Why this Filipino student chose Hong Kong over the U.S. for college

Charles Tan addresses fellow students and industry partners at the Annual Co-op@CUHK Opening Ceremony 2025. Handout

HONG KONG — Growing up in Manila, Charles Henry Faustino Tan thought of Hong Kong only as a shopping stop on family vacations. Today the 22‑year‑old is finishing a Professional Accountancy degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong  (CUHK) — part of a small but rising wave of Southeast Asian students skipping the traditional Western route for schools closer to home.

Tan’s journey to CUHK began almost by accident. “My mother discovered CUHK during our university search,” he was quoted as saying in a media release. “At the time, I knew little about its rankings or standing.”

A last‑minute application turned into a life‑changing decision: the green, hillside campus and the school’s collegiate system sold him on studying in the city he once knew only through tourist snapshots.

His experience also upends the stereotype of accountancy as a dry numbers game. “Everyone, including me at one point, thought Professional Accountancy was just business mathematics,” Tan said. “It’s actually an international language and an art form.”

That broader view was tested last year when CUHK’s Co‑op@CUHK program placed him with one of Hong Kong’s biggest auto retailers as a financial planning and analysis trainee. 

"What struck me most was seeing how our academic concepts directly influence million-dollar decisions," Tan said, all while navigating a largely Cantonese‑speaking office. “The language barrier was definitely challenging,” he admitted, “but it became an opportunity to develop cross‑cultural communication skills essential in today's global workplace." His supervisors, he added, cared more about his analysis than his accent.

Now in his final semester, Tan has become an unofficial recruiter, telling friends back home that Hong Kong is only a 2.5‑hour flight away and offers “a unique blend of Eastern and Western influences.”

Charles Tan (center), together with members of the Philippine United Student Organisation, hosts a Filipino night market on campus.  Handout

He and the Philippine United Student Organisation on campus recently staged a Filipino night‑market festival complete with street food and karaoke. Such events exemplify CUHK's vibrant international community where students from across Asia and beyond share their cultural heritage while forming lasting friendships.

CUHK’s 345‑acre grounds — a rarity in land‑strapped Hong Kong — still surprise him. “I’ve seen wild boars, snakes and monkeys on campus,” he joked. “It’s like a tiny zoo.”

For Tan and a growing group of Southeast Asian students, Hong Kong’s pull is practical as well as cultural: English is widely spoken, internships plug directly into the region’s financial hub, and home is close enough for long weekends. Those factors, he argues, matter more than a place on a global ranking chart.

“There's a misconception that studying abroad means going to the West," Tan admits.

Sometimes the best fit is right here in Asia.