Global Exchange Network: Over 300 Partner Institutions and International Summer Programmes

In one sentence: The Chinese University of Hong Kong's Office of Academic Links (OAL) coordinates over 280 exchange programmes^※ (covering 286 partner institutions in 36 countries and regions^※, per Facts & Figures 2024/25), with more than 1,000 students^※ going abroad on exchange each year. Alongside this sits an International Summer School, the "Let's Go Summer!" funding scheme for outbound travel, and a range of dual-degree programmes — together, these form the concrete backbone of undergraduate internationalisation at CUHK.

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# Who coordinates CUHK's exchange programmes?

Undergraduate international exchange at CUHK is managed by the Office of Academic Links (OAL). The OAL is the University's hub for international affairs, responsible for concluding partnership agreements, coordinating student outbound and inbound exchange, managing staff overseas visits, and developing virtual exchange programmes. According to the CUHK Strategic Plan 2021–2025^※, the University positions itself as a global university with a basis of "282 exchange partners in 36 countries and regions." The latest Facts & Figures 2024/25^※ (as of November 2024) updates the figure to 286 institutions in 37 countries and regions. The OAL also maintains a list of global university links (Destinations), which students can use to filter options by destination and subject fit.

Beyond the University-wide OAL, individual faculties and colleges maintain their own faculty-level exchange quotas. The Business School, for instance, sends students to over thirty top business schools across North America, Europe and Asia, while each college runs its own bilateral exchange arrangements (see "College-run exchange programmes" below). In practice, then, the total number of exchange places available across the University far exceeds what any single office lists. This three-tier architecture — University-wide OAL plus faculty plus college — is part of CUHK's broader internationalisation strategy, sitting alongside non-local student policy, Greater Bay Area strategy and dual degrees to form the full network (for an overview, see Internationalisation and Global Partnerships).

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# How many students come and go each year?

Exchange is a two-way street: CUHK students go out, and the University also receives exchange students from around the world. Both flows are substantial.

Outbound: According to the CUHK Strategic Plan 2021–2025^※, more than 1,000 CUHK students go to overseas partner institutions on exchange each year. This figure counts only the formal term/academic-year exchanges coordinated by the OAL; once college- and faculty-run short programmes and summer outbound activities are included, the actual number of undergraduates moving across borders is considerably larger.

Inbound: CUHK is just as sought-after as a destination. According to OAL records^※, over 600 international exchange students were studying at the University at one time in September 2019. When inbound exchange resumed after the pandemic in 2022^※, around 400 inbound exchange students arrived in the first academic year — the largest cohort since 2020, and a telling marker of how the exchange network rebounded as the border reopened. Incoming students come from dozens of countries and regions worldwide, sit in the same English-taught classes as local students, and in doing so bring the "international classroom" back onto the campus itself.

This rough balance between the two directions is precisely what sustains the "mutual fee-waiver" exchange agreements — places and credits flow between institutions on a roughly reciprocal basis, and a prolonged imbalance on either side would be untenable (for year-by-year enrolment and non-local student figures, see Key Numbers Dashboard).

Stepping back, term-time exchange is only part of "global learning." According to the CUHK Strategic Plan 2021–2025^※, with close to 300 partner institutions as its base, the University ensures that over 40% of its students gain some form of global learning experience during their studies. That 40% figure folds in term-time exchange, summer outbound programmes, virtual exchange, overseas service learning and more — a far better measure of the actual penetration of internationalisation than the "1,000+ on exchange" figure alone. In other words, the thousand-plus outbound exchangers are the core "deep international" circle, while the 40% represent the broader "light-touch" periphery; together, the two numbers tell the full story of CUHK's internationalisation.

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# What types of exchange programmes are there, and what are the entry requirements?

The OAL website^※ divides CUHK exchange programmes into three categories, open to all full-time undergraduates and postgraduates, subject to programme-specific minimum GPA requirements (typically 2.5–3.0/4.0) and language thresholds:

Term-time exchange is the flagship: students pay CUHK's local tuition fees and the host institution waives its own tuition under a reciprocal agreement. Credits earned while on exchange can be transferred back to CUHK subject to approval.

