School Nominations Direct Admission Scheme (SNDAS): A Top-Talent Pathway That Bypasses the DSE

Module: 02 Admissions · Sub-file: School Nominations Direct Admission Scheme (SNDAS) Last updated: 2026-07-10 This article focuses on The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK, Shatin main campus) and does not cover The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. All figures concerning student numbers and programme counts include their year of provenance. Scheme rules are updated annually; the latest official announcements from the Education Bureau and CUHK shall prevail.

In a nutshell: The School Nominations Direct Admission Scheme (SNDAS)^※ was launched by the Education Bureau in the 2022/23 academic year. It allows secondary school principals to nominate up to two S6 students each year who demonstrate outstanding talent in specific disciplines to apply directly for UGC-funded undergraduate programmes at Hong Kong's eight universities. CUHK is participating with a total of 63 designated programmes for the 2026/27 academic year. Students must decide whether to accept an offer before the release of the HKDSE results — completely bypassing the JUPAS points-competition mechanism, in which public examination results serve as the primary yardstick.

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# What is SNDAS, and how does it fundamentally differ from JUPAS?

SNDAS (School Nominations Direct Admission Scheme)^※ was established on the recommendation of the Education Bureau's Task Force on Review of School Curriculum. It is positioned as a specialised admissions channel based on "programme-student matching," designed to identify secondary students whose "talents may not be fully assessed through the HKDSE public examination." Compared with the mainstream JUPAS route, the core differences of SNDAS are evident on three levels:

According to the Education Bureau's official SNDAS description^※, the scheme was first implemented in the 2022/23 academic year as a formal, institutional channel (not a pilot scheme), with all eight UGC-funded universities participating.

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# Is SNDAS the same as the School Principal's Nominations (SPN)?

No — these are the two most commonly confused schemes due to their similar names. SNDAS falls outside the JUPAS system and is an independent direct admission channel led by the Education Bureau. The School Principal's Nominations (SPN) scheme, on the other hand, is a bonus-point / priority-consideration mechanism established by the JUPAS office itself^※ and affiliated with the JUPAS joint admissions system. The two differ in both the talent dimensions they recognise and their operational logic:

According to an HK01 explainer on SPN^※, SPN aligns more closely with the traditional bonus-point logic for "students outstanding in moral education / extra-curricular activities," whereas SNDAS's threshold leans more towards "demonstrable achievements or a portfolio in a specific discipline / specialist area." This difference in positioning also explains why the two schemes are mutually exclusive: neither the Education Bureau nor JUPAS wants the same student's "non-academic strengths" and "academic strengths" to be double-counted through different exceptional admissions channels. In short: if a student excels in maths competitions or programming, apply via SNDAS; if they stand out in areas beyond academia — community service, orchestras, sports teams — apply via SPN. The two paths cannot be taken simultaneously.

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# How does CUHK participate in SNDAS? Who is eligible to be nominated?

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has participated in SNDAS since its inception. According to the Education Bureau's list of designated programmes for the 2026/27 academic year^※, CUHK has opened a total of 63 undergraduate programmes for nomination this academic year, spanning all major Faculties including Arts, Business, Engineering, Medicine, Science, Education, and Social Science. It is among the institutions offering a larger number of programmes under SNDAS.

# Selected CUHK SNDAS Designated Programmes (2026/27 academic year, by Faculty)

The table below lists representative programmes from each Faculty. The complete list of 63 programmes is confirmed by the Education Bureau's official list^※.

Each SNDAS programme page has Programme-specific Requirements^※ detailing the specific expectations regarding evidence of talent, disciplinary background, and interview performance. Students should review these carefully before nomination.

# CUHK General Eligibility (for all nominees)

According to CUHK's SNDAS admissions page^※, nominees must concurrently possess: (1) a consistent record of academic attainment demonstrating the potential to benefit from the undergraduate programme; (2) outstanding talent or exceptional performance in at least one area; and (3) the specific subject requirements of individual programmes. "Evidence of talent" does not equate to "excellent grades" — the weighting of extra-curricular achievements such as portfolios, competition awards, and self-directed projects is significantly higher than in the ordinary JUPAS route.

