Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was founded in 1991 and is the youngest of Hong Kong's major research universities, focused on science, engineering, business and management. Two figures define the proposition, and the second is the one most guidance misses. Non-local undergraduates pay 215,000 Hong Kong dollars a year for 2026-27 against 47,000 for local students in the same lecture theatre, a ratio of roughly four and a half to one. The university's own registry states 260,000 for 2027/28 — a rise of 21% in a single year, and no cap on annual increases is published. A student entering in 2026 should expect the later years of the degree to cost materially more than the first, and should ask what ceiling, if any, applies. The Chinese University caps its 2026 cohort at 3% a year; this university publishes no equivalent. Against all of that, Kazakhstan is one of six countries designated for the Belt and Road Scholarship, which covers full tuition for the normal duration of the programme. For a nominated student the escalation stops mattering, which is precisely why the nomination is worth more here than at a cheaper institution.