Middle-class mother Hong Kong graduate school: If you want to help your baby get rid of the inner roll, it is better to "chicken" yourself first

  Highlights Recently, Hong Kong's talent policy has attracted many parents who are looking for new possibilities for their children to further their education. Some of them recognize the quality of teaching in Hong Kong, and some hope to use Hong Kong's universities as a springboard to connect to the wider world. However, there are still many risks in taking your children to study in Hong Kong. After comprehensive analysis, the following mother decided to find another way: she plans to go to Hong Kong for graduate school in middle age, and change the track of her children's education through the "chicken" herself. So can this road finally go through?

This article is reproduced from the public number: Houlang Research Institute (ID: youth36kr)

Wen 丨 Xiaoming Yang Liu ed. 丨Lulu

"The appointment of the Hong Kong Immigration Department's identity card has been scheduled for December, which is magical."

Lulu, who applied for a master's degree in Hong Kong two years ago, never expected that now in Shenzhen, 1/3 of her parents are considering applying for Hong Kong identity, and the "Shui Shuo", who was once ridiculed, was also snatched up as a way to obtain identity.

Among the various dividends of Hong Kong's identity, mainland middle-class families value the new possibility of their children's further education: students with Hong Kong permanent resident status have the opportunity to be admitted to mainland 985 and 211 universities with low scores, which was once called "the preferred way for Puwa to counterattack" on the Internet.

The sense of crisis at the fear of class decline has driven some parents to look for an outlet.

Lulu, who graduated in 211, is worried that her children will be reduced to 50% of the Shenzhen Middle School Entrance Examination;

Lilian, who has drifted north for more than 20 years, is worried that her child does not have a Beijing hukou on the way to school;

Mr. Zheng of Hangzhou, who began visiting surrounding international schools when his daughter was less than a year old, was turned away because he was not a foreigner.

In the end, they all chose to go to Hong Kong for graduate school in middle age, and change the track of their children's education through the "chicken" themselves.

Affected by the epidemic for three years, Hong Kong has announced a number of talent introduction plans such as gifted talents and high-talents, but the application threshold for gifted talents and high-talent is not low, with an annual salary of more than HK$2.5 million, or a bachelor's degree from a top 100 global university, which still blocks some families. Going to Hong Kong for further study in order to obtain a visa has become a popular alternative.

However, obtaining a visa is only the first step in moving to Hong Kong, and you need to stay in Hong Kong for seven years to obtain permanent residence in Hong Kong.

According to the "Global Competition for Talent" Research Brief published by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong in 2020, between 2010 and 2019, only 12% of mainland talents granted visas worked in Hong Kong, lived in Hong Kong for seven years, and finally became Hong Kong permanent residents.

The high cost of living in Hong Kong, the uncertainty of policy over the past seven years, and the complete shift in the focus of a family have all tested a family's determination and capital.

Lilian was an early wave of people who made up their minds to go this way. She has been in Hong Kong for graduate school for a year, and in September she plans to pick up her daughter to study in Hong Kong, and when she gets her diploma in November, she may consider staying in Hong Kong to start a business.

In Hong Kong, she worked hard to plan her daughter's path to further education and also explored her 40+ life value.

Why did she have the courage to start again in a different city under the wind of the times, and what risks and challenges did she face on the educational migration of this Beijing family? Here's what Lilian has to say.

Such a toss, what is the picture?

In January 2022, at the age of 38, I submitted my master's application for Hong Kong Metropolitan University and decided to return to school.

I have worked in a major Internet factory in Beijing for 15 years, with a good annual salary and a full range of RVs. But after the epidemic, many things became uncontrollable, and the promotion stagnated in the past 4 years, and the work was not challenging, which made me feel like I was consuming myself every day, and sometimes I wondered "what is the meaning of hard work".

Going to study in Hong Kong is both for me and for my children.

In 2018, when our 7-year-old daughter faced a choice of primary school, our family moved from Changping to Haidian and rented a house with a degree with a monthly rent of 8,500 yuan. I attach more importance to the English teaching environment, and applied for a private foreign Chinese school for my daughter, with a tuition fee of about 60,000 yuan a year.

The Haidian circle is too rolled, and some parents accompany them full-time, so that their children can enter the six small strong schools (the six key middle schools in Haidian elementary school) to participate in various competitions.

I have always thought that learning is my daughter's own homework, and I have never signed her up for a Chinese and English training course, but more to cultivate the interests of dancing, musical instruments, and summer camp activities, and the total annual investment in education is at least 200,000-300,000 yuan.

