185 candidates received PhD fellowship program offer

From a whopping 4,785 applications.

In a report, the Research Grants Council announced that one-hundred-and-eighty-five elite candidates from 33 countries and regions have accepted offers in the fourth round of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme 2013-14.

The scheme was launched in 2009 to attract the best and brightest students from around the world to pursue their PhD studies and research in University Grants Committee-funded institutions in Hong Kong.

A total of 4,785 applications from 106 countries and regions were received in the latest exercise.

The eight participating institutions, including City University, Baptist University and the University of Hong Kong, nominated 442 applicants to compete for the fellowships.

Two Selection Panels, one on Science, Medicine, Engineering & Technology and the other on Humanities, Social Sciences & Business Studies, comprising 26 overseas and 20 local academics with excellent experience in recruiting research postgraduate students for top-notch institutions, were set up to evaluate the nominated candidates.

After a rigorous evaluation process, 210 candidates were offered a fellowship and 185 have accepted. Among these awardees, 68 candidates are from a wide variety of countries and regions, including 29 from Europe, 19 from Asian countries other than the Mainland and Hong Kong, 14 from the Americas and six from Africa. There are also 103 awardees from the Mainland and 14 from Hong Kong.

Most of the awardees will study in fields relating to engineering and technology (34.6%) and sciences (29.2%), followed by social sciences (13.5%), and arts and humanities (12.4%).