HKU Programme Overview (Undergraduate / Postgraduate / Interdisciplinary)

Module: 01 Academics · Sub-file: Programme Overview Last updated: 10 July 2026

Short answer: According to HKU's 2024 annual report, in the 2023–24 academic year the University offered approximately 145 undergraduate programmes, 215 taught postgraduate programmes and 89 research postgraduate programmes; undergraduate study spans ten faculties and is primarily four-year, alongside nine cross-border dual degrees with Berkeley / Sciences Po / Peking University and other leading institutions, six BASc interdisciplinary degrees, and a postgraduate layer coordinated by the faculties and the Graduate School.

Figures per HKU 2024 Annual Report — "University Profile"^※ (2023–24 academic year): approximately 145 undergraduate programmes, 215 taught postgraduate programmes and 89 research postgraduate programmes. This page maps the programme landscape by level and faculty, and lists flagship undergraduate degrees, cross-border dual degrees and the BASc interdisciplinary suite. For specific programme codes and admission scores, refer to the official faculty / admissions pages and the annual admissions prospectus.

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# 1. Programme scale (2023–24)

Data per HKU 2024 Annual Report^※. The report notes that programmes are counted separately where full-time and part-time variants are listed; RPg programme counts follow departments with registered RPg students in the year in question.

Worth noting: the distribution of programmes does not mirror the distribution of students. Around 145 undergraduate programmes serve roughly 18,500 undergraduates, while some 215 taught postgraduate programmes serve about 16,500 taught postgraduate students (for student numbers, see academic-system.md). In other words, undergraduate programmes are "few but large", while taught master's degrees are "many but diffuse" — the latter is the largest category precisely because every faculty keeps launching professional master's and postgraduate certificates aimed at working professionals, and the individual programmes are often small. The 89 research programmes come close to the undergraduate count but serve only around 4,100 students — a reflection of the small-cohort, supervisor-led character of research training. This is a description of the counting convention, not a judgement on programme quality.

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# 2. Undergraduate degrees (UG Bachelor Degrees)

Undergraduate study at HKU spans ten faculties. The main single degrees (selection; per faculty admissions pages and the HKU Calendar abbreviations list^※):

MBBS and BDS are six-year programmes; clinical and allied-health courses such as BChinMed and BSc(Speech-Language Pathology) run five years; most other degrees are four-year (see academic-system.md). This table lists degree "families" in selection, not exhaustively — a single degree (e.g. BSocSc, BA, BSc) usually contains multiple majors. The medical faculty's undergraduate portfolio, per HKUMed undergraduate programmes page^※, comprises MBBS, BNurs, BSc(Nursing), BPharm, BBiomedSc, BChinMed and the BASc (Global Health and Development), among others.

JUPAS JS codes: local HKDSE candidates apply through JUPAS, and every undergraduate programme carries a six-digit JS code. Per the admissions office and faculty programme pages, codes for selected programmes are as follows (for identification only; the JUPAS catalogue is updated yearly):

Non-local applicants — including mainland Chinese gaokao candidates and those with international qualifications — do not go through JUPAS; they apply via the international admissions route and do not use JS codes. Admission requirements are covered in Module 02 (Admissions).

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# 3. Flagship undergraduate programmes by faculty (selection)

# 1. HKU Business School

Per the HKU Business School programme page^※ and admissions pages, the undergraduate flagships include:

• BBA (with streams including Accounting and Finance, Accounting Data Analytics, Business Analytics, International Business and Global Management)
• BEcon, BEcon&Fin (Economics and Finance)
• BFin (Asset Management and Private Banking) — per the School's milestones, the first undergraduate programme of its kind in Asia
• BSc (Quantitative Finance), BSc (Marketing Analytics and Technology)
• Bachelor of Global Leadership, Innovation and Society (BGLIS) (new flagship)

Of these, BFin(AMPB) and BGLIS are the small, selective programmes the School has been fronting in recent years: the former focuses on asset management and private banking and was, per the School's milestones, the first of its kind in Asia; the latter is positioned around "global leadership" and emphasises cross-cultural exposure and entrepreneurship. The School holds AACSB and EQUIS accreditation (not "triple crown"), was reorganised into six academic areas in 2017, and its full programme lineage and accreditation history are covered in deepdive-business-economics.md.

