Mainland Gaokao Admission Route: Early Batch, Code 81002, and the 120-Point English Threshold

Module: 02 Admissions · Sub-file: Mainland Gaokao Admission Route Last updated: 28 September 2026 (2026 admission plan and Guangdong cut-off scores added) This article focuses on The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Sha Tin campus at Ma Liu Shui, and does not cover the independently established and independently recruiting CUHK-Shenzhen. Admission data goes stale fast. Every figure below is labelled with the year it applies to; always check the latest official announcements.

The short version: Since 1998, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Sha Tin campus) has recruited independently through the national gaokao early batch. Its national institution code is 81002^※, and for 2026 it plans to admit 456 students^※ across all 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions (up from about 406 in 2025). Applicants must score at least 120^※ in English out of 150. Selection is based on the gaokao score alone (bonus points excluded), within one of four broad streams — humanities, science, engineering or business. There is no written test and no interview at any stage. To date the University has admitted more than 6,700^※ mainland undergraduates in total.

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# CUHK Sha Tin and CUHK-Shenzhen: two entirely different tracks?

The most common confusion about CUHK's mainland admissions comes from the distinction between the Sha Tin campus and Shenzhen. CUHK-Shenzhen was approved by the Ministry of Education in 2014 as an independent institution in Shenzhen. It is a separate legal entity registered in mainland China under the Regulations on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools, and it recruits through the regular national gaokao batch (not the early batch), with its own institution code, tuition fees and degree certificates. CUHK (Sha Tin campus), by contrast, is approved by the Ministry of Education for the early batch, carries the national institution code 81002, awards Hong Kong degrees, and is accredited under the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework (HKQF). The two institutions' admissions channels, batches, scholarship policies and degree systems are entirely independent — every figure in this article refers to the Sha Tin campus.

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# What does the code 81002 mean, and where do you find it when applying?

81002 is the national code assigned to CUHK (Sha Tin campus) by China's Ministry of Education for centralised admission, and it has remained unchanged since the early batch was first incorporated into the mainland gaokao system. According to CUHK's simplified-Chinese undergraduate admissions site^※, mainland applicants do not need to submit any application materials directly to CUHK. Once gaokao results are released, within the window set by each province's examination authority, you search the early-batch preference form for "The Chinese University of Hong Kong" or the code "81002" and select the relevant broad discipline stream (see the next section). CUHK does not accept late applications outside the early-batch window. The admissions office's official WeChat account also uses that code as its name (cuhk81002), making it easy for applicants to find and verify official information.

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# How does the early batch work? Will it affect my regular first-tier choices?

CUHK's mainland admissions fall under the early admission batch^※ designated by the Ministry of Education (provincial examination authorities refer to it uniformly as the "early batch"), and offers are made before the regular undergraduate batch. The early-batch result does not affect a candidate's subsequent choices or admission in the regular first-tier or regular undergraduate batch — even if CUHK does not admit you in the early batch, you do not lose any regular first-tier opportunity.

The offer mechanism differs between provinces:

According to the admissions office, which category applies in each province is determined by the provincial examination authority's Guide to Preference Filling issued that year; CUHK does not participate in supplementary recruitment^※ (i.e. it does not accept candidates who have slipped out of the regular process). Admission is competitive on the gaokao score alone (excluding any policy-based bonus points), with no written test or interview and no programme-preference grade differential — students are allocated by broad stream on admission and choose their specialisation after enrolling.

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# The 120-point English threshold: why a separate English requirement?

English is the main medium of instruction in Hong Kong. The vast majority of CUHK's undergraduate courses are taught in English, medicine, science, engineering and business in particular. To ensure mainland students have the English foundation needed to study here, the admissions office specifies^※ that mainland gaokao candidates must score at least 120 out of 150 in English to be considered for an offer — a higher bar than the regular undergraduate batch. Scholarships demand more still: all three categories of entrance scholarship require an English score of 130^※ or above.

So mainland applicants face two English thresholds:

The admissions office further notes that where total gaokao scores are tied, the candidate with the higher English score is admitted first — so the English score effectively serves both as an eligibility threshold and as a tie-breaker.

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# How do the broad streams work, and which faculties and programmes do they cover?

In 2025 CUHK adopted a broad-stream admission^※ model for mainland admissions, grouping roughly 80 undergraduate programmes across the University's eight faculties into four admission streams. Applicants choose a stream rather than a specific programme:

Three new programmes admitted mainland students for the first time in 2025: Public Humanities, Human Movement Science and Health Studies, and Materials Science and Engineering^※. After enrolling, students choose their major from within their stream during their first or second year, following each faculty's procedures. For the selection rules and each faculty's programme list, see programme-catalogue.md in this folder.

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# The 2026 intake: 456 places, and where they go

CUHK's undergraduate admissions website lists the 2026 admission plan^※ province by province, with the planned number for each subject combination, half-tuition scholarship places and the split across the four streams. Adding up all 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and 62 subject combinations gives a total of 456 places for 2026, roughly 50 more than the 406 or so in 2025. The ten provinces with the most places are:

The fewest places go to Hainan, Ningxia and Tibet, with 4 each. Each subject combination also carries one or two "half-tuition scholarship" places, awarded to the highest-scoring candidate drawn into that group. Xinjiang and Tibet still use the "arts / sciences" split, while other provinces use the new gaokao's "history group / physics group" or "no subject requirement / physics-chemistry-biology elective" split.

