The Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, today (August 24) officiated at the Award Presentation Ceremony 2022 of the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme (HKSES). Seventy-six students were selected as the eighth cohort of awardees.

     Speaking at the Ceremony, Dr Choi said that education holds the key to unlocking the potential of Hong Kong's young talents, and nurturing them into quality citizens with a sense of social responsibility and national identity, an affection for Hong Kong and an international perspective. The HKSES highlights the Government's commitment to and efforts in fostering the talent development of the next generation. She said she looked to the awardees to act as ambassadors in telling a good Hong Kong story while overseas and make the best use of their enriched knowledge and skills upon graduation in contributing to the city's long-term prosperity and stability.

     All awardees received their formal secondary school education in Hong Kong, studying either local or non-local curricula. Among them, 57 will be pursuing undergraduate studies and 19 postgraduate studies at world-renowned universities. These include not only top-notch comprehensive universities but also world-class institutions specialising in particular disciplines.

     The awardees will pursue a wide spectrum of disciplines, with almost half of them pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)-related programmes. Other disciplines include law, arts, culture and performing arts, medical and health sciences, and social sciences. The distribution of the awardees by different disciplines is shown in the Annex.

     A total of 650 applicants competed for this year's HKSES. Apart from outstanding academic achievements, the awardees also demonstrated excellence in their leadership qualities.

     As the selection process is ongoing, some more applicants may be offered the scholarship after today's ceremony. A list of the awardees as of today has been uploaded to the HKSES website (hkses.edb.gov.hk).

     First launched in November 2014, the HKSES has been regularised from the 2019/20 academic year onwards. It aims to support local students to pursue studies at world-renowned universities outside Hong Kong with a view to grooming a top cadre of talents with global vision, an international network and world-class education, thereby contributing to enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness as Asia's world city in a globalised knowledge economy. Since its introduction, the HKSES has benefited 746 students. The key features of the scholarship scheme are available at the HKSES website.

     The application details of the next cohort of the HKSES will be announced shortly.

Ends/Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Issued at HKT 17:20

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