From the first cohort of graduates in 2003 to those in 2023, 39,214 HKCC graduates have articulated into bachelor's degree studies. This represents a 21-year average articulation rate of 84.3%, which ranks among the highest in Hong Kong.
2023 HKCC Graduates' Articulation Rate Reaches 90.2%, with a Record High of 71.2% Admitted to Government-funded Programmes
According to the HKCC Graduate Survey 2023, a total of 2,544 graduates articulated to bachelor's degree programmes, representing a high articulation rate of 90.2. Among those:
Regarding articulation opportunities provided by PolyU, among the 2,544 graduates who articulated into bachelor's degree programmes, 32.1% were admitted to PolyU, while 9.7% enrolled on self-financed top-up honours degree programmes offered by PolyU SPEED. (Click here to learn more about PolyU SPEED's Conditional Offer Scheme for HKCC graduates.)
＃Including self-financed programmes
From the first cohort of graduates in 2003 to those in 2023, 39,214 HKCC graduates have articulated into bachelor's degree studies. This represents a 21-year average articulation rate of 84.3%, which ranks among the highest in Hong Kong.
The pie chart below gives you an overall picture of the distribution of articulated graduates by number and university/ institution in 2023.
| Number of graduates | 3,318 |
| Number of respondents | 2,820 |
| Response rate | 85% |
| Number of articulated graduates | 2,544 |
| Overall Articulation rate | 90.2% |
|
71.2% |
|
81.3% |
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Understanding Articulation Rates for Associate Degree and Higher Diploma Programmes from a Well-rounded Perspective
When enrolling in an associate degree or a higher diploma programme, articulation rates are your primary concern as such figures directly tell you the ratio of graduates articulated to a bachelor's degree programme and indirectly reflect the teaching quality of an institution. However, local institutions do not have a set of unified criteria for calculating articulation rates, resulting in numerous ways of data interpretation which may confuse you.
The following sections explain how to interpret the articulation data of graduates of self-financing tertiary education institutions from different perspectives in an objective manner so that you can understand how high your chances of further study are in the future and make an informed choice when applying for admission.
Q1: What should I pay attention to when comparing the articulation rates for sub-degree graduates from different self-financing tertiary education institutions?
ExpandAlthough the overall articulation rate can reflect the ratio of graduates from a particular institution successfully articulating a bachelor's degree programme, you must also pay attention to the actual number of articulated graduates. For example, the overall articulation rate for sub-degree graduates of College A is as high as 100%, but the actual number of graduates is less than 10; on the other hand, the overall articulation rate for sub-degree graduates of College B is "only" 80%, but there are more than 2,000 graduates in that cohort. The overall articulation performance of College B is far better than that of College A.
The following presents the overall articulation rate and the actual number of articulated sub-degree graduates in 2021 among HKCC and a few tertiary institutions with higher articulation rates (in descending order according to the number of articulated graduates responding to the graduate survey). The figures were calculated based on the information retrieved from the Education Bureau's "Concourse for Self-financing Post-secondary Education" (CONCOURSE for short).
Source: Education Bureau's CONCOURSE (2023 data not yet announced)
|
Institutions |
Number of graduate survey respondents articulated to bachelor's degree programmes (Actual number of articulated graduates) |
Overall articulation rate* |
|
HKCC |
2926 |
90.8% |
|
College A |
5,862 |
45.2% |
|
College B |
1,311 |
79.4% |
|
College C |
815 |
89.0% |
|
College D |
741 |
72.9% |
|
College E |
691 |
39.7% |
|
College F |
669 |
49.8% |
|
College G |
297 |
48.4% |
|
College H |
226 |
62.4% |
|
College I |
124 |
31.4% |
UGC-funded bachelor's degree programmes offer more choices with lower tuition fees and higher recognition, making them the ideal options for sub-degree graduates; therefore, the higher the articulation rate for such programmes, the better.
