College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS)

The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS), established by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of the HKSAR Government, aims at attracting the best and brightest students in the world to pursue their research degree programs in Hong Kong's institutions.

What’s Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme?


Why study at CityU?

Ranking and Research Performance

According to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2024,
QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024 and Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2023

Location

The CityU campus sits in the heart of Kowloon peninsula, just a short walk from the Kowloon Tong station of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR), at the junction of East Rail and Kwun Tong lines. The campus is easily accessible from all parts of Hong Kong and is only 45 minutes by train from Shenzhen and 2 hours from Guangzhou, both major cities in southern China.

Scholarships and Awards

The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme provides awardees with a monthly stipend of HK$28,100 (~US$3,602.5) and a conference and research related travel allowance of HK$14,000 (~US$1,790) per year for a maximum of three years.

For Fellowship awardees who are admitted to a 4-year PhD programme, CityUHK will provide a monthly studentship at the same level as the RGC Fellowship for their fourth year of study.

In addition to the monthly stipend offered by the Scheme, each awardee of the CityUHK Fellowship will receive an entrance scholarship (around HK$95,496/~USD12,243), which covers students’ full-time tuition fees and university student hall accommodation expenses in their first year of research studies.

High Quality of Research and Good Learning Environment

Demonstrating the high standards of its knowledgeable faculty members, CLASS research also stands out in Hong Kong with its high quality and large volume of output. For example, 11 research monographs and 107 chapters were published, faculty members gave 217 refereed conference papers and were invited to present papers on 76 occasions in the 2015/16 academic year.

Good PhD student-supervisor relationship definitely facilitates student’s studies. CLASS faculty members provide students with appropriate advice, mentoring and guidance. Prospective PhD students may contact the academic staff in your research field.

Who’s here?

There are nearly 3,000+ undergraduate students and 2,000+ postgraduate students in CLASS. Many of our professors worked at top universities in Australia, the UK, the US and other parts of the world before they joined CLASS.

Where are our HKPFS students come from?



Sharing from HKPFS Awardees

Andrea Gudmundsdottir
Department of Media and Communication
HKPFS Awardee 2016-17

I learnt about CLASS from my Master’s thesis supervisor in the Netherlands. I was excited about CityU because my supervisor had the same research interest and CityU was the first one to confirm my acceptance. I am also pleased with the generous Hong Kong PhD Fellowship grant.

Yee Man Yvette To
Department of Public and International Affairs
(formerly Department of Asian and International Studies)
HKPFS Awardee 2015-16
Winner of CLASS Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition 2017 – Thesis title: The Politics of Intellectual Property Transition in China

Hong Kong is an ideal location for China studies. Faculty members in CLASS are renowned scholars from countries all over the world, which enhances global thinking of our students. I often participate in talks/seminars organised by CLASS as international scholars are invited to share with students.



Research Degrees Programmes

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) at CityUHK provides leading educational programmes in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences. It is home to seven academic units spanning a wide range of subjects. These are the Departments of Chinese and History; Linguistics and Translation; English; Media and Communication; Public and International Affairs; Social and Behavioural Sciences; and Chan Feng Men-ling Chan Shuk-lin Language Centre. Please click here for more details of research degree programmes at CLASS.

For details of applications and other research degree programmes at CityUHK, please visit website of the Chow Yei Ching School of Graduate Studies.