers and will commence study on their chosen UGC-funded undergraduate programmes in September 2022, in a wide spectrum of disciplines including architecture, surveying and town planning, arts, business, computing and engineering, education, environmental studies, design, language, medicine and health, music, sciences, social sciences and more. A breakdown by discipline of study is provided in the Annex. The Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, said she was pleased to note the encouraging results of the inaugural cohort of the SNDAS. "As always, the Government strives to nurture young people and is committed to enhancing the education system and creating space for students to cater for their diversity, so as to allow them to reach their full potential. Hong Kong also needs diversified talents to meet the development needs of society and enhance its competitiveness," Dr Choi said. "In this respect, besides optimising our senior secondary subjects, we have also introduced the SNDAS to enable UGC-funded universities to consider the direct admission of local secondary students with talents that may not be fully assessed by the HKDSE Examination on the basis of their outstanding performance in individual subjects or fields, and provide the opportunity for them to pursue studies in programmes of their choice. "I immensely appreciate the universities' support for this new scheme and their recognition of students' diverse talents in areas such as sports, music, arts and culture, leadership, creativity and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). I am confident that these students will infuse new energy into the campuses upon enrolment," Dr Choi added. The second cohort of the SNDAS will be open for applications by Secondary Six students taking the 2023 HKDSE Examination and commencing their undergraduate studies in September 2023. Details of the application arrangements will be announced in due course. The EDB set up the Task Force on Review of School Curriculum in November 2017 to holistically review the primary and secondary curricula. The review report submitted by the Task Force to the EDB in September 2020 put forward six directional recommendations, including the implementation of a new direct admission scheme to enhance flexibility in university admissions. EDB accepted the recommendation and introduced the SNDAS in 2021. The eight UGC-funded universities had designated a total of 146 publicly funded undergraduate programmes to participate in the inaugural cohort of the SNDAS and set admission criteria that are not based on HKDSE Examination results for individual programmes.