How do applications and credit transfer work?

The mainline term-time exchange follows a well-defined set of rules worth spelling out. According to the OAL application guide^※ and college exchange briefings:

• Academic threshold: Full-time undergraduates need a cumulative GPA (CGPA) of 2.50 or above; some popular destinations require 2.70 or higher. Host institutions' own CGPA requirements also apply, and a clean disciplinary record is expected.
• Study load: During the exchange term, students must take courses equivalent to at least 9 CUHK credits per term and pass at least 6 credits, ensuring the exchange has tangible academic substance.
• Duration cap: Cumulative exchange may not exceed one academic year (two regular terms plus one summer) — effectively a lifetime ceiling of "one year, or two terms."
• Costs: Before departure, students pay the normal CUHK local tuition and Student Union membership fee; the host institution charges no tuition. Living expenses, airfare, visa and insurance are borne by the student (with some college/faculty funding available).
• Credit transfer: Courses intended for credit transfer should be cleared with the relevant department in advance; on return, students apply through the Registry (R&E) using the host institution's official transcript, and credit exemption is granted only for satisfactory results.
• Application rounds: The OAL runs two selection and placement rounds each year — Round 1 opens in October (for the following academic year and summer), Round 2 in February; places depend on host institution confirmations.

This mechanism of "pay local tuition upfront, get a place through matching, transfer credits by transcript" is precisely what allows term-time exchange to operate with almost no extra tuition cost — and it is the fundamental structural difference from self-funded short-term study abroad.

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# Who subsidises the airfare and living costs?

Tuition waiver does not mean free: airfare, accommodation and insurance still add up. CUHK therefore stacks a three-tier funding system — University, government, college — to keep cost from becoming a barrier to going abroad.

• University level: According to the OAL scholarships and financial aid page^※, undergraduate exchangers can receive approximately one-third of a return airfare through the Financial Assistance and Scholarship Scheme (FASS); those with demonstrated financial need can submit family financial details and, after assessment, receive additional support.
• Government level: Eligible students can apply to several Education Bureau-funded schemes, including the Scheme for Subsidy on Exchange to "Silk Road" Countries (SSEBR) and others. This ties national-level regional strategy to individual students' outbound choices.
• College level: Each college offers additional top-up funding. Shaw College^※, for example, awarded a HK$10,000 scholarship to 65 exchange students in 2025/26 and plans to expand to 80 places in 2026/27; colleges such as CW Chu and S.H. Ho also provide subsidies for exchange, summer programmes and overseas service learning.

With these three layers stacked, a financially needy student can apply successively for airfare support, government schemes and college scholarships, driving out-of-pocket costs down to a very modest level. This is the underlying support structure that allows "over 1,000 students a year" to include students from a wide range of economic backgrounds.

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# Where are the 286 partner institutions located?

According to the OAL Destinations page^※ and publicly available faculty information, CUHK's exchange network has the following regional distribution (main regions only):

The full list is subject to the latest version on the OAL website^※, with additions and removals each academic year.

Geographically, Europe and North America account for the largest share of CUHK exchange places, followed by Asia (including Japan, Korea and mainland China), then Southeast Asia and Oceania. This sits well with the University's positioning of "global vision with local roots." It is also worth noting that The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen — the other half of the "CUHK family" — has in recent years built its own network of more than 160 overseas institutions in 37 countries and regions. The two sets of figures measure different things and should not be added together, but they do show that the exchange network has become a shared lever of internationalisation for both of CUHK's twin campuses (see CUHK, Shenzhen for a comparison).

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# What are the college-run exchange programmes?

One thing that sets CUHK apart from most Hong Kong universities is that each college runs its own bilateral exchange arrangements — an extension of the college system into the international dimension, which gives a home to a batch of small, focused programmes that do not appear on the OAL's university-wide list.

