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As the summer draws nearer, all of my students who are about to go into their last year of school will be preparing their university applications. For many students in Hong Kong, British universities are a fail-safe choice because of their strong brand recognition, excellent quality of education and high level of international student support. Another advantage to applying to the UK is the centralised application process through UCAS which makes applying relatively simple and less time-consuming than some other destinations as only one personal statement is required which is sent to all five universities the student applies to. However, this also means that one piece of writing has an outsized effect on all applications so pull up a pew for some top notch advice on how to write a winning personal statement.

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Applying to top universities is more competitive than ever. Nearly half a million international students were studying at institutions in the UK in 2017-18 and the number of students from Hong Kong and mainland China studying in UK higher education has more than doubled in the last decade. One in eight students at the University of Manchester is now from mainland China alone. Adding to competition for places is the fact that many international students are concentrated in a small number of disciplines: business, accounting, finance, economics and engineering. The situation is mirrored in the US where colleges have seen the number of applications they receive exponentially increase, resulting in admit rates at the most selective institutions fall to below 5 per cent. A precarious political situation in Hong Kong is likely to increase oversees applications from local students in 2019-20 further still.

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While I was in Cambridge last weekend for the 20 year anniversary of my matriculation (how time flies!), I met with Dr Matt Bullimore, Widening Participation Officer on Churchill College’s admissions team to discuss application and admission trends to Cambridge University. We discussed many interesting topics from the impact of Brexit on Cambridge University applications to the new trend of British universities making unconditional offers to students to what is really meant by a “typical offer”.

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