The higher diploma courses offered by the Vocational Training Council (VTC) enable students to progress to university studies. Leung Yam-shing, education adviser at the Vocational Training Council, said in a recent media report that in 2008-09 about 40% of higher diploma graduates went on to undergraduate studies.

Many higher diploma students aim to top-up degree programmes, with direct entry to Year 2 or Year 3 rather than first-year undergraduate programmes.

The VTC has linked up with overseas and local education providers to offer such pathways, which are usually self-financed. The government has also allocated a number of advanced entry places to subsidised undergraduate programmes at local universities.