The most representative is the New Asia College / Yale University exchange programme. According to the New Asia College website^※, the programme has run continuously since 1993: each year eight New Asia students travel to the United States for a two-week visit around the Lunar New Year (January–February), and Yale students return the visit to New Asia in March. The two sides engage in academic seminars and institutional visits around an annual theme, with New Asia students required to conduct research on the theme and present their findings at a symposium at Yale. This link did not come out of nowhere — the New Asia–Yale connection traces back to more than a century of Yale-China educational history (see The Yale-China Association and a Century of Ties with CUHK and New Asia College).

Other colleges have their own arrangements: Chung Chi College runs term/academic-year exchanges with institutions in mainland China, Japan, Korea, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden and the United States; New Asia also offers summer exchanges with Hunan University and Soochow University. These college-level programmes typically have small quotas and a strong thematic focus (cultural exchange and theme-based research), complementing the OAL's credit-bearing exchanges. For students, they amount to a "college channel" in addition to the University-wide application.

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# Do exchanges to mainland China and Taiwan go through the same office?

No. The figures and lists above mostly come from the OAL's "Global" arm; academic exchanges with mainland China, Taiwan and Macau are handled by a separate office — the Office of Academic Links, Mainland and Regional (OALMR).

According to the office's own introduction^※, its role is to build bridges between CUHK and institutions in mainland China, Taiwan and Macau, covering student exchanges, cultural experiences, service learning, academic competitions, and collaborative education and research bases. It also runs the CUHK Shanghai Centre as a regional liaison point. At the alliance level, CUHK, together with Sun Yat-sen University, the University of Macau and others, co-founded the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao University Alliance (GHMUA) in November 2016, linking up the region's leading universities to promote talent development and regional collaboration.

The separation between "Global" and "Mainland and Regional" reflects both historical development and practical considerations: the two kinds of exchange differ in agreement frameworks, funding channels and visa arrangements, and are simply smoother to run separately. For students, the practical implication is that "going to Oxford" and "going to Peking" may both count as exchange, but the application portal and funding route may lead to different offices on campus — an easily overlooked dividing line in how the CUHK exchange system actually works.

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# What international summer programmes are on offer, and who are they best suited to?

CUHK's international summer offering splits into two tracks: "outbound" and "at home."

Outbound — the "Let's Go Summer!" funding scheme

Each year the OAL promotes a curated list of partner-institution summer programmes to undergraduates and provides tuition/programme fee subsidies. The 2026 edition^※ covers six countries: France, Germany, Korea, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom; the 2025 edition included Canada and Japan. Programmes typically run 4–8 weeks and focus on language training, culture courses or field research. They suit students seeking a first overseas experience on a limited budget.

The funding is not handed out arbitrarily — it is grafted onto government resources. According to the OAL explanation^※: applications are open to all local full-time undergraduates (except those who have already accepted an exchange offer for the same year, to avoid double-dipping); the programme must end before the student's expected graduation date; selected students are sponsored under an Education Bureau (EDB) funding scheme to attend a curated summer programme. Accommodation, airfare and insurance are still the student's own responsibility, and students must also pay a HK$2,000 deposit to the OAL, fully refunded on successful completion — a mechanism designed to discourage "sign up then no-show" waste. This design of "government pays the tuition, student covers incidentals, deposit secures attendance" directs scarce public funding towards students who will genuinely see the programme through.

At home — the International Summer School (ISS)

CUHK also recruits students from around the world to take summer courses on campus. The ISS July session^※ offers around 20 English-taught courses in five academic streams: "Chinese Language," "Environment, Science and Technology," "Global Business and Management," "Society and the Humanities," and "Understanding China." Students may take up to two courses (3 credits each). The August session^※ focuses on intensive Putonghua and Cantonese language training. In 2026, the July session runs from 21 June to 29 July (about five weeks) and the August session from 3 to 26 August (about three weeks).

