Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programme Structure at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Module: 01 Academics · Sub-file: Programme Structure
Last updated: 15 June 2026
According to the CUHK Admissions Office, the University's eight faculties offer over 330 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in total Admissions Office "Faculties and Programmes"^※. This article maps the programme architecture across three tiers — undergraduate → postgraduate → professional legal pathway; for academic structure, credit requirements and general education, see academic-system.md.

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# I. Undergraduate Programmes

# 1. Degrees and admissions overview

• Duration: Four-year undergraduate (after the 2012 '3-3-4' reform); the MBChB (Medicine) is six years, and programmes such as the LLB (Law) have their own arrangements.
• Admission routes: Local students enter mainly via the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS); non-local students come through Non-JUPAS / international pathways. According to Facts and Figures 2024/25, 3,019 students were admitted through JUPAS in 2024 Facts and Figures 2024/25^※.
• Student headcounts: The same source reports 18,438 undergraduates (15,742 local, 2,696 non-local) Facts and Figures 2024/25^※.

# 2. Broad-based admissions

Many CUHK faculties practice broad-based admissions: most majors in the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Social Science are admitted by 'Faculty / Category'. Students take common foundation courses before declaring their major, reducing the risk of premature specialisation. This is one of the signature features of CUHK's undergraduate curriculum; details in the 'Major / Minor' section of academic-system.md.

# 3. Degree types (selected)

JUPAS codes, admission scores and specific entry requirements for each undergraduate programme are based on official information from the Admissions Office and JUPAS (covered in the 02 Admissions module).

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# II. Postgraduate Programmes

# 1. Coordination by the Graduate School

• Status: Established in 1966, it is Hong Kong's first graduate school University Gallery Zone A^※.
• Scale: According to the Graduate School, it coordinates postgraduate programmes across all eight faculties. The Graduate School website and recent admissions materials indicate over 220–230 postgraduate programmes, awarding more than 6,000 postgraduate degrees, diplomas and certificates each year The Graduate School^※.
• Student headcounts: Facts and Figures 2024/25 shows postgraduate numbers (local + non-local) totalling approximately 6,300 Facts and Figures 2024/25^※.

# 2. Degree types

# 3. Governance structure

The Graduate School is a central administrative unit; each postgraduate programme belongs to the Graduate Division of its respective faculty, with division heads accountable to both the Dean of the Graduate School and the department chair / faculty dean The Graduate School^※. This arrangement mirrors the undergraduate 'faculty + college' dual-track system, forming a three-layer governance structure where faculties handle academics, colleges handle whole-person education, and the Graduate School coordinates postgraduate studies.

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# III. Faculty of Law Programmes and Professional Pathway

The Faculty of Law operates as a single faculty without separate departments, offering programmes at undergraduate, postgraduate and professional certificate levels Faculty of Law website^※:

# 1. Degrees and certificates

# 2. LLM specialisations

According to the Faculty of Law, the LLM offers several specialisations, including AI Law, Chinese Business Law, Common Law, Energy and Environmental Law, International Economic Law, and Legal History Faculty of Law website^※.

# 3. LLB versus JD: how the two entry routes differ

CUHK's Faculty of Law offers two foundational law degrees, designed for students at different stages:

The LLB curriculum is rooted in Hong Kong and English common law tradition, with core courses covering Contract, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Criminal Law, Tort, Equity and Trusts, Company Law, Land Law, Commercial Law, and Evidence^※. The JD provides a postgraduate-level, comprehensive legal education^※; JD and LLB students are taught in separate groups. Compared to the four-year LLB, the two-year JD is more intensive in law subjects per term, but total tuition is roughly 60% of the LLB^※ (second-hand estimate, 2025). Graduates of both pathways may apply for the PCLL, and both must cover the same set of nine core law subjects to be eligible — this 'dual-entry, common PCLL exit' is the defining structural characteristic of the CUHK Faculty of Law's programme design.

# 4. PCLL and the professional pathway

The Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL) is the mandatory vocational training qualification for entering legal practice in Hong Kong, first launched by the University of Hong Kong in 1972^※. Today, only three Hong Kong universities are authorised to run the programme: HKU, CUHK, and City University of Hong Kong^※. CUHK's PCLL admitted its first cohort in September 2008^※, based at the Graduate Law Centre in Central. It is a one-year, full-time^※ programme split into two stages: Stage 1 comprises five compulsory core subjects (15 credits: Professional Practice, Commercial Practice, Property and Probate Practice, Civil Litigation Practice, Criminal Litigation Practice); Stage 2 selects five from thirteen electives (15 credits). Applicants must hold an LLB or JD from one of the three law schools, have achieved second-class honours or above, and meet the English requirement of IELTS (Academic) 7.0^※. The overall PCLL admission rate across Hong Kong is approximately 62% (2023)^※ (second-hand estimate).

After completing the PCLL, further on-the-job training is required to practise The Law Society of Hong Kong / The Hong Kong Bar Association^※:

In terms of rough timelines, becoming a solicitor via the LLB takes about 7 years (4-year LLB + 1-year PCLL + 2-year training)^※; via the JD route about 5 years^※. Those already qualified overseas may apply for admission in Hong Kong through the Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examination (OLQE), bypassing the PCLL. For the founding history of the Faculty of Law, its four deans, and its international orientation, see faculties.md.

# 5. Dual degrees and cross-faculty programmes

According to the Faculty of Law, inter-university / cross-faculty dual degrees include:

• LLB–JD dual degrees with University of Exeter and King's College London;
• BBA–JD and JD–MBA dual degrees (jointly offered with the CUHK Business School);
• A BSocSc in Diplomacy and International Studies jointly offered with the Faculty of Social Science Faculty of Law website^※.

# 6. Research centres

The Faculty of Law houses the Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law (CCTL) and the Centre for Legal Innovation and Digital Society, among others Faculty of Law website^※.

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# IV. Interdisciplinary and Double-Major Programmes

• CUHK offers cross-faculty / interdisciplinary majors (e.g., Global Business, Quantitative Finance, Sustainable Development, housed in various faculties), as well as Double Major and Minor arrangements (for credit rules see academic-system.md).
• The Faculty of Arts collaborates with the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Education on dual degrees; the Business School partners with the Faculty of Law on BBA–JD and JD–MBA.

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# V. Programme Structure at a Glance

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