Due to severe shortage of residential hall places, taught course postgraduates do not normally get a place. These students are strongly advised to use the Accommodation Service to find their own accommodation outside the University.
All full-time research students who are registered for an MPhil or PhD degree at the University are eligible to apply for Swire Scholarships to reside in the Robert Black College, where about 9 Swire Scholars are accommodated alongside short-term overseas visitors to the University. Application for residence in the College is invited at time for admission in October every year, when there are vacancies. Enquiries about the scholarships should be addressed to Research Services, The Registry. For details about accommodation, please contact the College Office (Tel:2296 1771 or Email: rblack@hku.hk).
Graduate House provides 190 single rooms and 10 double rooms (for married couples only) for full-time postgraduate students of the University. All the rooms are fully furnished, air-conditioned and equipped with individual phone lines and fiber-optics computer networking facility.
Each double room has a self-contained bathroom while single rooms share a bathroom between two rooms. There is a student lounge and a pantry on every other floor. Other facilities include a computer room, study rooms, an audiovisual room, a fitness room and a reading room.
The current monthly rental charges are HK$3,027.00 and HK$5,546.00 for a single room and a double room respectively. The charges are subject to review at the beginning of every residential year (from September 1 to August 31 of the following year).
The Graduate House rental charge does not include electricity expenses; residents have to pay for electricity charges based on actual consumption at the Residential Tariff Rates set by the Hong Kong Electric Holdings Limited.
The Management and Resident Committees of Graduate House organise a number of social activities throughout the residential year. All residents are encouraged to take part in these activities.
Residence application will normally begin around April or May of each year. All full-time registered postgraduates of the University are eligible to apply. For details, please refer to the website at http://www.hku.hk/gradhse, or contact the Graduate House Office at No. 3 University Drive, HKU (Tel: 3917 1810, Fax: 2546 1861, Email: gradhse@hku.hk.)
The Wong Chik Ting Hall of St. John’s College was opened in September 1997 to provide accommodation for postgraduate students. The 111 single rooms each has a shower room, toilet, telephone, refrigerator, television and a link to the University’s central computer. The rooms are fully furnished with bed, desk, chair, bookcase and cupboards. The Hall has a laundry room for the use of the students. Students may eat in the College Dining Hall at a reasonable cost. The College welcomes both local students and students from mainland China and overseas. The monthly charge in the 2015-2016 academic year is $4,850 for a single room and $5,400 for a larger room. 26 guest rooms are also available to visiting scholars and teachers at a reasonable rate.
Enquiries for accommodation should be addressed to the Master, St. John’s College, The University of Hong Kong, 82 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong; tel: 2817 7102; fax: 2817 5624; email: stjohns@ hku.hk.
You may wish to note that in view of the size of the undergraduate population, most places in most halls are allocated to undergraduates. Only a few places are for admission of postgraduates. Full-time postgraduate students may apply for accommodation via the online hall application system, accessible via the HKU Portal (https://hkuportal.hku.hk/login.html). The online hall application system will be opened to full-time postgraduate students newly admitted into a study programme on/before August 14, 2015 from 10:00 a.m. on August 14, 2015 and closed at 2:59 p.m. on August 17, 2015. Students who are admitted to the University after August 14, 2015 can make their applications online during August 18 to August 31, 2015 via the HKU Portal. Morrison Hall (at Jockey Club Student Village II) has 150 residential places for postgraduate students. Preference for admission is given to newly arrived non-local students and research postgraduates.
Other than halls, there are four Residential Colleges in Jockey Club Student Village III on Lung Wah Street, Kennedy Town for 1,800 students, with around half of the places assigned to postgraduates in programmes funded by the Government. Students in the Residential Colleges are expected to take part in intellectual activities and community projects.
CEDARS has rented fully furnished private flats mainly in the vicinity of the University and we allocate these off-campus places directly. There are about 270 places for 2015-16 in total. Each flat can accommodate 4 to 10 students of the same gender in shared bedrooms with furniture for each student. There are also air-conditioners, communal bathroom and pantry facilities in each flat. Priority is given to newly arrived non-local students.
These off-campus flats are operated on a cost-recovery basis, with the University providing all the administrative and management support at no costs to students. The monthly charges for 2015-2016 will be around $4,410 per student which are subject to review. For more information and charge schedules of University-rented Off-campus Housing, please see: http://www.cedars.hku.hk/sections/Accommodation/OffCampusHousing/Universityrented.php
The Campus Life Section of (CEDARS) runs a small scale service to assist students seeking off-campus accommodation. Information on rooms and flats available for renting in the vicinity of the University is available on the CEDARS website at http://cedars.hku.hk/sections/accommodation.php and is advertised on the notice boards of all the amenities centres and by the office of the Faculty of Dentistry and CEDARS. Students who wish to look for rooms and flats in the University vicinity are invited to enquire at CEDARS.
Students from outside Hong Kong who do not have definite and secure arrangements for their accommodation are strongly advised to arrive in Hong Kong two or three weeks before the start of their academic programme to find a suitable place to live. Short-term accommodation during the summer in a hall of residence can be reserved in advance.