The Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, today (August 26) officiated at the Award Presentation Ceremony 2021 of the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme (HKSES). Sixty-nine students were selected as the seventh cohort of awardees.
Speaking at the Ceremony, Mr Yeung said that education is the key to nurturing young people into becoming quality citizens with a sense of social responsibility and national identity, an affection for Hong Kong and an international perspective. The HKSES is a vivid example of the Government's effort in cultivating the next generation. He said he looked to the awardees to make the best use of their enriched knowledge and skill sets upon graduation in serving the community.
All awardees received their formal secondary school education in Hong Kong, studying either local or non-local curricula. Among them, 55 will be pursuing undergraduate studies and 14 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 over 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 766 applicants competed for this year's HKSES. In addition to outstanding academic performance, the awardees 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 639 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.
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