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# Only two places per school? How does a principal nominate?

The quota mechanism is the most critical institutional constraint of SNDAS. According to the Education Bureau's policy document^※, each local secondary school has only two nomination places (2 nominations per school), and each nominated student may apply for only one SNDAS designated programme.

Nomination is initiated by the School Principal, and the entire process is divided into two stages:

"All nominees must attend an interview" is another significant difference between SNDAS and JUPAS: under JUPAS, some programmes only invite Band A applicants for interview, but SNDAS stipulates that participating universities must arrange an assessment for all nominees (per the Education Bureau's SNDAS policy^※).

Scarcity of the quota: There are approximately 450+ secondary schools in Hong Kong, each with an annual quota of only two places. For the 4th cohort, 420 schools^※ submitted a total of 814 valid nominations, indicating that some schools used only one place or did not participate. Not every school nominates two students every year.

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# How many students has CUHK admitted? How should the numbers be read?

The SNDAS admission figures for the 4th cohort (2025 intake) represent the most verifiable annual data to date:

Sources: Jingsai Lian compilation of the 4th cohort SNDAS results^※; Sing Tao Daily report (4th cohort, announced July 2025)^※.

Key points in reading the figures:

• CUHK's admission rate for that cohort was approximately 54 ÷ 169 ≈ 32% — i.e., roughly one out of every three students nominated by their principal to CUHK received a formal offer;
• Of the 169 students nominated to CUHK, 115 did not receive an SNDAS offer after the interview, but their JUPAS applications were unaffected, allowing them to compete as usual after the results release;
• Of the 342 students admitted across all eight universities, 335 accepted (an acceptance rate of 98%), reflecting the attractiveness of SNDAS offers;
• There are discrepancies in CUHK figures reported at different times or from different cohorts (for example, some media outlets reported that "CUHK directly admitted 55" students in a particular cohort). This article relies on the most detailed source for the 4th cohort (152 schools / 169 nominees / 54 admitted).

There is currently no complete official annual report detailing CUHK's admissions figures broken down by programme. Online rumours of "popularity rankings by discipline" or claims that "a certain department admitted only one person" are gathered from media reports and do not constitute official confirmation; this article does not cite them as definitive figures.

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# What's new for the 5th Cohort (2026 intake)? How did the results turn out?

According to the Education Bureau announcement and Jingsai Lian's compilation^※, the 5th cohort of SNDAS (for students taking the 2026 HKDSE) saw two main changes in the application stage: first, the number of designated programmes across all eight universities expanded to 305 (a net increase of 6 from the previous cohort), with CUHK's total rising to 63 (including the newly added "Public Humanities" JS4100); second, the Multi-faceted Excellence Scholarship was formally launched. This scholarship awards HK$10,000 per year (totalling HK$40,000 over four years) to students admitted through SNDAS who demonstrate outstanding achievements in arts, sports, or community service. No separate application or means test is required. The nomination period (early October), interview period (January – early June), and result timeline (before DSE) remain the same as the 4th cohort.

Results announced (July 2026): Nomination and admission figures for the 5th cohort were finalised the week before the release of the 2026 HKDSE results. According to an HK01 report summarising the 5th cohort results^※, this cohort saw 433 secondary schools submit a total of 847 valid nominations. The eight universities collectively extended direct admission offers to 325 students, with 319 ultimately accepting (an acceptance rate of approximately 98%, consistent with the 4th cohort). By broad subject category, Medicine and Health saw the highest intake (68 students), followed by Science (57) and Computing and Engineering (55) — these three categories together accounted for over 60% of all admissions, confirming that the "STEM and Medicine surge" is not unique to CUHK but a shared trend across all eight universities for SNDAS. The same report noted that HKU, CUHK, PolyU, and CityU together admitted 258 students, accounting for over 80% of the total, reflecting a concentration of SNDAS places towards the comprehensive research universities.