ISS's role is to bring the "international classroom" onto the CUHK campus: according to the official introduction^※, past cohorts have come from over 50 countries and regions; all courses are taught in English (except the Chinese language ones); and teaching is shared between CUHK professors and visiting academics from overseas. Beyond the classroom, the programme includes cultural excursions, institutional visits and local experiences. ISS credits are recognised by numerous overseas universities — the University of California system (UCEAP), Harvard, University College London (UCL) and others list the CUHK summer school as an option for their students studying abroad. ISS is open to all undergraduates worldwide; a background in Chinese is not required, and on-campus accommodation is available. For CUHK's own students, ISS offers a form of internationalisation at home — an opportunity to take international courses and meet peers from around the world without leaving Hong Kong.

Short-term Study Abroad

This is the self-funded track: CUHK students join cultural, language or research programmes at partner institutions (1–4 weeks), paying their own costs but able to apply for college or faculty scholarship subsidies. These programmes offer flexible options for students who cannot commit a full term away.

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# After the pandemic, what did virtual exchange leave behind?

When the world shut down in 2020 and physical exchange ground to a near halt, CUHK's response was not to shelve internationalisation but to move it online — which gave birth to the APRU Virtual Student Exchange (VSE). This is one of the most significant recent additions to the CUHK exchange system: a multilateral platform initiated by CUHK that is still running today.

According to CUHK's announcement^※, the VSE launched its pilot term in August 2020 under the framework of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU). The pilot term involved 14 member universities from 9 economies (including Keio, Korea University, UCLA and University of New South Wales), offering 78 online courses on topics ranging from Hong Kong culture and climate change to Latin American business and indigenous languages, delivered synchronously, asynchronously or in hybrid mode. The pilot drew more than 400 course applications and enrolled over 200 students. At the launch, the Vice-Chancellor said the aim was to "nurture true global citizens with digital technology."

The platform then expanded quickly. According to OAL and APRU records^※, within just over a year of launch, the VSE had accumulated more than 550 online academic courses and 75 joint co-curricular activities, reaching 37 APRU member institutions in 16 countries and regions. CUHK undergraduates, simply by virtue of being enrolled, can apply through the VSE central office to take courses; most are free and some carry credit. This path of "no visa, no airfare" is particularly meaningful for students who cannot go abroad for financial, health or family reasons — it rewrites the barrier to exchange from "can you go" to "are you willing to participate."

The VSE has also earned CUHK international recognition: it received Highly Commended status in the "Technological or Digital Innovation" category at the 2021 Times Higher Education Awards Asia^※ and was shortlisted in the digital education category of the "Falling Walls 2020 Science Breakthrough of the Year." Though physical exchange has fully recovered since the pandemic, the VSE has not faded away; it has been retained as a permanent layer of internationalisation at home — one of the few genuinely positive structural legacies the pandemic left the CUHK exchange network.

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# What dual-degree programmes exist, and with which overseas universities?

Dual degrees are the deepest layer of CUHK's internationalisation — upon completing the programme, students receive degrees from both universities. The Business School led the way: according to the School's announcement^※, it partners with five world-class institutions to offer undergraduate dual degrees, most built on longstanding relationships — the collaboration with Tsinghua dates back to 1985, the link with Peking University began in the 1980s, and formal partnership with Waseda was established in 2002; the other two are IE University in Spain and City, University of London (Cass Business School). The School states that the aim is to cultivate "leaders with a global vision" and broaden students' international networks and employability. The following are the officially announced undergraduate dual-degree programmes^※:

Programme details are subject to the CUHK undergraduate admissions page^※ and the latest announcements from each faculty.

Dual degrees require meeting the graduation requirements of both universities simultaneously, making them academically demanding; but graduates walk away with two degree certificates, giving them a clear edge whether applying for postgraduate study or entering the job market. This list covers only publicly announced undergraduate programmes; at the postgraduate level, there are further dual-degree arrangements with institutions such as Northwestern University — see Internationalisation and Global Partnerships.

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# Which international university alliances does CUHK belong to?

