In light of rapid increasing numbers of new COVID-19 confirmed cases in Hong Kong, local news has reported the Education Bureau and Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority are consulting local secondary schools and universities to make contingency plans if the arrangement of this year’s HKDSE exam needs to be changed again. Different scenarios and options such as pushing back the date again, cancelling the exam, assessment measures etc. have been explored and discussed.

In the latest news published by South Morning China Post, a school representative advocated it is very important for students to complete the HKDSE exam this year, as this is the fairest way to assess their academic performance. However, ‘if all or some of the exams were to be cancelled, students should still receive a final result.’, commented by the chairman of the Hong Kong Association of the Heads of Secondary Schools. If the exam was cancelled, the chairman suggested that local universities could consider referring to applicants’ internal exam results in the previous academic years as a benchmark, and increasing the weighting average of interviews and other learning experiences.

He also predicted that there may be more local students choosing to study in Hong Kong this year because of possible entry restrictions imposed by other countries. Publicly funded universities should consider reallocating some places that are for non-local qualifications holders (through non-JUPAS route) to local HKDSE students. Another local newspaper (HK01) has reported that a local university thinks this proposal would be feasible for them. The interviewee also said ‘if the HKDSE exam is postponed until July, and the results will be announced in September. It is possible for local universities to start the new term in October’

Source:

• Coronavirus: Hong Kong education officials mulling backup plans for university entrance exams as further delay or cancellation looms, South Morning China Post
• DSE文憑試再押後？消息：政府正諮詢大學　若落實將10月開學, HK01 (Chinese only) 

Comments by Karen Hsu, Education Services Manager for Hong Kong

Currently, local schools still prefer not to cancel this year’s HKDSE exam, because unlike IB, Hong Kong does not have a similar mechanism to assess a student’s academic ability thoroughly. Each school has different assessment criteria for their students. If local universities use applicants’ internal exam results and other learning experience of their graduating schools as a reference, they worry that many students may be disadvantaged from those who graduates from the top schools. Likewise, this will also cause difficulty for UK universities to assess HKDSE candidates’ applications as there is no official school ranking list in HK to refer to.

If HKEAA decided to push back the exam date to July, this means HKDSE students could only find out their results in September. There will be a huge knock-on effect for UK institutions as students will have to wait till then to be able to apply for their student visa and fly to the UK, this would be a huge delay. Optimistically, the earliest time for them to arrive would be around mid- October. The British Council will keep following the future development and update the sector as soon as possible.