Eight Hong Kong-based universities plan to enroll more than 1,000 students from the Chinese mainland this year, but they have received more than 30,000 applications.

The popularity of Hong Kong universities has prompted mainland educators to call for urgent reform of the mainland educational system to meet growing competition.

Liu Zeting, a 19-year-old high school student in Jilin Province, accepted a place at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) after turning one down at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University.

Liu made the choice after undergoing interviews at the two universities. He said HKUST was more concerned about the all-round development of students, including personality and outlook on life.

"There was no interaction between the teachers and me in the Tsinghua interview. The teachers at Tsinghua kept asking me academic questions, while teachers at HKUST asked me to talk about myself and allowed me time to raise questions," Liu said.

Liu won a 400,000-HK-dollar scholarship from HKUST, one of seven mainland students granted the benefit this year.

"An HKUST enrollment officer told me the main reason for granting the top scholarship was not my grades, but my comprehensive performance," said Liu.

The HKUST plans to enroll 160 mainland students this year, but so far has received 6,300 applications.

This is the first year Hong Kong universities have officially joined the mainland's university enrollment system. They are allowed to enroll students who have passed the national college entrance examinations. The Hong Kong universities plan to enroll students from 20 provinces and municipalities.

Wu Yan, vice president of the Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences, said the challenge from HK universities would spur reform of China's higher education system.

"At present, the enrollment of mainland students by Hong Kong universities is not large. The scenario in five to ten years is not optimistic," said Wu.

"As higher education opens further to international competition, mainland universities must speed up reform to avoid further losing high quality students," he said.

A mainland educator, who declined to be named, said there were defects with the enrollment system, curriculum design and education concepts of mainland universities.

China has the largest number of college and university students in the world at 23 million.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2006)