# 2. Faculty of Engineering (BEng)

Per the HKU Engineering BEng programme page^※:

• BEng(Civil Engineering), BEng(Mechanical Engineering), BEng(Electrical Engineering), BEng(Electronic Engineering), BEng(Computer Engineering)
• BEng(Industrial Engineering and Logistics Management)
• BEng(Engineering Science) — with streams including biomedical, energy, environmental, materials and systems analysis; offered since 2012–13
• BEng(Biomedical Engineering) — jointly run with the medical faculty

Engineering BEng programmes generally follow a "broad intake in Year 1, specialise later" structure: students enter under a broad banner, complete a shared engineering foundation, then stream into departments. The Faculty currently has four departments — Civil, Electrical and Electronic, Mechanical, and Data and Systems (formerly Industrial Engineering) — with Computer Science moved out to CDS in 2024. At postgraduate level it runs a range of professional MSc programmes (per the Engineering MSc programme page^※). The Faculty's century-long history, departmental mergers and splits, and its innovation workshops are covered in deepdive-engineering.md and engineering-faculty-history.md.

# 3. School of Computing and Data Science (CDS)

Per the HKU CDS undergraduate page^※, recruiting independently from 2025–26:

• Computing and Data Science (plus combined options such as Delta+)
• BEng(Computer Science) (revised)
• BEng(AI and Data Science) (new)
• BSc(Actuarial Science)
• BA&BEng — a five-year double degree fusing engineering/computing with the humanities

CDS is the biggest structural change at HKU in recent years: formed in July 2024 from the merger of the Department of Computer Science (Engineering) and the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science (Science) (see departments.md), it pulls computer science, data science, statistics and actuarial science — previously split across two faculties — into one independently recruiting unit, and has run its own admissions line since 2025–26. The move elevates "AI and Data Science" from a sub-field housed inside Engineering/Science to a degree brand on par with the traditional faculties, and dovetails with the University-wide AI literacy requirement and the new CCAI (Artificial Intelligence) general education area (see academic-system.md).

# 4. Faculty of Law

• LLB, plus double degrees with social sciences and business (e.g. BSocSc(Government and Laws) & LLB, BBA(Law) & LLB). See deepdive-law.md.

# 5. LKS Faculty of Medicine (undergraduate overview)

Per the HKUMed undergraduate programmes page^※, the medical faculty's undergraduate offering is not a single MBBS track but a spectrum spanning clinical medicine, nursing, pharmacy, basic sciences and Chinese medicine:

• MBBS (six years) — HKU's most senior professional degree, running a "new curriculum" since 2019 which includes an enrichment year for overseas exchange, research or humanitarian service.
• BNurs and BSc(Nursing) — catering respectively to secondary-school leavers and those entering with prior tertiary qualifications; a part-time nursing degree is also offered.
• BPharm — one of only two pharmacy undergraduate programmes in Hong Kong.
• BBiomedSc — a four-year programme oriented towards biomedical research and translational medicine.
• BChinMed (five years) and the Bachelor of Chinese Materia Medica — see chinese-medicine-school.md.
• BASc(Global Health and Development) — a BASc interdisciplinary degree hosted by the medical faculty (see Section 4).

Clinical training, teaching hospitals and specialty depth are covered in Module 11; this page lists only the faculty's undergraduate programme spectrum.

# 6. Faculty of Dentistry

• BDS (six years), Hong Kong's only undergraduate programme in dentistry; HKU's dental discipline has for years ranked among the world's top in QS subject rankings. Clinical and hospital depth: see Module 11.

# 7. Faculty of Arts (Year of Exploration model)

Per the HKU Arts BA (JS6054) admissions page^※, the Faculty of Arts runs its BA on a "Year of Exploration" model: in Year 1 students are not locked into a major — they sample widely across about 15 majors and declare at the end of the year; from Year 2 to Year 4 they may add a second major (inside or outside Arts) and up to two minors. Available majors (selection):

The "about 15 majors" figure follows the admissions page's "Choose 1 of the 15 programmes" wording; the table above is a selection, not exhaustive, and the full list is as published by the Faculty. Arts also runs dual degrees with Sciences Po and UC Berkeley (see Section 5). Depth: deepdive-arts-socsci.md.