# 2025 in review

According to CUHK's official 2025 admission plan published by Sunshine Gaokao (Chsi.com.cn) in May 2025^※, CUHK planned to admit about 406 mainland undergraduates in 2025, covering all 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, with each province's quota announced by its examination authority. That intake was broadly in line with 2024 (about 400–413 places), holding steady at the level reached after recent expansion: China Education Online reported in June 2024^※ that following a policy adjustment by the Hong Kong SAR government, CUHK increased its mainland plan by about 100 places in 2024 to roughly 400.

Specific provincial quotas are subject to that year's provincial examination authority announcement; from 2026 onwards CUHK's admissions site also lists the allocation province by province (see above), so it can be checked before gaokao results are released.

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# What range do the cut-off scores fall into?

The early batch has no uniform cut-off; the actual offer score depends on competition among candidates in each province.

Guangdong 2026 (latest): According to a 12 July 2026 analysis of Guangdong early-batch offers republished on the Guangzhou municipal government portal^※, CUHK's three subject groups in Guangdong drew offers as follows — the physics group 112 ranked third among Guangdong's early-batch physics groups with 675, behind only Tsinghua and Peking University; the history group 110 ranked sixth with 648.

For comparison in the same batch: CUHK-Shenzhen's physics group 101 drew 666 (rank 1,355) and its history group 102 drew 644 (rank 372); the two institutions have different institution codes and are recruited independently.

Representative provinces in 2024: The table below summarises CUHK Sha Tin's lowest offer scores and corresponding ranks in representative provinces in 2024 (sources: Daxuejiayou's compilation of 2024 admission data^※ and Beijing Gaokao Online's 2024 cut-off summary^※):

Note: The figures above are 2024 lowest offer scores (compiled from provincial examination authority announcements or media summaries; the official year-end data prevails). Because provinces set papers of differing difficulty and have different candidate profiles, scores cannot be compared across provinces. A history score lower than a science score in a given province and year does not mean admission was easier (refer to the corresponding provincial rank). Cut-offs for 2025 and 2026 are subject to provincial examination authority announcements; this article includes only the verifiable 2026 Guangdong data for now.

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# When did CUHK start admitting mainland gaokao students, and how many in total?

According to CUHK's simplified-Chinese undergraduate admissions site (Before You Apply page)^※, CUHK began admitting mainland undergraduates in 1998, making it one of the first comprehensive research universities in Hong Kong to recruit mainland students systematically through the centralised gaokao channel. After nearly three decades, the latest version of the site states that more than 6,700 mainland students in total have studied undergraduate programmes at CUHK (a figure for current students, not a cumulative count of graduates).

Note: official wording has varied over time: China Education Online's June 2024 version^※ said "nearly 6,000 admitted", while the November 2025 admission plan^※ said "more than 6,300 admitted" — the figure rises with each annual update. This article follows CUHK's admissions site, which now states "more than 6,700".

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# How are scholarships allocated, and what are the thresholds?

CUHK offers three categories of entrance scholarship to mainland gaokao students. No separate application is needed — they are assessed automatically on the basis of the offer score and the English score. According to the 2025 admission plan published on Sunshine Gaokao^※ and China Education Online's 2025 compilation^※:

There is also a "Diversified Excellence Talent Scholarship": students who won a first prize or gold award in a national competition (final round) during secondary school receive an additional HK$50,000 on admission. For renewal conditions and detailed rules, see tuition-and-scholarships.md in this folder.

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# What about mainland gaokao candidates with "local student" status?

Some mainland candidates hold Hong Kong resident status (for example, One-way Permit holders, or dependants under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme or Top Talent Pass Scheme who were under 18 at the time of first approval) and must still fill in their choices through the mainland examination authority's early batch — that is, they are Hong Kong local residents by status but still apply through the mainland centralised gaokao channel. For such admitted students, according to CUHK's admissions guidance, tuition and accommodation fees are charged at the local student rate (far below the non-local rate), and any change in status during study must be reported to the University immediately.

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# How does this differ from the JUPAS route?

Mainland centralised gaokao admission and Hong Kong's local JUPAS route are two entirely separate systems, and their places do not compete with each other. The core differences are:

Mainland-domiciled students holding overseas qualifications such as IB or GCE A-Level, who did not sit the gaokao, normally apply through CUHK's international admissions or non-JUPAS channel and are not covered by the centralised admission system. See section 4 of undergraduate-admissions.md in this folder.

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# Contact details and official information channels

• Official website (simplified Chinese): https://admission.cuhk.edu.hk/sc/application/mainland-gaokao/
• WeChat official account: 香港中文大学本科入学处 (account: cuhk81002)
• Email: [email protected]
• Hong Kong hotline: (00852) 3943 8946
• Mainland dedicated lines: 13068-470068 / 13068-470069

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# Data reliability and gaps

• Hard data (taken directly from official sources): institution code 81002; the 120/130 English thresholds; the 456 places for 2026 (summed province by province); coverage of 31 provinces; the four-stream structure; the three scholarship tiers and amounts (HK$66,000 / top 10 / top 50 / top 0.5%); the first intake in 1998; and the cumulative figure of more than 6,700 current mainland students — all from CUHK's admissions website or the official admission plan republished by Sunshine Gaokao / China Education Online.
• Media-compiled data: the 2024 lowest offer scores by province come from university-admissions platforms such as Daxuejiayou and Beijing Gaokao Online; the official provincial examination authority announcements are the final authority.
• Not yet confirmed: admission score percentiles by broad stream in past years (not published centrally by the University); the specific number of places under joint programmes between CUHK-Shenzhen and the Sha Tin campus — these gaps are flagged in the text rather than guessed at.

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