Independent admission exams organized

Writer: Zhang Qian  | Editor: Holly Wang  | From:  | Updated: 2019-06-12

Applicants sit for essay exams in English and Chinese for admission to Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK(SZ)), yesterday morning. Courtesy of CUHK(SZ)

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK(SZ)) started holding its annual independent admission exams to select students for undergraduate degrees yesterday.

High school graduates mainly from Guangdong, Fujian provinces and some other cities attended the first exam held on the university’s campus in Longgang District yesterday, and another three exams will be organized in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Qingdao this week.

A total of more than 6,000 students will sit for the exams designed by the university, and around 400 of them will be enrolled. Around 800 placements will be saved for applicants based on their gaokao results, as the university has adopted a dual-admissions system.

Students sitting for the independent exams are assessed comprehensively based on their gaokao results, performance on the independent exams, including a written exam and a face-to-face interview in English, as well as their high school academic results. They already applied and passed the first round of selection in May, before the national gaokao.

One of the candidates from a local high school recalled that the face-to-face interview was an English debate among six students. The topic she drew and debated for was whether parents should be informed about their children’s performance at university.

Another exam-taker from Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian Province, told the Shenzhen Daily that the topics she received for the Chinese and English essay exams were which two plants she would choose to survive if all the plants on Earth were to die out and to imagine what the world would be like 30 years in the future, respectively.

All of the exam topics changed every hour for different batches of students.

The students said the exams were not too difficult and the essay topics allowed them to express their own thoughts while simultaneously assessing the knowledge they had accumulated throughout their school years.

It is the sixth year that the university has selected a portion of their students using the independent exams. Unlike their predecessors, this year’s applicants are required to take a physical examination according to a requirement from the Ministry of Education.

According to Professor Xu Yangsheng, president of the university, CUHK(SZ) will accept more international students than in previous years, but the number is still much lower when compared with that of Chinese students.

Currently, the university offers 15 undergraduate majors and 16 master’s degree programs.

Since its establishment in 2014, the university has gained increasing popularity due to its teaching philosophies being consistent with those of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the involvement of a considerable number of renowned and influential scholars from around the world.