Beyond bilateral agreements, CUHK amplifies its network through several international academic alliances. Key memberships include:

• Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU): Links over 60 leading research universities across the Asia-Pacific and the Americas. It was under this framework that CUHK led the creation of the Virtual Student Exchange (VSE) described earlier — an instance of CUHK moving "from participant to initiator" in a multilateral alliance.
• Worldwide Universities Network (WUN): According to CUHK's announcement^※, the University signed its membership agreement on 17 October 2011, becoming WUN's first Hong Kong member and its 17th member institution overall. WUN collaboration centres on four "global challenges": adapting to climate change, globalisation of higher education and research, public health, and understanding different cultures^※. CUHK appoints senior academics to lead cross-institutional collaboration on each theme and funds joint projects among members through the WUN Research Development Fund. CUHK is no mere name-on-the-door member: it has hosted WUN's international conference and annual general meeting^※, bringing the network's agenda to Hong Kong — another step on its path from "joining" to "leading" on this multilateral platform.
• Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU): Members include the University of Tokyo, Seoul National University, Peking University, Tsinghua and other leading East Asian institutions; promotes regional student and academic exchange.
• Thematic networks such as the International Universities Climate Alliance and the Alliance of International Science Organizations in the Belt and Road Region: supporting CUHK's collaborations on sustainability and cross-regional research themes.

These multilateral alliances let CUHK layer "network value" on top of bilateral agreements. WUN members share research funds and thematic networks; APRU-VSE offers a borderless virtual study path. One offline, one online, they together extend "exchange" from mere student mobility into a multi-layered flow of research, faculty and courses. One clarification worth making: among Hong Kong universities, it is the University of Hong Kong, not CUHK, that belongs to the Universitas 21 (U21) network; CUHK's multilateral identity rests primarily on the APRU, WUN and AEARU lines.

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# Is exchange only about students?

No. Alongside student exchange, CUHK runs another often-overlooked "faculty mobility" line — one that determines who stands at the front of the classroom, and whether the exchange network can renew itself.

According to an OAL announcement^※, in December 2023 CUHK relaunched the Internationalisation Faculty Mobility Scheme (IFMS), again in two directions. The outbound stream^※ funds CUHK full-time faculty to make short academic visits to institutions outside Greater China, fostering faculty-level collaboration and frontier joint research; the inbound stream^※ hosts visiting scholars from overseas institutions for short stays at CUHK. The scheme maintains a list of priority institutions — ideally, a visitor's home university should rank within the global top 100 on major league tables — tying "faculty exchange" directly to "benchmarking against the best."

Faculty mobility and student exchange are two sides of the same coin: the connections a professor builds abroad are often precisely the seed of a future student exchange agreement, joint course, or even dual degree. In other words, behind the "280+ exchange places" that students see lies a web of relationships continuously renewed by faculty coming and going. That is why CUHK runs the two mobility lines — staff and students — in parallel, rather than fixating only on the student-inbound and student-outbound numbers.

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# How did this network grow, step by step?

Laid side by side, the milestones scattered through this article trace a clear trajectory of how CUHK's exchange network has thickened over the past decade and more. It was not built in a single year; it is the cumulative result of bilateral agreements, multilateral alliances, regional alliances, dual degrees and virtual exchange layered one on another:

The headline numbers (282→286 institutions, 36→37 countries and regions) look modest, but the network's qualitative changes are not captured by quantity alone — WUN brings research funds, APRU-VSE brings virtual study, dual degrees bring double credentials, GHMUA brings regional collaboration. Each layer loads new meaning onto the word "exchange." That is also why any single number purporting to summarise CUHK's internationalisation will always fall short: it is less a monotonically rising curve than a constantly thickening, multi-layered composite.

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# Further reading

• CUHK — Internationalisation and Global Partnerships: a panorama of non-local student policy, Greater Bay Area strategy and postgraduate dual degrees.
• CUHK, Shenzhen — Campus Overview: the other wing of the "twin campuses," whose overseas network has grown to over 160 institutions.
• The Yale-China Association and a Century of Ties with CUHK: the century-old bond behind the New Asia/Yale exchange.
• New Asia College: the representative college for self-run international exchange.
• Key Numbers Dashboard: year-by-year enrolment and non-local student figures.

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