Without a Beijing hukou, it is a practical problem that every Beipiao family cannot escape. I am also quite worried, which means that when my daughter is in the fifth grade or the second year of junior high school, she will either return to her hometown to study for the college entrance examination, or go abroad in an international school, and some parents will go to get a Tianjin hukou, which is not the best solution in my opinion.

My friend's family immigrated to Singapore a few years ago, and my children received an elite education from an early age, and after graduation, they joined overseas prestigious schools, and I was really moved. But thinking about it, it is nearly 4,500 kilometers away from Beijing, life is not familiar, parents can not work when they go to accompany students, and the sacrifice of the whole family is too great.

For a while, it seemed that there was an impasse, and I had to look for a new way to further my education.

In 2021, I talked to the insurance agent about my children's education, and he pointed me in a direction. As an international city, Hong Kong has visa-free passports from 168 countries and regions, with a tax ceiling of 17%, especially high-quality education and medical benefits, which perfectly meets the needs of middle-class families on the mainland. Moreover, it takes only 3 and a half hours to fly directly from Beijing to Hong Kong, and the language and living habits are more acceptable.

I checked the relevant policies, parents only need to study full-time Hong Kong master's degree for one year, get a Hong Kong visa, during this period children under the age of 18 can come to Hong Kong as dependents, and enjoy the same free public education as Hong Kong local students, with a high return on investment.

At that time, the information around me was relatively closed, and after entering the Hong Kong Metropolitan University, I learned that middle-class families in Guangdong generally began to plan Hong Kong identity before their children were in the fourth grade of primary school.

Parents apply for an IANG visa after graduating from Hong Kong master's degree one year, and can change to permanent residence in Hong Kong after 6 years. In order to catch up with the college entrance examination, children can take the DSE examination (Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, also known as the Hong Kong College Entrance Examination) as permanent residence, and can not only apply to Hong Kong public universities and more than 300 overseas famous universities around the world with DSE results, but also enter 985 and 211 universities in the mainland with low scores.

I am afraid of trouble, and in order to avoid detours, I spent 90,000 yuan to find an intermediary to submit application materials. Because the work is market-oriented, I chose the MBA major, Chinese the course, there is no age and education restrictions, and the annual tuition fee is 280,000 Hong Kong dollars. The online interview in February and March last year quickly received feedback.

On the day I received the offer in April last year, I happened to be at Starbucks, and I was very calm, quickly drew a mind map, weighed the pros and cons from the four aspects of family, work, life and children's education, and concluded that I was worth taking this step.

Lilian flew direct from Beijing to Hong Kong at 9:30 a.m., and there were few people checking in internationally that day

In fact, helping her daughter break free from the college entrance examination education roll and switch the international track is only one consideration.

I have lived in Beijing for more than 20 years, and I have been in my comfort zone for a long time, and I also want to take the opportunity to go to Hong Kong for graduate school to see the changes in the outside world, what opportunities are there for future career development, and by the way, I can also improve my education.

But at that time, Hong Kong had not yet cleared customs due to the epidemic, and no one could guarantee how long it would be before returning home. Relatives and friends were not optimistic, and asked us, "We are all this age, what is the picture?" ”。 At first, my husband was very supportive, but later it was a little rocky.

I was still very determined to submit the "application to study in Hong Kong" to the school, and by July, my student visa was processed. Whether this road in Hong Kong can be walked through, I actually don't know the bottom of my heart, but I always have to walk through it myself to understand the taste.

In terms of family planning, my husband and I reached an agreement: in the next year, I will go to Hong Kong for graduate school, and he will stay in the mainland to work and take on the heavy responsibility of supporting the family.

My daughter has always been very independent, we briefly talked about why my mother went to graduate school, what benefits it will be for her, and seeing my parents working hard for life and career, I believe that I am also a role model for my daughter.

In late August last year, I transferred my daughter to a boarding school in Haidian. My husband has been on a business trip for a long time, and he really can't take care of his daughter's life and study. It took me 5 days to get my daughter through the fifth-grade transfer before school started, and I was quite sure.

Since then, our family has continued to work our own life tracks.

Hurt, and enjoy

Hong Kong Immigration Building, 6 September 2022.

At 5:20 a.m., I was ready to get up and go to apply for my Hong Kong Identity Card. When I first arrived in Hong Kong, I didn't know anything, and I didn't make an appointment in advance, so I had to go to the scene to try my luck. Before 6:30, there were already 10 people waiting in front of me, and I really felt how hot Hong Kong's identity was.

There are about 300 people in MBA majors 22fall, of which 70%-80% are from Shenzhen, Guangdong. The overall age is staircase-like, from young people who have just graduated and want to upgrade their education, to entrepreneurs in their 50s who have free wealth and come to study a book when they have nothing to do.

