Information for Research Degree Application

A. Important references (please read before submitting the application)

1. SGS Admission Handbook
2. Application procedure

B. English Proficiency Requirements

TOEFL & IELTS scores are considered valid for two years from the test date and must be valid at the time of submission of application.

• TOEFL: minimum score of 550 (paper-based test); or 79 (internet-based); or 59 (revised paper-delivered test); or
• IELTS: minimum overall score of 6.5; or
• CET-6: minimum score of 490 [Not for HKPFS].

C. Supporting documents

1. Bachelor and Master (if any)

   a.    Official transcript (in English) [Student not yet graduated still needs to submit the most updated transcript showing all courses currently taken.]

   b.    Official proof for Overall Average Mark/ Cumulative GPA (in English)

   c.    Official Grading System with information on the full mark or the maximum GPA (e.g. GPA is 4.3 for Grade A+). It may be on the backside of the transcript. (in English)

   d.    Official degree certificate if graduated, or Final-year study proof if not yet graduated (in English)

   # For students from Mainland Universities, please provide the below items:

   i.                成绩单 中文版 (Transcript in Chinese)

   ii.              Official transcript (in English)

   iii.            Official proof for Overall Average Mark (in English)

   iv.            Degree certificate in English [Graduated]

   v.              Graduation certificate in English [Graduated]

   vi.            学位证书 中文版 (Degree certificate in Chinese) [Graduated]

   vii.           毕业证书 中文版 (Graduation certificate in Chinese) [Graduated]

   viii.         Enrolment letter in English [Not yet graduated]

   ix.            在读证明 中文版 (Enrolment letter in Chinese) [Not yet graduated]

   x.              Online verification report of higher education degree certificate in English [Graduated]

   xi.            中国高等教育学位在线验证报告 中文版[Graduated]

   xii.           Online verification report of student record in English [Not yet graduated]

   xiii.         教育部学籍在线验证报告 中文版 (Online verification report of student record in Chinese) [Not yet graduated]

2. Official result of English Proficiency Test such as IELTS, TOEFL or CET-6. Alternatively, applicant may submit official proof from the University if the Medium of Instruction of all courses of the degree is in English.
3. The first page(s) of published paper(s)/ the letter(s) of acceptance together with the abstract(s) of paper(s) which have been accepted for publication.

D. Referee reports

• Two referee reports are needed. The official referee report can be downloaded from the SGS website here.
• Proposed supervisor, current or former colleagues such as your lab-seniors and co-workers COULD NOT be the referees. Professors in your current or previous Universities can be good examples of referees.
• The referee reports are essential for your research degree application. Your application will not be considered without these documents. You can check from the system or check with SGS to see whether your referees have sent the referee reports. You are required to prompt your referees to send the referee reports if they have not sent.

E. Supervisor

• You are advised to contact our academic staff and obtain the consent of one of them as your supervisor. Please enter the name of the proposed supervisor under the question “If you have contact any CityU academic staff member, please provide his/her fullname.”.

F. Upload documents to the online application system

• You can still upload documents to the online application system after the application is submitted.
• If you have any problem in uploading documents to the system, you can contact SGS (sg@cityu.edu.hk) for help.

G. Update information after application submitted

• If you want to update the information in the online application system, you can contact SGS (sg@cityu.edu.hk) for help.

H. Plagiarism check (for HKPFS only)

• Plagiarism check will be conducted against your “Research Proposal” and “Vision Statement”. Please make sure that you have not copied any material which is published in either printed materials or webpage. The similarity must be ≤ 4%.