The Chinese University of Hong Kong

We recommend going in Spring semester, due to housing being more readily available then.

• CUHK main page
• Exchange student
• Facebook
• Video

5 per semester

Fall Semester: End of August - December
Spring Semester: Beginning of January - May

CUHK is a bilingual university. Courses are conducted in English, Cantonese or Putonghua. The language of instruction for individual courses is shown on the teaching timetable. 

Fall Semester: April 1st
Spring Semester: October 2nd 

CUHK’s Centre for China Studies offers students doing the China Program the opportunity to follow a variety of interdisciplinary courses to familiarise them with contemporary Chinese culture. The complete course offer can be found in the Webpages section above. 

All regular courses are open to exchange students except those offered by the Faculties of Education, Law, Medicine and Architecture. An impression of the courses taught at CUHK can be found here.

CUHK undergraduate courses are coded 1000-4000 while postgraduate courses are coded 5000-9000. 1000-level courses are introductory courses, 2000 are introductory for 2nd years, 3000 are intermediate course for 2nd/3rd years, 4000 are for final year students.

The Chinese language courses are offered at elementary, intermediate and advanced level through the Yale-China Chinese Language Centre at CUHK. These courses are credit-bearing and exchange students are entitled to enrol in two courses with tuition waver per term.

Normally a Full time workload is 30 ECTS, so you take 5 courses at CUHK. Conversion: 15 CUHK credits = 30 ECTS

For most up to date information on the conversion, please see the credit conversion table

CUHK works with the A-F grading system. CUHK grades on a bell curve. 

For undergraduate students of the S.H.Ho College, it’s compulsory to live on campus, and so will be the case for exchange students as well. The College has two hostels with both about 150 double rooms. Floors are single-sex. Apart from that, the buildings have common rooms, a fitness room, pantries, et cetera. No additional application for housing is required.

Living on campus costs around HK$5,864 – 6,307 (€645-694) per semester. Additional costs are by consumption such as air-conditioning and laundry. On-campus meals is compulsory, which cost about HK$1,400 (approx. €154) per semester.

For an exact overview of university costs see here. An outline of general living expenses can be found at the bottom of this page

An Orientation program is organized for foreign students at the beginning of the semester. It lasts for about a week and has both useful information about the curriculum, student life and Chinese culture, and some fun activities, like a city tour. More information.

CUHK has a large, green campus about 30 minutes by train from the city center. The campus has sports and social facilities including a swimming pool. It has some 20.000 students. Read more here. 

CUHK has extensive mental health facilities. Same-day counselling services for emergency cases will be provided by the Wellness and Counselling Centre (WACC) of the Office of Student Affairs. Students can also use the 24-hour Emotional Support Hotline if needed. 

Hong Kong is primarily a modern city located on a number of islands off the coast of China. It has 7.5 million inhabitants and is one of the most densely populated places in the world. Hong Kong has a subtropical climate. It has warm and humid summers with frequent thunder storms, but temperatures can reach 10 degrees Celsius in winter. It also experiences typhoons between May and November. 

You can find general tourist information here. 

In general, students at CUHK are expected to be more independent, as you will have to figure out a lot on your own. As grading is done on a bell-curve, students might be more competitive and less inclined to help each other, and are not necessarily as open towards exchange students as UCU students (many activities also take place in Cantonese clubs). Studying is more aimed at reproduction and memorizing than at critical reflection, which is different from UCU. Be aware that you will share your room in your dorm with a roommate, but experiences so far have been positive in that respect. Students are enthusiastic about the city of Hong Kong and the surrounding area, and mention that it is an ideal location from which to travel to other places in Asia.