There are also many parents who come to graduate school for their children, and the topic of children's education can always quickly bring them closer to each other. I found that Shenguang's parents actually used Hong Kong as a springboard to Canada and Australia, while Beijing parents were more eager for a shortcut to enter Hong Kong's elite schools.

The starting points may be different, but they all agree that there is more choice for the child's future.

Collect your Hong Kong Identity Card

A lot of people applied to 3 or 4 schools at the same time, and I had no idea about the others. It's so adventurous to think about it now, and thankful at the same time.

It is said that the application threshold for master's degrees at Hong Kong Metropolitan University has been rolled up to a new high this year, with doctors, double masters, and overseas famous university students piling up, and some people on the Internet complain that 211 academic qualifications have been rejected, and the competitive pressure is certainly not small.

When I reach middle age, I return to school, my identity becomes caught off guard, and it is difficult for me to calm down. People sit in the classroom, but their minds are thinking about work and family, and in a trance, they think they are going out to participate in training, and this sense of confusion lasts for more than a month.

The MBA program schedule is tight and not limited to mid-week weekends. Sometimes foreign teachers are invited to concentrate on large classes within 7-10 days, the teacher a mouthful of "Hong Kong Pu", basically 6 hours a day, and the summary of small lessons is interspersed in it, I can only throw away all the chores and quickly adjust my state.

If there is one thing that is most painful during graduate school, it must be homework. Checking information, doing PPT, staying up until the second half of the night is also a common thing, I didn't work so hard when I worked, and gradually I began to enjoy the process.

In fact, MBA majors have many opportunities for overseas exchange and study, and a large number of business cases are set up in the course for group discussion, which constantly stimulates my active consciousness to learn, rather than passively instilling some rigid concepts, and also allows me to see the difference in teaching methods and concepts between Beijing and Hong Kong. 

Lilian takes classes in the lecture hall

According to Hong Kong policy, the one-year Hong Kong master's degree was on a student visa, during which I could not work, and my family income was directly halved, but my husband did not complain about the pressure of making money.

Before coming to Hong Kong, we roughly estimated the expenses of this year, the tuition fee for postgraduate studies was less than 300,000 yuan, and the food, clothing, housing and transportation were 500,000-600,000 yuan, adding up to about 800,000-900,000 yuan, which is still within the scope of the entire family, and can also ensure that the quality of life in the two places has not decreased.

Living in Hong Kong, rent is definitely a big expense. I rented a serviced apartment in Tsim Sha Tsui for a long time, about 40 square meters, about 20,000 Hong Kong dollars per month. It is definitely not as spacious as the Beijing house, but fortunately, it is comfortable to live alone with a bag.

Lilian's rented house in Hong Kong

Hong Kong's consumption level is higher than Beijing's, which I have a psychological expectation. But seeing a potato in the supermarket cost 15 Hong Kong dollars, it was still quite shocking.

Many parents around me are still watching, and one of the reasons is that Hong Kong consumption is too high. But in my opinion, every amount of money I spend now is a long-term investment in my children's education.

Previously, someone recommended that I spend 1.5 million yuan to buy a Beijing hukou, or buy 2 million yuan to immigrate to Greece, but I vetoed it, not wanting to put the future of my family at such a high risk. 

Breaking away from the fast-paced work mode in the Beijing factory, life in Hong Kong is quite relaxed, and it is also full of fireworks, which slows down my whole person. My classmates also sighed with emotion, saying that I had lost the "visible exhaustion" state when I first started school. The short escape from work and family during the gap year alleviated my educational anxiety to some extent.

During my graduate school in Hong Kong, I would video call my family almost every day, talking about my daughter's life at school, my husband's work, and sharing what I saw and heard in Hong Kong.

In December 2022, while Beijing schools were taking advantage of online classes at home, I applied for a dependant visa for my daughter and successfully obtained a Hong Kong identity card.

Between two fires

For my daughter's education, my plan is for my daughter to come to Hong Kong to receive education as soon as possible, target the eighth university in Hong Kong after high school, and then choose the country and school according to her preferences when she gets her master's degree.

I told my daughter this idea on the phone, and we communicated very smoothly, and agreed to transfer to Hong Kong for the sixth grade of primary school in September this year, and fly to Hong Kong to take the transfer exam when the final exam in the mainland is over at the end of June.

In June this year, I started preparing my daughter's resume half a month in advance. I think that the educational environment has a great impact on children, and I prefer Hong Kong's direct-funded, private, government-funded and subsidized schools, and the school district chooses Kowloon, Hong Kong Island, Shatin, and gives priority to one-stop education, and a total of 126 schools are selected to meet the above conditions.