# 8. Faculty of Science

The Faculty's BSc likewise adopts broad-based admission with later major selection, covering biology, chemistry, physics, earth sciences, mathematics, food and nutritional science, among others; some intensive majors carry heavier credit loads than standard majors (see academic-system.md). The Faculty also co-runs the five-year BEd&BSc double degree with Education to train secondary-school science teachers. Depth: deepdive-science-architecture.md.

# 9. Faculty of Social Sciences

Per the HKU Social Sciences undergraduate admissions page^※, the Faculty's flagships include:

• BSocSc — with five core disciplines: Computational Social Science, Geography, Politics and Public Administration, Social Policy and Social Development, and Sociology; Politics and Public Administration further splits into four streams (comparative politics, international politics, political theory and ethics, public administration).
• BJ, BSW, BPsych (the last, professionally oriented, can lead on to clinical/educational psychology research training).
• BSocSc(Government and Laws) and the joint BSocSc(Govt&Laws)& LLB double degree with the Faculty of Law.

# 10. Faculty of Architecture

Per the admissions office programme pages, the Faculty of Architecture is one of HKU's rare "multi-degree in one faculty" units: besides BA(Architectural Studies) it runs BSc(Surveying) (self-described as Hong Kong's first and only fully integrated undergraduate surveying programme), BA(Landscape Studies) and BA(Urban Studies) — covering the four professional tracks of architecture, surveying, landscape and urban planning.

# 11. Faculty of Education (double degrees at the core)

Per the HKU Education undergraduate programmes page^※, the Faculty's undergraduate provision is built around five-year double degrees:

• BA&BEd(Language Education) — training secondary-school Chinese and English teachers.
• BSc&BEd — jointly with Science, training secondary-school science teachers.
• BSocSc&BEd — jointly with Social Sciences.
• BSc(Speech-Language Pathology) (formerly Speech and Hearing Sciences, five years) — training speech therapists; the Faculty also offers BSc(Applied Child Development).

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# 4. BASc interdisciplinary programmes (Bachelor of Arts and Sciences)

HKU launched its BASc series of interdisciplinary undergraduate degrees in 2019/20, spanning all ten faculties. Per the HKU BASc website^※, there are now six BASc degrees:

Per the HKU press release^※, the BASc series aims to "cultivate global leaders who can respond to contemporary and future challenges across disciplines", engaging all ten faculties. BASc students take fewer general education courses than the norm (see academic-system.md).

The BASc design logic is not a "half arts, half science" assembly but a single contemporary issue around which one "home faculty" convenes and draws in courses from across the University. Per the HKU BASc website^※, the six degrees and their home faculties are:

• Applied AI (School of Computing and Data Science) — couples the technical core of machine learning and data science with application contexts; part of AI education spreading into the undergraduate layer since CDS became an independent school.
• Design+ (Faculty of Architecture) — an interdisciplinary programme built around design thinking, connecting architecture, media and the creative industries.
• FinTech (School of Computing and Data Science, jointly with HKU Business School) — spans computing and business, covering blockchain, payments, quantitative finance and related fields.
• Global Health and Development (LKS Faculty of Medicine) — brings public health, development studies and social science together to address cross-border health and global development issues.
• Social Data Science (Faculty of Education) — applies data methods to social and educational phenomena.
• Interdisciplinary Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences) — the most open of the six, letting students assemble their own cross-faculty pathway; not open for admission in 2026/27 per the official page.

For each BASc, annual intake and programme rules are as published by the BASc Office and the home faculty; the "home faculty" does not restrict students' cross-faculty course choices.

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# 5. Double degrees and university collaborative programmes

HKU's double degrees come in two kinds: internal cross-faculty double degrees (one university, two degrees) and cross-border university collaborative double degrees (two universities, study in two places, one degree from each).

# 1. Internal cross-faculty double degrees (selection)

• BBA(Law)& LLB, BSocSc(Government and Laws)& LLB (business/social science + law; per the Department of Politics and Public Administration page^※); see deepdive-law.md.
• BA&BEng (AI and Data Science) — the CDS five-year programme fusing engineering/computing with the humanities.
• Education's BA&BEd(LangEd), BSc&BEd and BSocSc&BEd — three five-year teacher-training double degrees (see Section 3).

# 2. Cross-border university collaborative double degrees (nine)

Per the HKU Admissions "Dual Degree and University Collaborative Programmes" page^※, HKU runs double degrees with nine overseas and mainland Chinese universities: students study in both places over four to five years and receive one degree from each institution.

