Secretary for Education Choi Yuk-lin today attended the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education (APAIE) 2024 Conference & Exhibition in Perth, Australia and exchanged views with international higher education leaders.

In her "Study in Hong Kong" speech, Ms Choi promoted to overseas partners Hong Kong's advantages as an international post-secondary education hub, noting that it possesses unique charms as a vibrant, highly livable and diverse cosmopolitan city where East meets West.

Hong Kong is the only city in the world with five publicly-funded universities within the world's top 100. Its higher education sector is highly diverse and world-renowned with about one out of five students and two-thirds of academic staff coming from more than 100 countries or places outside Hong Kong, making the city an ideal destination for further studies, she added.

The education chief pointed out that with the double advantages of enjoying the strong support of the motherland and being closely connected to the world, Hong Kong has gathered a pool of talent and plenty of resources, offering many collaboration and exchange opportunities and innovation platforms.

She emphasised that the Government is sparing no effort to achieve the goal of building Hong Kong into an international post-secondary education hub and fully supports local universities to strengthen collaboration and connection with education institutions around the world on student exchanges and academic research.

Ms Choi also visited the Hong Kong Pavilion, which was set up by the Heads of Universities Committee Standing Committee on Internationalisation and funded by the University Grants Committee.

She learnt about the work of publicly-funded universities in expanding their international network as well as their promotion for recruiting students from more places to undertake further studies in Hong Kong following the Government's announcement last October on increasing the non-local student quota of the universities.

Ms Choi toured various booths at the exhibition, including the one set up by the Hong Kong Examinations & Assessment Authority to promote the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination to representatives of overseas universities.

She also exchanged views with representatives from different countries and places on the development and promotion of post-secondary education.

The education chief began her visit three days ago and met Hong Kong students in Sydney to find out about their studies in Australia. She encouraged them to develop their careers in Hong Kong after graduation.

The following day, she met New South Wales Minister for Skills, TAFE & Tertiary Education Steve Whan and discussed issues such as higher education co-operation between Hong Kong and Australia, promotion of vocational and professional education and training, and development of universities of applied sciences.

Ms Choi yesterday visited the University of Sydney and met its leadership. They exchanged views on recruiting and supporting international students, developing applied degree programmes, and training for primary and secondary school teachers on Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) education.