FAQ on Application

All candidates with an honours Bachelor’s degree are eligible for PhD and MPhil admission. Please refer to programme description for the expectation of each programme, and admission requirement for the minimum entrance requirement.

Applications for admission to the PhD and MPhil programmes are invited all year round. In view of the limited admission quota, applicants are strongly encouraged to apply in the Main Round as far as possible. Applications will be considered in the clearing rounds only if there are vacancies after the Main Round. Click here for the application period in the latest round.

Applications for admission to the PhD and MPhil programmes are invited all year round. However, the University has a quota for admitting PhD and MPhil students each year. The Main Round application is the first round in which faculties/schools/departments consider applications for the coming academic year.

In view of the limited admission quota, applicants are strongly encouraged to apply in the Main Round as far as possible. Applications will be considered in the clearing rounds only if there are vacancies after the Main Round.

Some faculties/schools/departments may not wait until the application deadline of each round to start the consideration of applications.

Click here to check the support documents needed. All supporting documents should be uploaded to the Online Application System before the respective application deadline. Documents uploaded to the system should not be delivered to the Graduate School by post in duplicate.

After creating an account in the Online Application System, applicants can fill in the application form and upload supporting documents before paying the application fee. If some of the required supporting documents are not available at the time of submission, please upload the documents to the Online Application System once the document is available. The reviewer(s) will consider your application based on the documents submitted and it is your responsibility to provide sufficient information. Documents/information submitted/uploaded after the application deadline may not be considered.

Applicants are required to upload academic transcripts and certificates to the Online Application System.  Hardcopies of the documents uploaded to the system should not be sent to the Graduate School again.  Applicants may be required to provide certified true copies of academic certificates and official academic transcripts sent from the awarding institutions upon request at a later stage. 

An applicant who is seeking admission on the basis of a qualification from a university or comparable institution outside Hong Kong of which the language of teaching and/or examination is not English is required to submit English Language Proficiency Test results. Please click here for the details.

Faculty of Business and Economics applicants are required to demonstrate their capability for graduate studies by obtaining satisfactory scores in the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) or Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), taken within five years. (Institution code: GRE - 2482; GMAT - FS2-WL-48)

Department of Psychology applicants whose first degree is not in Psychology are required to obtain a minimum score of 550 in the GRE Subject Test (Psychology) taken within five years. (Institution code: GRE - 2482)

Application fee for each application is HK$150. You can settle the application fee online by Visa or Mastercard through the Online Application System. Application fee is non-refundable and non-transferable. Payment made via other means (e.g. cash) will not be accepted.

Please note that a waiver of application fee will not be considered.

The HKU Presidential PhD Scholar Programme (HKU-PS Programme) and the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS) are both entrance scholarships to attract top students from around the world to pursue PhD studies at HKU/HK. The HKU-PS is funded by HKU while the HKPFS is funded by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Government.  All HKU HKPFS holders will be awarded the HKU-PS, and receive top-up funding support from HKU. Hence, the packages of the two entrance scholarships are almost identical.

All applicants applying for the full-time PhD programme will be considered for the HKU-PS Programme.  The application period of HKPFS is usually from September 1 to December 1 every year.  In view of the intense competition, applicants applying for the HKU-PS Programme during the Main Round (1 September – 1 December) are strongly encouraged to apply also for the HKPFS.

Full-time PhD and MPhil students who hold a first degree at second class honours upper division (or equivalent) or above are normally considered eligible for receiving Postgraduate Scholarships (PGS) during the normative study period, subject to availability of funding. The details can be found here.

Please indicate whether you would like to apply for the Postgraduate Scholarship on the application form for admission. There is no separate form for Postgraduate Scholarship application.

The Graduate School will determine the equivalent honours classification based on the marks/grades in the final transcripts. Postgraduate Scholarship (PGS) can be awarded to full-time PhD and MPhil students who hold a Bachelor's degree at second class honours upper division or above, subject to availability of funding.

The Graduate School will inform all applicants of the result of their applications in writing in about three to four months after the closing date of application. Applicants may also check the result via the Online Application System.

You may apply for PhD and MPhil programme in more than one department. Please submit a separate application to each department including full set of supporting documents and pay the application fee for each application. However, each applicant should only submit one application to each department, regardless of the study mode (Full-time/Part-time) and degree (PhD/MPhil).

PhD and MPhil programmes are research postgraduate programmes which focus on research work. Candidates admitted to the Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) and Master of Philosophy(MPhil) programmes will conduct independent research, under the supervision of a dedicated academic or a team of academics leading to the final submission of a thesis. Students are normally required to take around 5 to 10 courses which will be assessed on a pass/fail basis, that aims to equip students with the basic research skills.

Taught master's programmes focus more on coursework although students may also be required to complete a dissertation in some of the programmes. For details, please visit taught postgraduate admission page.