UGC Targeted Taught Postgraduate Programmes Fellowships Scheme 2023/24 for Local Students

Background

1.    The University Grants Committee (UGC) introduced the Targeted Taught Postgraduate Programmes Fellowships Scheme (the Scheme) on a pilot basis for five cohorts starting from the 2020/21 academic year.  Established under UGC, the Scheme is offered to provide local students admitted to the targeted taught postgraduate programmes (see Point 5 below) with the award of fellowships.

Objectives

2.    The main objectives of the Scheme are to attract meritorious local students to pursue further studies in priority areas conducive to the development of Hong Kong and to encourage universities to establish more innovative and multi-disciplinary programmes that are beneficial to society. 

Eligibility

3.1    Local students who are admitted to the targeted programmes in full-time, part-time or combined study mode may be invited to submit applications for the fellowships. To avoid double subsidy, students who are receiving other forms of government scholarship including the Continuing Education Fund (except student financial assistance) for pursuing the same programme are not eligible to apply. 

3.2   Students received financial support for the purpose of meeting tuition fee expenses from other sources of non-government should declare and provide relevant details to the University. If the sum of such financial support and the fellowship award exceeds the tuition fee level, the amount of fellowship award will be reduced to ensure that the student would not receive financial support in excess of the tuition fee to safeguard the effective use of public money.

3.3   The definitions of local/non-local status of applicants are available under the Notes for Applicants on taught postgraduate admission website: https://www.cityu.edu.hk/pg/taught-postgraduate-programmes/apply-now#info_non-local.

Duration and Amount of Fellowships

4.    The fellowship students are required to pay a minimum tuition fee of HK$42,100, which is the prevailing rate of the UGC-funded programmes, and the differences will be subsidized by the fellowships subject to a cap of HK$120,000 for each student regardless of the actual study period of the programme. The fellowships will be used for the settlement of the tuition fee only.

  Scenarios:

• If the total tuition fee of a programme is HK$162,100 or below, the fellowship students will need to pay a tuition fee of HK$42,100, with the remainder covered by the fellowships.
• If the total tuition fee of a programme exceeds HK$162,100, the fellowship students will need to pay a tuition fee of HK$42,100, as well as the balance after deducting the maximum amount of the fellowships (i.e. HK$120,000).

Targeted Taught Postgraduate Programmes

5.    Local students admitted to the following programmes may be invited to submit an application for the Scheme:

Criteria for Assessment

6.    The award of the fellowships will be merit-based, taking into account the students' academic achievements, professional attainment, work experience, interview results and other programme-specific criteria as well as the personal statement about i) applicants’ commitment and ii) the proposal on how they can contribute to the priority area(s) of Hong Kong after completing the programme concerned. 

Requirement of Ongoing Study Performance

7.   Successful applicants for the fellowships are expected to achieve a CGPA of 3.0 in each semester of their study. The award of the fellowships may cease and they may be required to refund the full amount of the fellowships received if they fail to attain the specified level of performance.

Programme-specific Documentation Requirement 

8.     In addition to the personal statement mentioned in Point 6, the following documents are required by the respective programmes for consideration of the fellowships:

Application Procedures

9.   Application will be submitted by invitation. Applicants who are invited to submit application for the fellowships are required to upload the completed application form together with all the required supporting documents to their online application account. Shortlisted applicants will be invited by the academic unit to attend an interview as part of the selection process. For enquiries, please contact the academic unit concerned directly.  Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and applicants will be notified of the selection results normally by 31 March 2023 (first round) and 16 June 2023 (second round).

For more details of the Scheme, please visit UGC website.

(Last Updated on 15 December 2022)