The Berkeley double degree has its own dedicated admissions site: students spend two years in Hong Kong then two in California, earning an HKU BA or BSocSc and a Berkeley BA within four years; the Sciences Po track spans its Reims, Menton and Le Havre campuses. These schemes are mostly very small-intake, separately applied programmes; yearly places and deadlines are as published by the Admissions Office.

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# 6. Postgraduate programmes

Postgraduate study at HKU comes in two layers — taught (TPg) and research (RPg, including MPhil/PhD) — the latter coordinated by the faculties and the Graduate School. Per the HKU 2024 Annual Report^※ (2023–24 academic year), the University has about 16,541 taught postgraduate and 4,134 research postgraduate students (full student breakdowns in academic-system.md).

# 1. Taught master's (TPg)

The ~215 taught master's programmes form HKU's largest student cohort. Flagships include the Business School's MBA (once ranked first in Asia; see deepdive-business-economics.md), EMBA and the HKU–Fudan IMBA — per the School's milestones, the first HKU–mainland joint programme approved by China's Ministry of Education; the Faculty of Law's LLM and the practice-oriented PCLL (see deepdive-law.md); the medical faculty's MPH; Engineering's multiple MSc programmes (per the Engineering MSc page^※); and the Journalism and Media Studies Centre's Master of Journalism.

Per the HKU taught postgraduate programme list^※, examples by faculty (selection, not exhaustive):

The Faculty of Architecture's taught postgraduate spread is especially wide, covering architecture, landscape, housing management, urban analytics, sustainable environmental design and more; the table shows representative programmes per faculty only — yearly offerings are as published by each faculty and the postgraduate admissions site.

# 2. Research postgraduate (RPg) and the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship

Research postgraduate students (MPhil, PhD) form the backbone of HKU's research output. The most significant funding channel is the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS) — established by Hong Kong's Research Grants Council (RGC) in 2009 for top doctoral applicants worldwide. Per the HKU Graduate School HKPFS page^※, awardees receive a monthly postgraduate stipend of about HK$28,700 plus an annual conference/research travel allowance of about HK$14,400, for up to three years; the RGC allocates several hundred awards across Hong Kong's funded institutions each year, with HKU historically winning among the highest numbers in the city. Admission, places and training for research degrees are coordinated centrally by the Graduate School.

Flagship programme trajectories — the Business School's MBA, Law's PCLL, the Master of Journalism and others — are covered in their respective deep-dive files.

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# 7. Recent developments and trends (2024–2026)

HKU's programme landscape over the past three years has shifted along two axes: computing/AI becoming an independent school and a cluster of new faculties.

• CDS recruits independently — CDS was established in July 2024 (merging the former Department of Computer Science with the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science; see departments.md), has recruited under its own banner since 2025–26, and has launched new degrees such as BEng(AI and Data Science) — AI and data science upgraded from sub-fields inside Engineering/Science to an independent admissions unit.
• A new wave of faculties — HKU has recently set up the School of Biomedical Engineering, the Innovation Academy, the School of Journalism and Media Futures, and the School of Governance and Policy, among others, expanding both undergraduate and postgraduate provision (organisation: departments.md). These new units mostly cut across traditional faculty boundaries (biomedical engineering straddles engineering and medicine; media futures joins media to technology), and their programme designs lean interdisciplinary and industry-facing, sitting alongside flexible BASc and double-major pathways.
• AI entering the core curriculum — beyond CDS's AI degrees, all undergraduates now take a compulsory AI Literacy (AILT1001) course, general education has added the CCAI (Artificial Intelligence) exploration area, and Business and Engineering have launched applied-AI courses (structure details in academic-system.md).
• The Year of Exploration model spreads — broad-based "enter first, choose your major later" admission, as in Arts and Science, is becoming mainstream, working in tandem with the flexible four-year credit system.

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# 8. Not found / to be completed

• Exact programme counts by faculty: the annual report gives only University-wide totals (145/215/89) without a faculty breakdown; this page lists flagship programmes by faculty rather than exhaustively — flagged as "not exhaustively itemised by faculty".
• Admission scores / places: vary year to year; refer to the Admissions Office's annual publications; no specific scores are recorded here.
• Exact list of Education's undergraduate programmes: the official page is incomplete; this page summarises the known double-degree framework, flagged "exact list to be completed".

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