I was very sure in my heart, but I didn't expect that many schools in Hong Kong would not accept Primary 6 transfers.

Hong Kong primary school students are required to take three placement tests in Grades 5 and 6 to obtain the average score as a reference for further secondary education. If you lack an exam score, you will have no advantage in facing a prestigious school.

Many people gave me the idea of downgrading my daughter to fifth grade in Hong Kong and spending a year acclimatizing and learning English and Cantonese at the same time. I seriously asked my daughter what she thought, and she was a little resistant to being in the same class as a younger child, and she might be ridiculed. Another way is to find a place at the Education Bureau, which can only ensure that there are schools, but the quality of schools is unknown.

I was in a dilemma, I was very anxious, I didn't want to affect my daughter's future because of my negligence or laziness, and finally decided to knock on the door of the school. I made a round of phone calls to inquire and only 25 schools accepted Primary Six transfers.

During the days I waited for the exam to be announced, I imagined the worst. Hong Kong's transfer exam is very flexible, you can go to a regular school first, if your daughter really can't keep up with the progress, and the score of the placement test in November this year is not satisfactory, it is time to go to the transfer class.

In early July, my daughter flew to Hong Kong and took transfer exams at six schools. There are different forms of exams, there are interviews, written tests, and some need to bring parents to interview together, and you will know the admission result in about a week.

The first exam was in an English school, the subjects included Chinese, English and mathematics, each subject only half an hour to answer, my daughter just came to not adapt to the rhythm of the Hong Kong exam, did not finish the questions. Except for Chinese papers, which are traditional characters, the rest of the papers are in English, and my daughter feels that the Chinese and mathematics papers are relatively relaxed.

Although the curriculum systems of the two places are completely different, mainland students still have advantages in Hong Kong with a solid foundation from an early age. The only thing that is not very comfortable with is the English test paper, which is very different from the mainland and slightly more difficult.

Half a month after coming to Hong Kong for the examination, my daughter received offers from 5 schools, including government, private and directly funded schools. I also think that the choice of not downgrading is the right one, or you have to find out the child's own level before making a decision.

Lilian's application materials for Hong Kong transfer

Although we missed the direct-funded school we wanted to go to most because of the shortcomings in English subjects, in the end we made a satisfactory decision - we chose a high-ranking government school, except for English and Chinese classes, the rest is taught in Cantonese. For Hong Kong students, tuition fees are free, only books, uniforms and other tuition and miscellaneous fees, 5,000 Hong Kong dollars a year is enough, and I am also satisfied with the corresponding secondary school.

Regarding the cost of my daughter's education in Hong Kong, I calculated an account and found that the education discount for local students in Hong Kong can last until the university period.

I heard from the children of friends in Hong Kong that his tuition fee for a year of college is tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars, and the accommodation fee is about 7,000 Hong Kong dollars, while if mainland students from the same school come to Hong Kong to study, the annual tuition fee is at least 100,000-200,000 yuan, and the accommodation fee is as high as 40,000 yuan.

In this way, although I have to invest a lot of money in the early stage of graduate school, in the long run, I am saving costs for my daughter's further education. Fortunately, I also avoided the Beijing junior high school entrance examination, otherwise I would definitely "be peeled off a layer of skin". 

At the end of August this year, the MBA program is basically over, and you will be able to get your diploma in November. During my daughter's transfer exam, I was also busy catching up with homework, and I didn't have time to take my daughter around, she went to the library and science and technology museum by herself, she relied on herself to read the books borrowed by the library, and slowly learned most of the traditional characters, learning much faster than I was. I also met a few new friends while swimming downstairs recently.

I asked my daughter, how have you been feeling in Hong Kong lately? She said she loves Hong Kong and looks forward to living here in the future.

Bets and hole cards

Is betting the second half of your life on Hong Kong a desperate bet or deliberate?

My hometown is in a small third-tier city in Inner Mongolia. After studying for an ordinary undergraduate in college, most of my classmates returned to their hometown after graduation, and the work treatment at that time was indeed very tempting. But this glimpse of life at 60 suffocated me, and I vowed to get out there.

After having my daughter, my family always persuaded me, "You don't stay in Beijing for long, no matter how much money you earn, it's useless, it's better to come back early, and it's easier for your child to take the college entrance examination in Inner Mongolia." "I listened to it and felt pretty heart-wrenching.

My daughter has lived in Beijing since she was a child, and the teacher will not ask for rote memorization of classical Chinese that she does not understand, and she will learn the knowledge every day happily, which is completely different from the exam education in Inner Mongolia. By the day of the college entrance examination, it is likely that you will not even be able to reach a single line.

