Admission scores fall for Hong Kong physiotherapy courses amid jobs crunch
Por William Yiu — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement Education in Hong Kong Hong Kong Education Admission scores fall for Hong Kong physiotherapy courses amid jobs crunch
Budget constraints and an unprecedented rise in the number of new practitioners entering the market have taken their toll on profession
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William Yiu Published: 12:00pm, 11 Oct 2026
Admission scores for physiotherapy degree programmes at three Hong Kong tertiary institutions fell by as much as 10 per cent this year compared with 2025, amid gloomy career prospects in the sector, the latest data shows.
The decline prompted the professional body for physiotherapists to call on the government to halt healthcare funding cuts in the next budget, saying they had contributed to a jobs crunch in the sector.
Across four institutions, 23 per cent of students admitted to physiotherapy programmes this year had ranked the course outside their top three choices, up from just 2 per cent in 2025. The figures suggest that more first-year students did not consider physiotherapy their preferred field of study.
The fall in both popularity and admission scores came after the government announced last year that recurrent public expenditure would be cut by 1 to 2 per cent in 2025-26, with the arrangement extended to 2027-28.
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