About 20 per cent of the 50 places in the inaugural intake of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s new graduate medical school in 2028-29 may be reserved for non-local students, with most of them likely to be from mainland China, according to the institution.

Applicants for the four-year graduate entry-level medicine programme must pass an international admission test, with HKUST preferring those with a background in biotechnology.

According to HKUST, the tuition fee for holders of a prior bachelor’s degree pursuing medicine will match that for undergraduate students, but non-locals will be subject to higher rates.

Nancy Ip Yuk-yu, president of HKUST, said the university was working towards establishing the city’s third medical school.

“This innovative medical school combines artificial intelligence, biotechnology and clinical medicine to cultivate a new generation of doctors who embrace technology,” she said.

Her remarks came nearly four months after HKUST won the bid to run the city’s third medical school. The university will invest more than HK$7 billion (US$894.6 million) into the medical school over the next 25 years, positioning itself to complement the development of the two medical schools operated by two local universities.