CUHK Taught Postgraduate Application Guide: MSc/MA Programmes, Deadlines and FAQs

On 1 September, the online application system of the CUHK Graduate School opens on schedule. Meanwhile, the campus-forum maxim that has circulated for years — "the deadline is always 1 December" — is only half right. That rule is written for people pursuing a PhD or an MPhil (research postgraduate degree), not for the vast majority who apply for an MSc or an MA.

The gist: The CUHK Graduate School offers 123 taught master's programmes^※ (as of October 2025). Most of these do not share a common 1 December deadline — each programme sets its own application rounds.

---

# How many taught master's programmes does CUHK actually offer?

There is an official answer, precise to the month. According to the Code of Practice for Taught Postgraduate Studies (October 2025 version)^※ — the Graduate School's own governance document for staff and students — as of October 2025 the Graduate School operates 136 taught postgraduate (TPg) programmes across 61 Graduate Divisions: 5 taught doctorates, 123 taught master's, and 8 postgraduate diplomas/certificates (PgDip/PgCert). That "123" is the figure this article centres on: when we talk about "MSc/MA applications" below, this is the category we mean.

One distinction is worth making: the Graduate School's homepage carries a broader marketing line — “Choose from over 240 postgraduate programmes across 8 dynamic Faculties”^※ (“over 240 postgraduate programmes spanning 8 Faculties”). That “240+” figure counts research postgraduate programmes (MPhil/PhD) as well, so it is not a number exclusive to taught master's. The two figures cannot be used interchangeably — this article consistently adopts the precise breakdown in the Code of Practice: 123.

---

# “Is the application deadline always 1 December?” — two entirely different clocks

This is one of the most common misconceptions. The Graduate School's official Application Deadlines page^※ is explicitly divided into two sections — “Research Programmes” and “Taught Programmes” — which operate under entirely different rules.

Research programmes (MPhil, MPhil-PhD, PhD) follow a uniform two-round system: main round deadline 1 December 2026; clearing round deadline 31 March 2027^※ (the clearing round opens subject to availability of places). This rule covers research degrees across the Faculties of Arts, Business Administration, Engineering, Medicine, Science and Social Science.

Taught master's programmes (MSc/MA) do not follow either of these dates. Each programme sets its own application rounds — as few as one or two, as many as four or five — with rolling review and admission on a first-come, first-served basis until places are filled. Deadlines span from late July 2026 all the way to late May 2027, depending on the programme:

Three things to note when reading this table. First, more rounds do not mean an easier ride — a multi-round system means places are consumed round by round, so late-round applicants often face stiffer competition in practice. Second, programmes within the same Faculty can have entirely different deadlines (the MSc in Accountancy and the MBA in the Business Administration Faculty, for instance, are nearly three months apart). Third, this table is only a representative sample drawn from the 123 programmes — always check the target programme's own page before applying.

---

# Why do the Faculties of Education and Law run on separate timetables?

These two Faculties are the least synchronised with the rest of CUHK's taught master's provision. Each maintains its own internally consistent timetable that is out of step with the other Faculties — worth setting out separately.

Faculty of Education^※: its 9 MA/Master of Education (MEd) and MSc programmes — covering Chinese language education, early childhood education, English language teaching, educational psychology, school guidance and counselling, TESOL, mathematics education and others — share a common deadline of 28 February 2027; two of them, MA in School Improvement and Leadership and MSc in Sports Science and Physical Activity, have an additional final round extended to 30 April. The Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PgD in Education, comprising early childhood and primary specialisms across 3 programmes) runs on an entirely different, earlier timeline, with a common deadline of 12:00 noon, 15 December 2026 — two and a half months ahead of the Faculty's other master's programmes.

Faculty of Law^※ likewise runs its own timetable: the Juris Doctor (JD), the JD/MBA double degree, and the Master of Laws (LLM) in six specialisms — AI and law, Chinese business law, common law, energy and environmental law, international economic law and legal history — all follow a uniform three-round system: 31 January, 28 February and 9 April (all in 2027). The Postgraduate Certificate in Laws has its own separate deadline of 30 April.

Comparing Education and Law reveals a common thread: neither Faculty uses the “priority round + final round” two-stage structure common elsewhere, instead applying a uniform internal rhythm. This likely reflects their professional-qualification character (the Education Faculty's PgD is tied to the teacher-registration calendar; the Law Faculty's JD/LLM feed into legal-practice qualification). The Graduate School website offers no institutional explanation for the pattern, and this article will not speculate beyond the evidence.

---

# How much does an application cost? Is HK$500 the same for every programme?

The Graduate School FAQ (Question 12)^※ answers directly: 「The application fee is HK$500 per programme (except for MBA, MBA in Finance and MSc in Finance).」 In other words, each programme application costs HK$500; applying for several programmes means paying several fees. Fees are non-refundable once paid and must be settled online by credit card at the time of application.

The exception is three programmes under the Business Administration Faculty — MBA, MBA in Finance and MSc in Finance — which do not use the Graduate School's standard HK$500 fee. Instead they are charged separately through the Business School's own application system (apply.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk / masters.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk), with the exact amount set by the Business School's website for the year in question. The Graduate School's Fees page^※ corroborates this in slightly different wording: 「HK$500 per programme application (excluding taught programmes in Business Administration)」. The two official pages phrase the business-school exception somewhat differently — the FAQ names three specific programmes while the Fees page excludes “taught programmes in Business Administration” in general terms — but the conclusion is the same: application fees for Business School taught programmes do not follow the flat HK$500 rule and must be verified separately.

---

# Should I prepare for an interview?

Neither the Graduate School's general FAQ nor its General Admission Requirements page sets out any uniform rule on interviews. This means an interview is not a common hurdle across all 123 programmes; whether one is held is up to each individual programme. One concrete, verifiable example comes from the Business School's official taught-master's application page^※: 「After submission of the application, shortlisted applicants may be invited to attend an interview. Interview invitations will be sent by email and are arranged at the discretion of the programme.」 (After you submit your application, shortlisted candidates may be invited to interview; invitations are sent by email and the decision to interview rests with the programme.)

Extrapolating that statement across all 123 programmes would be sloppy — it is the Business School's own wording, and this article does not assume other Faculties do the same. If you want to know whether a specific programme interviews, the most reliable course is to check that programme's own webpage or contact its office directly, rather than importing the experience of another programme.

---

# Entry requirements: which degree, GPA and English scores should I look at?

According to the Graduate School's General Admission Requirements^※, the standard academic threshold for taught master's programmes (excluding the EMBA) is 「graduated from a recognised university and obtained a bachelor's degree, normally with honours not lower than Second Class or achieving an average grade of not lower than 'B'」 — that is, a bachelor's degree from a recognised university, normally with honours no lower than Second Class, or an average grade no lower than a B. Applicants holding qualifications from non-conventional programmes (such as certain professional-qualification courses) may be required to submit evidence of qualification assessment from bodies such as the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ).

On English proficiency, applicants whose degrees were not taught in English must meet one of the following thresholds: TOEFL (internet-based test or home edition) 79/120 with a writing score of 4.5/6; IELTS (academic, paper- or computer-based) overall band 6.5; or GMAT verbal section 21. The three cut-offs are equivalent conversions of the same requirement — meet any one of them and you are done; there is no need to sit all three.

On letters of recommendation, according to the Graduate School's required-documents page (a claim relayed from a single page, not cross-checked verbatim against the original English; credibility: single source), research doctorate programmes normally require 3 referees' reports, while other programmes (including taught master's) normally require 2. Transcripts not in Chinese or English must be accompanied by certified English translations; graduates of mainland Chinese universities must also submit online verification reports of their degree and qualifications from the mainland's CHSI (学信网) system.

---

# Who decides which programmes run and which students are admitted?

Taught-master's admissions are not decided by the Graduate School alone; they sit within a layered governance structure. Under the Code of Practice for Taught Postgraduate Studies, each Graduate Division maintains a Graduate Panel, chaired by the Division's head and comprising at least two members. Its responsibilities include 「the courses of study to be offered」 (deciding which programmes are offered) and 「the selection of applicants for admission」 (selecting applicants for admission) — meaning that whether a particular MSc programme admits a particular applicant is first decided not at the Graduate School headquarters but at the department/Division-level panel.

The Graduate School's head office plays the coordinating and final-gatekeeping role. All applications are received in September each year; 「Applications are considered based on their merits. Local and non-local applications are handled fairly and equally」 (applications are assessed on their merits; local and non-local applicants are treated fairly and equally). Successful applicants generally begin in the following autumn term (August); those who need to defer entry for medical reasons or other force majeure may request a deferral of up to one year, submitted to the Division head before the start of the academic year.

The life-cycle of programmes is also subject to a defined governance cycle: all self-financed taught postgraduate programmes (including those run with partner institutions) are approved for a maximum of 6 years, after which they must be re-approved by the committee on re-validation of self-financed taught postgraduate programmes. Seven criteria are applied, covering academic quality; alignment with Faculty strategy; “an annual intake of generally not fewer than 20 full-time equivalent (FTE) students”; adequacy of teaching staff and facilities; calibre of admitted students; a “no cross-subsidy” principle; and financial sustainability. In other words, an MSc programme that cannot fill 20 places year after year may, in theory, face non-renewal when its six-year cycle expires. The “123” is a governance mechanism that shifts from year to year, not a fixed list.

---

# Can taught master's students live in postgraduate halls or join colleges?

Here is an eligibility distinction that is often overlooked. According to the Graduate School's Campus Support page^※, on-campus postgraduate accommodation provides roughly 1,500 places, open to 「full-time research and UGC-funded taught programme students」 — that is, full-time research students plus students on taught programmes that are funded by the University Grants Committee (UGC). The overwhelming majority of CUHK's MSc/MA programmes are self-financed rather than UGC-funded, which means most taught-master's applicants fall outside the 1,500 guaranteed places and must arrange their own off-campus housing.

As for college membership: the federal arrangement under which every undergraduate belongs to a college (see the companion piece 《本科收生途径》 in this directory) does not automatically extend to taught postgraduates. Section 14 of the Code of Practice for Taught Postgraduate Studies lists student-support structures at University level — the Office of Student Affairs (OSA), the libraries, the Information Technology Services Centre (ITSC) and similar — with no mention of college affiliation. The Graduate School's official documents offer no further detail on this, and this article will not infer beyond what the documents say.

---

# “CUHK has 4,650 postgraduate students” — a figure often cited out of context

CUHK's 2024 Facts and Figures^※ reports that as of 30 September 2024, the total number of “postgraduate” students was 4,650 (1,699 local / 2,951 non-local). This number is frequently quoted without qualification as “CUHK's postgraduate population”. But a footnote on that very page states — 「只計算政府資助課程」 (counting government-funded programmes only). Since the vast majority of taught master's programmes (MSc/MA) are self-financed and thus excluded from the UGC-funded count, this 4,650 cannot be used as “the total number of students enrolled in taught master's programmes”. What it actually captures is research postgraduates plus the small number of students on UGC-funded taught programmes — a statistical category distinct from the actual enrolment across the 123 (mostly self-financed) taught master's programmes. CUHK's website currently publishes no aggregate covering all self-financed taught-master's enrolments, and this article will not attempt an unjustified extrapolation.

---

# How do taught master's relate to undergraduate admissions and the Shenzhen campus?

This article focuses on the taught postgraduate (taught master's) application system of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shatin campus). It is entirely separate from undergraduate admissions, which the two companion pieces in this module cover — see 《本科收生途径》 and 《内地高考统招途径》. Undergraduates enter through JUPAS, non-JUPAS or the mainland gaokao track; the postgraduate applications discussed here all go through the Graduate School's online system. At the programme-catalogue level, the 88 JUPAS undergraduate programmes are listed in 《本科课程目录》 and do not overlap or interchange with the 123 taught master's programmes discussed here. One further distinction: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen is an institution independently incorporated and operated under mainland Chinese regulations. Its postgraduate admissions (including interview and written-test selection) run through a completely separate application system unconnected to the Shatin Graduate School — see 《香港中文大学（深圳）分校概况》.

---

# Further reading

• Overview of CUHK's four undergraduate admission routes: undergraduate-admissions.md
• Mainland gaokao admission track: mainland-gaokao-admission-track.md
• Undergraduate programme catalogue with JS codes: programme-catalogue.md
• Tuition and scholarships: tuition-and-scholarships.md
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen: ../09-international/cuhk-shenzhen.md