By Kane Wu and Timothy Chui

It came as a blow when Yin Wenting, a student from Shenzhen, was rejected in her application to attend the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the city's top school, five years ago.

Her most obvious option appeared to be an offer of enrolment from one of the top 10 universities on the mainland but she was not satisfied.

Rather than enrol in the elite mainland university, Yin took her third option, to become a student at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The quality of the education she could obtain in Hong Kong and the city itself were the prime motivators in shaping her final choice.

Hong Kong Education Bureau statistics show that the number of non-local students studying under University Grants Committee (UGC) programs doubled from the 2006 level to 8,400 in the 2009-2010 academic year.

HKU alone is getting around 9,000 applications every year from mainland students seeking enrolment in the university's undergraduate program. Fewer than 300 of those applicants - slightly more than 3 percent - are accepted.

"Hong Kong embraces a diversity of different cultures; it is the best choice for students who want to keep pace with the development of the emerging Asian markets while maintaining a global perspective," said Isabella Wong, director of the China Affairs Office at HKU.

The relaxation of rules for mainlanders applying for Hong Kong visas plays a big part in the influx of mainland students. In 2008, the Hong Kong Immigration Bureau started granting visa extensions of one year for mainland students who had earn at least a bachelor's degree at a Hong Kong university. That meant students had time to look for a job and it has been making it a lot easier for graduates to settle down in the city.

Undergrad Mary Wang Yueming said the perception is widespread that students can improve their career prospects back on the mainland, or even farther afield, if they obtain their degree from a Hong Kong university. She's from Harbin, in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province.

Wang is studying business administration, accounting and finance in Hong Kong. After graduation, she hopes to move on to take a master's degree in the US or the UK to give herself a solid footing in the business world.