Several hundred Hong Kong students competed for 100 seats offered by Peking University and Tsinghua University on Tuesday, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

It is the first time the two universities have recruited Hong Kong students without exams. The applicants are required to be excellent Hong Kong students and must pass interviews by professors from the two universities to be enrolled.

Once enrolled, the students will receive a HK$30,000 (US$3,846) scholarship from the China Resources Group for their first academic year, receiving the same amount from the company each year if their performances at the universities are good.

The interviews, starting from Tuesday, will last four days. About 4,000 application forms had been handed out by the application deadline Tuesday.

The applicants include Lai Junting, a top student who has received offers from the Hong Kong University and an elite U.S. university.

Lai said he was deeply impressed by the professors and facilities of Qinghua when he studied temporarily in Qinghua last December.

(Shenzhen Daily June 10, 2004)