I myself survived the pressure of the college entrance examination, and after years of hard work, I finally had a stable capital. Although I don't require my daughter to be better than me in the future, if my daughter still follows my old path, then my more than 20 years in Beijing will not be in vain.

When it comes to the dividends of Hong Kong identity, many parents' first reaction is that they can score low in the eight universities of Hong Kong and 985/211 in the mainland. The intermediary also smelled the business opportunity and announced that 350,000 yuan could be affiliated with a Hong Kong company to get a 7-year work visa.

Under the momentum of the Internet, it gives people the illusion that the matter of obtaining permanent residence in Hong Kong seems to be simple, but they do not care much about the risks in the process.

In fact, the 7-year road to permanent residence in Hong Kong is fraught with risks, and every step must be accurately calculated.

My daughter got her dependant visa in December last year, and in January of the college entrance examination year, she just met the 7-year time in Hong Kong, submitted the application for permanent residence in Hong Kong, and reserved 2-3 months for approval, and there can be no mistakes in this process.

If it goes well, you can get a Hong Kong permanent residence ID card before the college entrance examination, and the three paths of Hong Kong, overseas and mainland China can be chosen.

The biggest uncontrollable factor is Hong Kong's policy, which is subject to change at any time. In recent years, in order to promote economic development, Hong Kong has relaxed the policy of meritocracy and talent, and many people will exploit loopholes, resulting in stricter audits.

I heard that many parents have been stuck in dependant visas this year, one of the reasons is that their children have not come to Hong Kong to study, and there are agents who will take a house and sign several people at the same time, and the immigration department has refused to apply for visas.

Hong Kong Immigration Building

In addition, more attention is paid to the time spent in Hong Kong. Some families still have a focus on their lives and work in the mainland, and it seems that it is not feasible to find a Hong Kong insurance company to affiliate, or a Hong Kong company to work in the mainland and live in the mainland for a few days a year to ensure contact with Hong Kong.

Risks often coexist with opportunities, and I think we can't take chances. In the past seven years, all I can do is always pay attention to Hong Kong's policy and constantly adjust it in the process of practice. However, I believe that my daughter's education in Hong Kong is the most powerful proof of the whole family's connection with Hong Kong.

Of course, taking permanent residence in Hong Kong before the college entrance examination is the best solution, but I don't have so much pressure and anxiety now, even if I fail, I have kept my Hong Kong visa in recent years, I can still take the DSE exam and apply for the eighth university of Hong Kong, without changing my original goal.

When I returned to Beijing in May this year, my parents, who were as worried about the future as I was, did not have a Beijing hukou and were confused about the future, and they came to contact me after they knew that I had gone to Hong Kong. I know some of them have considered this path, but there are still very few people who have actually taken the first step. Every family situation is different, and I understand their concerns very well.

Before leaving Beijing, Lilian had dinner with friends

In the past, I did not have the courage to leave all the connections, resources, and fixed assets I accumulated in Beijing and start from scratch in a different city.

Thinking about it now, I feel that everything is a sacrifice. Although my family and I do not have a deep-rooted background in Hong Kong, my years of work experience and personal ability, including the accumulation of the whole family, are all cards to dare to start over.

For Hong Kong, the signboard of mainland Internet giants is still loud, and the integration between the two places will be deeper in the future, and with the blessing of 15 years of work experience and education, I may gain more resources and opportunities.

And most importantly, Hong Kong is friendly to middle-aged professionals, and when I inadvertently express anxiety about age, people around me will come to me and ask, "Why do you care so much about age?" 40 means more valuable" and made me more confident about returning to the workforce.

My daughter's further education problem was solved, and I didn't have so much obsession with my Beijing hukou, work, and even my house. Originally, I thought that only a house was a home, but now I can also accept renting a house near my daughter's school, and the house in Beijing can also be sold or kept. In the first half of this year, after Hong Kong cleared customs, I went back to the mainland and formally went through the resignation procedures.

Everything is gradually on track, my husband will still work mainly in the mainland in the short term, and when my daughter comes to Hong Kong to study, I will return to the workplace and have a stable income, and he will consider coming to Hong Kong to find better development opportunities. 

Whether the future outcome will be good or bad, I can't guarantee it now. The only thing that is certain is that after determining the general direction of the family layout, there will not be too many rules and regulations in the middle to affect my progress. In the process of continuous adjustment and correction, I will strive to get closer to the ultimate goal.

At the request of the interviewee, Lilian and Lulu are pseudonyms in the text. Cover image source: Visual China.

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