English-medium administration—HKUST’s EMI language policy and the reality of Chinese–English coexistence

In a sentence: From its founding in 1991, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) adopted English as its sole official medium of instruction and assessment. The Senate policy states unequivocally that “unless otherwise approved by the Senate for a specific course or program of study, English is the medium of instruction and assessment at the University,” making HKUST one of the most thoroughgoing English-medium instruction (EMI) regimes among Hong Kong’s eight UGC-funded universities.

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# What exactly does HKUST’s EMI policy say?

The Academic Registry’s official documentation stipulates^※: “Unless otherwise approved by the Senate for a specific course or program of study, English is the medium of instruction and assessment at the University.” The “Classes & Attendance” page further clarifies^※: “English is the formal medium of instruction in lectures, tutorials and laboratory sessions.” These two provisions form the institutional foundation of HKUST’s EMI policy. They apply to all undergraduate and postgraduate courses and serve as the basis on which graduates may request a “Proof of English Medium Instruction” letter.

HKUST’s EMI policy is not simply inherited from the British colonial legacy; it was a deliberate positioning choice made at the University’s founding. HKUST, which opened in 1991^※, was the first research university in Hong Kong history to be built from scratch, with no antecedent institution. Its infrastructure and faculty recruitment were benchmarked against international academic standards, making English the only practically viable medium of instruction. This stands in sharp contrast to the bilingual Chinese–English model of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK): of the eight UGC-funded universities, roughly six use English as their single principal teaching medium, while two maintain mixed-language models^※. HKUST falls squarely in the former camp—and holds one of the most unequivocal positions within it.

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# Which courses are exempt and may be taught in Putonghua or Cantonese?

The Senate-authorised exemption mechanism functions as a “valve” on HKUST’s EMI system. With Senate approval, courses related to Chinese language study and endorsed by the School of Humanities and Social Science (SHSS) may be exempted from the English-medium requirement^※. Exempted courses are flagged in the course catalogue as [PU] (Putonghua), [CA] (Cantonese), or, where English is the medium but Chinese reading materials are required, [C].

The following undergraduate LANG courses in the 2025/26 academic year are delivered in Chinese:

Source: HKUST Course Catalogue – LANG section, 2025/26^※.

It is worth noting that Cantonese ([CA]) courses are relatively few and are all housed within the SHSS humanities and social science framework. In principle, no course in science, engineering, business, or the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) is offered in Chinese. Individual tutorials or consultations may be conducted in any language^※, but these are informal interactions and do not constitute a policy-level exemption from the medium-of-instruction rules.

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# How does English proficiency become an “invisible threshold” for admission and graduation?

At the point of admission, HKUST’s EMI regime requires all non-exempt applicants to submit proof of English proficiency. According to the official admissions requirements, international applicants must present an overall IELTS (Academic) score of at least 6.0, or a TOEFL iBT score of at least 80 (for tests taken before January 2026)^※. Applicants from English-speaking countries, or those who obtained a degree from a wholly English-medium institution, may be exempted. For local students taking the HKDSE, performance in the English Language subject serves as the screening criterion.

During their studies, students move through a tiered English-language development system run by the Center for Language Education (CLE). LANG 1002 “English for University Studies I” is a compulsory common-core course for undergraduates^※, designed to equip students with the core English skills needed to learn effectively in an EMI higher-education environment. Students are streamed into different tracks according to their English proficiency at entry. From 2024/25, a new two-pathway arrangement takes effect: Pathway 1 for students who meet the basic English admission requirement, and Pathway 2 for those whose English exceeds the benchmark^※.

This common-core English requirement sits alongside the Common Core programme within the general-education framework introduced under the four-year curriculum reform; for the overall credit structure, see Academic System and Structure: The Four-Year Reform, Common Core, and Grading. From their second year, students must take an English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) course, streamed by discipline:

Source: CLE programme-required English courses page^※. This two-tier structure—general English plus discipline-specific English—means that English-language development runs through all four years of the undergraduate degree rather than being treated as a one-off admissions hurdle. It is a sign that HKUST regards EMI as an academic standard, not merely a policy directive.

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# How is international-expansion admissions reshaping HKUST’s language ecology?

The practical consequences of the language policy have been dramatically amplified over the past decade by shifts in the campus demographic. According to HKUST’s December 2025 statistics, total enrolment stood at 20,475, of whom 9,860 were non-local students (mainland China/Taiwan/Macau: 8,216; Asian international: 1,271; non-Asian international: 373)^※. Non-local students thus accounted for roughly 48% of the total.

Source: HKUST Facts & Figures, December 2025 data^※.

