Citation: Tsang, K.K.; Li, G.; Tang, H.-h.H.; Wang, X. Stories to Live by: Narrative Understandings of the Self-Concept of Students at Self-Financing Higher Education Institutions in Hong Kong. Sustainability 2022, 14, 13059. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su142013059 Academic Editor: Ralf Kaldenhoff Received: 29 July 2022 Accepted: 6 October 2022 Published: 12 October 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Stories to Live by: Narrative Understandings of the Self-Concept of Students at Self-Financing Higher Education Institutions in Hong Kong Kwok Kuen Tsang 1 , Guanyu Li 2, * , Hei-hang Hayes Tang 1 and Xi Wang 2, * 1 Department of Education Policy and Leadership, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China 2 College of Educational Administration, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China * Correspondence: gli64@outlook.com (G.L.); wangxi@bnu.edu.cn (X.W.) Abstract: Self-financing higher education institutions (SfHEIs) in Hong Kong help boost the local higher education participation rate, but they are labeled as second-tier opportunities for those with academic weaknesses. Students at SfHEIs may develop a negative self-concept that deteriorates their academic performance and psychological wellness. Therefore, it is critical to understand their self- concept and how it is built. From the narrative perspective, a self-concept is the storied experiences or stories that are lived; therefore, this study employs narrative inquiry using 15 SfHEI students to represent the general pattern of the participants’ experiences. This study proves that students at SfHEIs tend to view themselves as losers or inferiors based on their low self-evaluations of their Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) results, SfHEIs, and career futures. Additionally, this study sheds new light that the loser identity is historically developed from childhood during interactions with parents and teachers, as parents and teachers continuously reinforce the message that enrollment at a publicly funded university is the only way to achieve success in life. Keywords: self-concept; narratives; higher education 1. Introduction In many Asian societies, such as Japan and Korea, students are implored to study hard and prepare well for examinations in order to compete for university admission, which is the shared aspiration of the students [1,2]. Hong Kong is not an exception. In order to alleviate students’ academic stress, the Hong Kong government has reformed the education system since 2000 [3]. One strategy the government applies is the expansion of higher education through privatization, namely, by developing self-financing higher education institutions (SfHEIs) to offer self-financing postsecondary degree programs [4,5]. Although the higher education participation rate for the 17–20 age cohort has reached 60% since the privatization of higher education, the higher education system of Hong Kong is still an elite system; less than 20% of age-appropriate students can enroll at publicly funded universi- ties [6,7]. Since this 20% of students comprises those who achieve outstanding results on a competitive and high-stakes examination called the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), they are perceived as more talented and competent than others [8]. Therefore, as Wong and Tse [9] observe, students who enroll in publicly funded universities have higher self-esteem and self-evaluation than students who enroll in SfHEIs. Moreover, compared with SfHEIs, publicly funded universities can equip students with richer social and cultural capital due to better quality teaching and learning environments, leading to better career prospects [10–12]. This implies that getting into publicly funded universities may enhance the life chances and social mobility of students [13]. All of these situations legitimatize the prestigious status of publicly funded universities and produce a social image of SfHEIs as second-tier opportunities for academically weak students [12,14]. Sustainability 2022, 14, 13059. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013059 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability