Tuition and the Finances of Self-Financed Programmes: UGC Funding, Non-Local Tuition Fees, and Surpluses from Self-Financed Courses

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is funded by a combination of government support (mainly UGC grants) and tuition income. In the 2024/25 financial year^※, government funding stood at HK$5.709 billion, or 42.0% of total income (down from HK$6.434 billion, or 48.9%, the previous year — a fall driven mainly by the return of HK$1.041 billion in reserves to the government), while tuition, programme and other fees brought in HK$3.280 billion, or 24.1%. Local undergraduate tuition is currently HK$47,000 a year for 2026/27, against HK$214,000 for non-local undergraduates entering that year — a gap of roughly four and a half times. Self-financed postgraduate programmes and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies must pay the University an overhead charge of 18% to 36%, and are bound by a strict regulatory red line prohibiting cross-subsidisation of UGC-funded resources.

---

# 1. How Is UGC Funding Calculated?

The University Grants Committee (UGC) allocates recurrent block grants to the eight funded universities on a three-year (triennial) cycle. Funding is calculated on the basis of agreed student numbers, level of study and subject category, and covers three broad expenditure areas: teaching, research and professional activities. According to the UGC's FAQ^※, teaching takes about 78% of the block grant, research about 20% and professional activities about 2%. Within the total approved, universities have autonomy over how the money is used and do not need approval line by line.

The current triennium runs from 2025 to 2028. According to the government's budget response (February 2025)^※, recurrent funding approved for the sector across the 2025–28 triennium amounts to HK$68.1 billion, below the HK$70.9 billion the institutions had actually requested — a shortfall of about HK$2.8 billion (roughly 4%, delivered through cumulative annual cuts of 2%). In addition, the government has asked the eight universities to return a combined HK$4 billion from their General and Development Reserve Funds (GDRF) in the 2025/26 financial year. In 2023/24, the UGC grant (government funding) CUHK received came to HK$6,434 million^※, its largest single source of income that year.

2024/25: the clawback lands on CUHK's books. According to the University's 2024–25 Financial Report^※, the University made a provision that year for HK$1.041 billion to be returned to the HKSAR government from the General and Development Reserve Fund (GDRF), which reduced recognised government funding for the year from HK$6.750 billion to HK$5.709 billion. Block grants, supplementary grants and earmarked grants all actually rose; the net decrease of HK$725 million came from lower grants from government bodies and from this refund. Total income still grew 3.3% that year to HK$13.594 billion, carried by three non-government income streams: tuition, programme and other fees rose HK$352 million to HK$3.280 billion (63% of it from non-UGC-funded programmes, i.e. self-financed courses); net interest and investment income rose to HK$2.266 billion; and donations rose 49% to HK$985 million. Total expenditure rose 7.1% to HK$10.956 billion, producing a consolidated surplus of about HK$2.1 billion, with consolidated net assets of HK$32.5 billion as at 30 June 2025.

The cuts did not end with the one-off clawback. According to a Sing Tao report of 8 August 2026^※, the Vice-Chancellor said in an interview that when CUHK first learned of the cuts in the previous academic year, it spread the first 2% reduction evenly across academic and administrative units; this academic year it has switched to a "Management Efficiency Review", examining whether the largest administrative units are under-resourced or over-funded, and distributing subsequent cuts strategically. This context also fed into the five-year blueprint published in August 2026: see CUHK's 2026–2030 Strategic Plan, examined.

---

# 2. Why Have Local Undergraduate Fees Been Frozen for Almost 30 Years?

Local full-time undergraduate tuition was fixed at HK$42,100 a year in 1997/98 and went unchanged for roughly 27 years. Then in June 2024 the government announced a phased increase over three academic years to HK$49,500 in 2027/28^※:

Government documents explain that the fee is set with the aim of covering 18% of the cost of education, but inflation has pushed the actual recovery rate down to about 12.5% since 1997. The government cited the fact that "the Composite Consumer Price Index has risen 40% cumulatively since 1997/98" to describe this adjustment as "moderate". Notably, the same rate applies to UGC-funded postgraduate programmes (both taught and research), not only to undergraduates. Each enrolled student pays the rate in force for the given academic year, rather than the rate locked in at the year of admission.

---

# 3. Why Do Non-Local Students Pay Four Times What Local Students Do?

Non-local tuition is a market-set fee determined by the University itself. It is not bound by the UGC's "18% cost recovery" principle and is instead based on benchmarking and financial sustainability. In 2025/26, CUHK's annual non-local undergraduate tuition rose sharply by 22.8% to HK$178,000^※ from 2024/25 — the largest increase among the eight universities that year. CUHK explained that this was "the first increase in seven years, in response to inflationary pressure". For 2026/27 the fee rises further to HK$214,000^※, with an annual cap of 3% from that intake onwards.

Below is a comparison of non-local undergraduate tuition across institutions for 2025/26 (using the general annual rate for non-local undergraduates):

Sources: Dot Dot News (January 2025)^※ and StudyIn HK (2025/26 tuition comparison)^※.

---

# 4. How Has Tuition Income Grown Since the Non-Local Quota Was Raised?

To support the government's policy of "attracting global talent", the non-local admissions cap was raised from 20% to 40% starting in 2024/25^※ (calculated against local student places). Across the eight universities, about 17,000 non-local undergraduates were actually admitted in the first year — roughly 23% of local places and still below the 40% cap, showing that the room for expansion has not yet been exhausted. For the specific mechanics by which mainland students are admitted through the unified enrolment advance batch, see The Mainland Gaokao Admission Track: Advance Batch, Code 81002, the 120-Mark English Threshold. Government Legislative Council papers disclose that in 2023/24, UGC-funded institutions had some 23,100 non-local students in total, of whom about 14,800 were undergraduates (19.9% of local places) and about 73% came from mainland China, Macao or Taiwan.

On the tuition income side, according to a StudyIn HK analysis^※, in 2023/24 the eight universities' self-financed taught postgraduate programmes together took in more than HK$12 billion in tuition, about 58% of their total tuition income; non-local student tuition contributed about 22.3% of total tuition income. CUHK's annual report also notes that in 2023/24, about 60% of tuition and programme fees came from non-UGC-funded programmes (i.e. self-financed courses)^※, reflecting the dominance of self-financed courses in overall tuition income.

---

# 5. Who Sets Fees for Self-Financed Postgraduate Programmes, and How Much Can They Charge?

Taught postgraduate programmes are CUHK's single most important source of self-financed income. Each faculty sets its own fees, and the Business School's offerings stand out in particular. Taking CUHK Business School's 2027-entry programmes as an example:

Source: CUHK Business School Masters page^※; fees are stated as "subject to University approval". Self-financed master's fees vary widely in faculties outside the Business School (such as Education and Science), typically falling between HK$80,000 and HK$250,000. Overall, tuition for CUHK's self-financed taught postgraduate programmes rose by about 4.3% a year between 2019/20 and 2024/25^※, above Hong Kong's inflation rate of about 2.1% over the same period.

---

# 6. What Financial Role Does the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (CUSCS) Play?

The Chinese University of Hong Kong's School of Continuing and Professional Studies (CUSCS) was founded in 1965 (originally as the Department of Extramural Studies) and renamed in 2006. It is a fully self-financed, independently operated unit of CUHK^※ that receives no direct financial support from the University's main recurrent budget. It sustains its operations from its own tuition income, and its course policy is overseen by the Committee on Sub-degree, Professional and Continuing Education Programmes under the University's Senate.

In 2023/24, CUSCS offered 73 award-bearing programmes^※ as well as a large number of general, distance-learning and corporate training courses, spanning fields from business and information technology to healthcare, languages and creative media. Its headquarters are in Tsim Sha Tsui, with four additional learning centres across Hong Kong. As a self-financed unit, CUSCS is not bound by the UGC's "5.5% a year" adjustment mechanism; its fees are instead driven by market supply and demand and by cost recovery — sub-degree tuition is usually lower than that of regular taught master's programmes, but must still comply with the government's relevant qualifications framework and funding-scheme caps.

---

# 7. Where Do the Surpluses from Self-Financed Courses Go? What Is the Ban on Cross-Subsidisation?

How surpluses from self-financed courses are used, and the regulatory framework around them, is one of the core constraints on the University's internal financial management. According to the Finance Office's regulatory disclosure page^※, the University operates an overhead recovery mechanism for self-financed courses, with recovery rates of 18% to 36% (depending on the type of facilities used and the level of service), as compensation for the consumption of shared University resources (campus, administration, IT infrastructure and so on). The mechanism dates back to 1995 and was further formalised from 2018/19 in line with the UGC's Cost Allocation Guidelines (CAGs) for funded and non-funded activities.

The framework's central principle is the prohibition of cross-subsidisation: self-financed courses may not draw on UGC-funded resources (the government-funded portion of teaching space, administrative staff, research facilities and the like) to lower their own costs; conversely, surpluses from self-financed courses should not be used to subsidise activities that UGC funding is meant to cover. The Finance Office states explicitly: 「大学开办自资课程并非以营利为目的，而是履行对社会的教育责任，满足副学位及持续进修层面的学习需求，作为UGC资助学术活动的补充。」 ("The University does not run self-financed programmes for profit, but to fulfil its educational responsibility to society, meeting demand for learning at the sub-degree and continuing education levels as a complement to UGC-funded academic activities.")

After overheads are deducted, net surpluses held in faculty or programme accounts may be used by the relevant academic units (such as the Business School or the Faculty of Law) for teaching development, student support, capital investment and other internal purposes, provided the use complies with University financial regulations. Publicly released financial reports do not disclose surplus figures for individual self-financed programmes; that portion is reported within the University's Restricted Funds or General and Development Reserve as a whole.

---

# Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is CUHK's tuition in 2025?

A: Local undergraduate/postgraduate (UGC-funded) tuition is HK$44,500 a year from 2025/26, up 5.5% from the HK$42,100 frozen for nearly 30 years. Non-local undergraduate tuition jumped 22.8% the same year to HK$178,000, the largest increase among the eight universities that year. The ratio between the two is about 1:4.

Q: What is CUHK's tuition generally?

A: CUHK tuition runs on three tracks by status. Local undergraduate/postgraduate (UGC-funded) tuition is HK$47,000 a year for 2026/27 (HK$44,500 in 2025/26), set uniformly by the government on a triennial cycle. Non-local undergraduate tuition is HK$178,000 a year for the same year, rising to HK$214,000 a year in 2026/27 (with increases capped at 3% from that intake onwards), set independently by the University. Self-financed taught postgraduate fees are separate and set by each faculty, with sample Business School programmes ranging from HK$230,000 to HK$605,000 per programme.

Q: What is CUHK's postgraduate tuition?

A: UGC-funded research postgraduate tuition follows the same rate as undergraduate study: HK$47,000 a year for 2026/27 (HK$44,500 in 2025/26). Self-financed taught postgraduate fees vary widely; in the Business School, for example, the full-time MBA is indicatively about HK$567,000 (2024/25), the Master of Accountancy about HK$420,000 and the MSc in Finance about HK$460,000 (both 2027 indicative). Self-financed master's fees in faculties outside the Business School typically fall between HK$80,000 and HK$250,000.

Q: How do scholarships relate to tuition at CUHK?

A: This page sets out tuition and funding structures: non-local tuition forms part of faculties' self-generated income, some of which is spent alongside scholarships, but the specific amounts and application criteria for entrance scholarships fall outside this page's scope. Neither UGC funding nor self-financed course surpluses may be used to cross-subsidise purposes other than scholarships. For scholarship amounts and application details, see Tuition, Accommodation Fees and Entrance Scholarships.

Q: After tuition is paid, where do the surpluses from CUHK's self-financed courses go?

A: Self-financed courses must pay the University an overhead charge of 18% to 36% under the overhead recovery mechanism (depending on facilities and level of service). The net surplus after deduction goes into the relevant faculty or programme account and may be used for teaching development, student support and other internal purposes, but under the "no cross-subsidisation" principle it may not be fed back into or used to subsidise activities covered by UGC funding.

---

# 8. Local, Non-Local and Self-Financed Tuition: A Summary of the Three Parallel Tracks

Three tuition tracks operate side by side on the same campus, but their funding flows are kept separate: UGC grants sustain local places and core operations, non-local tuition forms part of faculties' self-generated income and is spent alongside scholarships, and self-financed courses must balance their own books and pay the University an overhead charge. By regulation, the three may not cross-subsidise one another, producing a financial ecosystem that is at once independent and complementary.

---

Further reading: For CUHK's overall annual financial data (total income of HK$13.594 billion in 2024/25, University net assets of HK$34.2 billion, and more), see Financial Overview and Endowment.