Ethnic minority students’ progression to university in Hong Kong: access and equity

ABSTRACT

Despite a rapid growth at compulsory education stage in Hong Kong, ethnic minority students are the least represented in local tertiary institutions. This study critically evaluates the effectiveness of government support policies and practices for boosting the capacity of marginalised members of minority community to accessing university. Bourdieusian concepts of capital are employed to explore historically noteworthy progressive steps towards access and equity juxtaposed with recent indicators of policy development. Semi-structured interviews with minority students explore their views on the effects of multiple forms of capital, embedded in educational policies and practices on their pathways to university. The results of analysis reveal that the current policy measures are narrowly concentrated on remediating minorities’ limited Chinese proficiency. This study calls for a holistic policy framework that could mobilise the under-represented minority youth and enable their well-being, economic and social inclusion within the multicultural education movement.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic minority
• university access
• educational policy
• capital
• Hong Kong

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gao Fang

Gao Fang is Assistant Professor in the Department of International Education, the Education University of Hong Kong. She did her undergraduate studies and initial professional education at Shenyang University in China. She has a Master degree in Educational Sciences from the University of Amsterdam and she completed PhD in the Sociology of Education at the University of Hong Kong. Her main research interests are in minority education and higher education.