CUHK's own figures: CUHK has not yet published the complete three-item breakdown of "schools / nominations / admissions" for the 5th cohort (see the calibre note in the "Data Reliability" section below). However, according to a TVB news report^※, CUHK disclosed that the number of students directly admitted through the principal's nomination this year (5th cohort) increased by nearly 45% year-on-year, with enrolments concentrated in Medicine, Mathematics (Enrichment stream), and Computer Science — matching the territory-wide "STEM and Medicine surge." The same report mentioned that the number of non-local applications to CUHK increased by about 20% year-on-year, indicating that the SNDAS channel's appeal to non-local subject-matter talents is also rising. If one uses the 4th cohort's CUHK admission figure of 54 as a rough base for extrapolation, a 45% increase would suggest the 5th cohort's CUHK admission number is significantly higher than 54. However, as the official exact figure has not been released, this article refrains from calculating a "precise number" in its place; readers should await the subsequent official announcement from CUHK or the Education Bureau for the confirmed figure.

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# Trends across five cohorts: Is the scheme admitting more each year?

Placing verifiable figures from successive cohorts side-by-side reveals a trajectory of year-on-year expansion in SNDAS's scale. However, this expansion is primarily manifested in "programme supply" and "school participation," rather than in the "admission rate" itself:

Data sources: Sing Tao Daily (4th Cohort)^※, Jingsai Lian (4th Cohort)^※, HK01 (5th Cohort)^※.

It is noteworthy that the total number of offers (325) and acceptances (319) across all eight universities in the 5th cohort actually showed a slight decrease compared with the 4th cohort (342/335). This does not contradict CUHK's statement of a "nearly 45% year-on-year increase" — it indicates that the allocation of SNDAS places has undergone a structural redistribution among institutions. While the number of participating schools and total nominations continued to grow (420→433 schools; 814→847 nominations), the number of admission offers did not scale up proportionally. Instead, a greater share flowed to a small number of comprehensive research universities (HKU, CUHK, PolyU, and CityU together accounted for over 80% of admissions). In other words, for a student at any given school, "the principal's nomination slot" did not become proportionally easier to convert into an offer as the overall scheme expanded — the intensity of competition actually intensified while concentrating towards the leading institutions.

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# Will applying through SNDAS and JUPAS simultaneously cause a conflict?

Students nominated for SNDAS must also submit an application via JUPAS and are required to include the designated SNDAS programme they are applying for among their 20 JUPAS programme choices (some universities require it to be placed within the Band A choices). This "parallel track" design ensures that students do not reduce their post-DSE options by participating in SNDAS.

There are two possible outcomes of this parallel track:

1. Receive and accept an SNDAS offer → The student's JUPAS application is withdrawn in its entirety (including the other 19 programme choices), locking in a university place before the DSE.
2. Do not receive an SNDAS offer (or decline it) → The JUPAS application remains fully intact, and the student competes on the same footing as peers who did not participate in SNDAS after the DSE results are released.

Schemes that cannot be applied for concurrently: Students nominated for SNDAS cannot simultaneously apply for the School Principal's Nominations (SPN) Scheme or the Student-Athlete Learning Support and Admission Scheme, according to the Education Bureau's SNDAS policy^※.

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# What is tested in the interview? What talents does CUHK assess?

SNDAS interviews are arranged by each university independently and take place between January and early June 2026. According to CUHK's Office of Admissions and Financial Aid^※, the dimensions of CUHK's holistic assessment of nominees include:

• The school reference report and school examination results;
• Evidence of discipline-specific talent (extra-curricular achievements and other learning experiences);
• Interview performance (all nominees must participate).

The focus of the interview varies by programme: Music degrees may expect a performance demonstration or portfolio; Sports Science and Physical Education will focus on competitive track records; Medicine involves multi-stage assessments examining communication skills and values; AI / Computer Science emphasises programming competitions and research background; Humanities and Social Sciences focus on writing and critical thinking. For the specific interview requirements and document checklists for each programme, see CUHK's SNDAS Programme-specific Requirements page^※ (individual PDFs for each programme).

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# Which disciplines does SNDAS cover? Can business and engineering students be nominated?

