In the 2013-2014 academic year there will be 22,000 places available at public and private universities for the 27,000 secondary school pupils likely to meet the minimum entry requirement to study for a degree.

But this situation is expected to reverse by 2016 and universities need to consolidate, according to the Education Bureau. There would be an estimated 23,200 university places for the 22,000 students expected to meet entry requirements in 2016.

Education-sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen said that meant the government's ambitious efforts in recent years to expand tertiary education might mean institutions that had misplanned their expansion having to close. Writes Dennis Chong for South China Morning Post.