The following presents the articulation rate for sub-degree graduates articulated to UGC-funded bachelor's degree programmes in 2021 among HKCC and a few tertiary education institutions with higher articulation rates (in descending order according to the number of articulated graduates responding to the graduate survey, i.e. the actual number of articulated graduates). The figures were calculated based on the information retrieved from the Education Bureau's "Concourse for Self-financing Post-secondary Education" (CONCOURSE for short).
Source: Education Bureau's CONCOURSE (2023 data not yet announced)
|
Institutions |
Number of graduate survey respondents articulated to bachelor's degree programmes (actual number of articulated graduates) |
Percentage of respondents articulated to UGC-funded bachelor's degree programmes# |
|
HKCC |
2,926 |
57.0% |
|
College A |
2,650 |
8.7% |
|
College B |
1,041 |
39.4% |
|
College C |
725 |
42.5% |
|
College D |
540 |
31% |
|
College E |
274 |
7.8% |
|
College F |
333 |
20.3% |
|
College G |
144 |
8.8% |
|
College H |
141 |
9.7% |
|
College I |
39 |
14.5% |
#Except for HKCC, the percentage for each institution refers to "funded bachelor's degrees", including UGC-funded programmes, SSSDP programmes and other government-funded programmes
Each year, the government allocates funds to the eight UGC-funded universities for sub-degree graduates to articulate to UGC-funded Senior Year Places through the Non-JUPAS route. The number of such places is limited, and the competition is fierce. Therefore, the higher the rate for graduates of a particular institution articulating to UGC-funded Senior Year Places, the stronger the competitiveness of the graduates of that institution. Take HKCC's 2023 graduates as an example, among the 2,611 graduates who articulated to bachelor's degree programmes, 1,393 were admitted to Senior Year Places, accounting for 53.4% of the College's total number of articulated graduates.
To further study in Hong Kong, your first choice is to go to the eight UGC-funded universities: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Lingnan University and The Education University of Hong Kong. The higher the articulation rate for the above eight universities, the better. Take HKCC's 2023 graduates as an example, among the 2,611 graduates who articulated to bachelor's degree programmes, 2,093 (80.2%) articulated to the eight UGC-funded universities (both self-financing and funded programmes).
Most graduates prefer studying in Hong Kong. Therefore, the higher the articulation rate for local universities and bachelor's degree programmes approved by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications, the better that institution is. Most of the programmes in Hong Kong offered by overseas universities do not fall into this category (for the list of self-financing full-time locally-accredited bachelor's degree programmes, please visit the Government's Information Portal for Accredited Post-secondary Programmes (iPASS) website.
Take HKCC's 2023 graduates as an example, among the 2,611 graduates who articulated to bachelor's degree programmes, 2,577 (98.7%) articulated to local bachelor's degree programmes (excluding programmes offered by overseas universities in Hong Kong).
Generally speaking, the average articulation rate over the years is more objective because it combines the articulation data of multiple years, but the year-on-year articulation rate is also useful as it can reflect the stability of the articulation rates for a particular institution over the years and whether there is a long-term upward or downward trend. In addition, you should also pay attention to the year-on-year articulation rate for a particular institution in the past two or three years. If it is steadily increasing, it may mean that the institution has invested a lot of resources to enhance the quality of lecturers and programmes. On the contrary, if there is a sudden and sharp drop or even without relevant data, you should verify carefully whether there is something wrong with the institution.
The articulation rates for HKCC graduates in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023 were 88.2%, 88.4%, 90.5%, 90.7% and 90.1% respectively. The articulation rate has been around 90% in the past five years, reflecting that HKCC has been successful in increasing graduates' chances of further studies in recent years.
You can first check the graduates' articulation overview of different institutions on CONCOURSE, but the relevant information may not be up-to-date. If in doubt, you may visit the websites of the institutions as follow:
|
Institution |
|
|
HKMU Li Ka Shing School of Professional and Continuing Education |
|