In its early days, SNDAS gave the impression of being "geared towards arts and sports talent." However, CUHK's 63 designated programmes for 2026/27 span Arts, Business, Engineering, Medicine, Science, Education, Social Science, and Architecture — Business Administration, Financial Technology, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Medicine are all included. A student with outstanding results in a Mathematics Olympiad or a programming competition can be nominated by their principal for Computational Data Science (JS4416) or Artificial Intelligence (JS4468), rather than having to compete solely on DSE scores. Law (JS4903 LLB) is not yet on the 2026/27 SNDAS list and must still be applied for via JUPAS / Non-JUPAS routes.

According to the 4th cohort data compiled by Jingsai Lian^※, among the students admitted, roughly 75 were in Healthcare, 65 in Science, and 61 in Computing / Engineering. These were, in fact, the three most-admitted directions territory-wide, far surpassing arts and sports categories. The SNDAS "STEM surge" is already a very clear trend. The 5th cohort figures reinforce the same pattern (68 in Medicine and Health, 57 in Science, 55 in Computing / Engineering), demonstrating that this is not a one-off anomaly. Medicine, as the discipline admitting the most students through SNDAS, corroborates the data in the article on graduate outcomes showing that "Medicine, Dentistry, and Nursing have the highest starting salaries in Hong Kong." The disciplines favoured by the talent-based admission channel overlap heavily with high-demand career fields, which partly explains why both principals and students are willing to bet on this intensely competitive direct admission path.

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# Is SNDAS the same logic as the mainland China gaokao track?

No. SNDAS's service target is restricted exclusively to local HKDSE candidates. CUHK separately operates a mainland China gaokao admission track — recruiting mainland undergraduate students through the National Unified Higher Education Institution Admissions System under the Early Admission batch (Institution Code: 81002). The two channels have entirely separate application systems, assessment criteria, and timelines, with no crossover: mainland China candidates are not eligible for SNDAS, and HKDSE candidates do not enter via the mainland gaokao early admission batch. The only commonality between them is that both are targeted channels that "bypass the conventional JUPAS points-competition logic." However, the student populations they serve, their selection logic, and even their offer timelines do not overlap. Readers should not conflate the two.

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# Data reliability and notes

Official hard data: The scheme's first year (2022/23), the cap of two nominations per school, the rule that "all nominees must attend an interview," the Multi-faceted Excellence Scholarship (HK$10,000/year), and the 5th cohort designated programme numbers (305 for eight universities / 63 for CUHK) — all are taken directly from the Education Bureau or CUHK official websites. Media-compiled figures: The 4th cohort data for CUHK ("152 schools / 169 nominees / 54 admitted") and the overall territory-wide figures ("420 schools / 342 offers / 335 accepted"), as well as the 5th cohort territory-wide figures ("433 schools / 847 nominations / 325 offers / 319 accepted") are all second-hand data points. Minor numerical discrepancies exist across different sources and snapshots (e.g., "55" vs "54" admitted) and have been noted by juxtaposition without arbitration. The exact integer for CUHK's 5th cohort is not yet public: The university has only disclosed a "nearly 45% year-on-year increase" in percentage terms. This article has not calculated an absolute figure on its behalf to avoid presenting a projection as an official number; it should be updated once CUHK or the Education Bureau publishes the confirmed integer. Unverified details have been excluded: There is no official publication of annual admission breakdowns by individual programme; online rumours are not cited in this article.

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# See also

• Undergraduate admissions pathways overview (covering JUPAS / Non-JUPAS / mainland gaokao / International): undergraduate-admissions.md
• Programme catalogue and JS code master list: programme-catalogue.md
• Tuition fees, scholarships, and the Multi-faceted Excellence Scholarship: tuition-and-scholarships.md
• Mainland China gaokao admission track (another channel bypassing conventional JUPAS, serving a different student population): mainland-gaokao-admission-track.md
• Graduate outcomes and starting salaries by discipline: graduate-outcomes.md
• Wilder history admissions topics: ../17-wilder-policies/source-directory.md