Canada universities refute false claims about '2024 admission rules for students from Hong Kong'

"Some Canadian universities and colleges announced that they will no longer recognise HKDSE qualifications for 2024 and beyond, including UBC, SFU, University of Waterloo," reads a post written in traditional Chinese shared on Facebook on January 29, 2024 (archived link).

The Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) is an examination administered every year for secondary school students in the city.

According to Hong Kong authorities, HKDSE qualifications are accepted for admission in undergraduate programmes of more than 600 overseas higher education institutions.

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Screenshot of the false post, taken February 1, 2024

False claims that several Canadian universities and colleges no longer recognise HKDSE in 2024 were also shared on Facebook here, here and here, and on social media site X here.

Western University, McMaster University, University of Northern British Columbia, Trent University, Algonquin College, Brescia University College and College of the Rockies were also named in some posts.

Some social media users suggested Hong Kong's new curriculum is to blame.

Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong after huge and often violent democracy protests swept the city in 2019.

Hong Kong authorities have since rolled out new curriculums for students aged six to 18 to teach them about four new national security crimes -- subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

The curriculum for "Liberal Studies" was also revamped and renamed "Citizenship and Social Development". The class is a core exam subject of the HKDSE.

However, the 10 universities and colleges named in the posts separately refuted the claims.

'Inaccurate' claims

Thandi Fletcher, a spokesperson from the University of British Columbia (UBC), told AFP that the university "accepts the HKDSE for the purposes of admission to all of our undergraduate programs."

"There has not been any change in our requirements," she said on February 2.

"Students applying from Hong Kong who are completing the HKDSE are evaluated based on successful completion of the HKDSE, with a minimum overall score that varies by program," Ryon Jones, media relations manager of the University of Waterloo, told AFP on January 31, 2024.

The posts are "inaccurate", a representative for Simon Fraser University (SFU) said.

Spokespersons for the other Canadian universities and colleges mentioned similarly rebuffed the claims. AFP has not found any announcement on each of their websites about a purported non-recognition of HKDSE.

In a statement published on January 29, 2024, Hong Kong's examinations and assessment authority said "no university has refused to accept the HKDSE qualification for admission purposes from 2024 onwards" (archived link).