Higher Education and Talent Ecosystem in China’s Greater Bay Area: A Correlation Analysis

This paper examines the correlation between university discipline and industrial structure in the context of the integration and development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (hereinafter the Greater Bay Area). It aims to determine the industrial structure deviation, and further identify human resource shortages and complementarity through the lens of the university discipline layout in the three regions of the Greater Bay Area. A quantitative Pearson correlation approach was employed to determine the magnitude and strength of the relationship between regional university discipline and industrial structure in the Greater Bay Area, using predictor variables of percent compositions of GDP by sector to manifest the industrial structure and criterion variables of percent compositions of university enrollments by academic program to represent the university discipline layout. The most significant empirical result suggests that industrial structure deviation exists in the secondary industries of both Guangdong and Hong Kong. This indicates the complementarity between regions of the Greater Bay Area: the number of science and engineering talents graduating from the universities in Hong Kong exceeds the demands of Hong Kong’s local needs, while the science and engineering talents cultivated by universities in Guangdong cannot satisfy the needs of its secondary industries. Based on its empirical findings, this study calls for a talent ecosystem that is beneficial for talent flow, talent sharing, and talent cultivation in a complementary manner.