This composition has been shaped in large part by Hong Kong government policy. In his 2023 Policy Address, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced that the cap on non-local undergraduate intake at UGC-funded institutions would be doubled, from 20% to 40%^※, with effect from the 2024/25 academic year. The September 2025 Policy Address raised the cap further, to 50%, effective from 2026/27^※. HKUST has responded vigorously: in 2025/26, non-local undergraduate applications rose by about 40% year on year, with applicants hailing from more than 85 countries and regions; the University has the highest proportion of non-mainland international students among UGC-funded institutions^※. This surge in internationally recruited students sits within the broader context of HKUST’s student exchange and international mobility network and the cross-campus synergies with HKUST (Guangzhou)—the Guangzhou campus operates a bilingual teaching model that differs from that of the Clear Water Bay main campus; for a comparison of the two campuses’ academic structures and language environments, see The Red Bird Cross-Campus Study Scheme.

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# Mainland student numbers have surged—is English really the lingua franca?

A significant gap exists between the policy-level commitment to English-only instruction and the linguistic reality on the ground—a gap amply documented in academic research. It is not unique to HKUST, but it is especially pronounced on a campus with a high concentration of mainland students.

Research has shown that in Hong Kong EMI university classrooms, local students routinely use Cantonese for informal in-class interactions such as small-group discussions or questions to the lecturer, while mainland students interact predominantly in Putonghua^※. English may be the formal medium at the lectern, but it is not the lingua franca actually used among students inside or outside the classroom. A Times Higher Education in-depth report, drawing on international students’ observations, noted that “language clustering” creates an invisible barrier for Western students in study-group formation and social activities; students tend to gravitate towards groups that share their mother tongue^※.

Across the UGC sector, in 2024/25 roughly 92% of all international research postgraduate students at HKUST were from mainland China^※. At the undergraduate level, mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau students together accounted for about 83% of non-local students (8,216 out of 9,860). This means that, even though English is the official teaching language, Putonghua has in effect become the second most pervasive daily communication language on campus. For the demographic scale, residential distribution and cultural dynamics of the mainland-student population, see Mainland Students: Demographic Scale, Cultural Dynamics, and Documented Incidents.

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# Where does HKUST sit within the “biliteracy and trilingualism” framework?

Since the 1997 handover, the Hong Kong government has pursued a language policy of “biliteracy and trilingualism”—written competence in Chinese and English, and spoken competence in Cantonese, English and Putonghua. Within this broad framework, HKUST’s EMI stance creates a distinctive tension.

On one hand, the University’s English-only instruction aligns squarely with the government’s goal of using English to sharpen the international competitiveness of the higher-education sector. UGC reports have consistently supported a high proportion of EMI at funded institutions, so as to safeguard graduates’ competitiveness in the international labour market. On the other hand, Cantonese and Putonghua are not mainstream learning resources within HKUST’s curriculum outside SHSS: Chinese-language courses—including the Putonghua series for non-Chinese-background students (LANG 1511–1515) and the workplace, digital, and cultural-writing Chinese courses for native speakers—are confined to the SHSS humanities and social science framework^※ and are virtually absent from science, engineering and business programmes.

A contentious question arises: does HKUST’s EMI positioning systematically erode local students’ ability to write academically in Chinese? Critics argue that when the vast majority of academic training is conducted in English, students—especially local ones—have very limited scope to develop advanced Chinese writing and academic expression, producing a structural shortfall against the “biliteracy and trilingualism” goal. Defenders counter that, in a world where science and business are overwhelmingly Anglophone, maintaining strict EMI standards at a top-tier research university is both a practical necessity and a competitive obligation; Chinese-language proficiency, they argue, ought to be cultivated through other channels.

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# How does HKUST open Chinese-learning resources to non-Chinese-speaking students?

As the proportion of international students grows rapidly, the demand for Chinese-language learning among non-Chinese-background students is receiving increasing attention. The CLE has designed a structured pathway for these learners: LANG 1511–1515, a five-level Putonghua series, covers everything from absolute beginner to HSK 4 and above, with tiers set at cumulative study hours of 50, 150, 300 and 500^※. In addition, the CLE offers a conversational Cantonese course (LANG 1130 for non-Chinese-background students; LANG 1133 for Chinese-background students) and elective third-language courses in Japanese, French and Spanish.

This design reflects a pragmatic response to linguistic diversity outside the EMI mainframe: for local students, Putonghua is a supplement to the “national lingua franca”; for mainland students, Cantonese is a social key to integrating into the Hong Kong community; for international students, Chinese learning is a career booster in the Asia-Pacific region. The needs of these three groups differ, and HKUST’s Chinese course offerings provide entry points for all of them—yet none of these courses is a compulsory requirement in science, engineering or business programmes, and they cannot in any sense be regarded as a “bilingual” arrangement on a par with English-medium instruction.

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# How does the Center for Language Education concretely support students’ English learning?

In a sentence: HKUST’s EMI policy is not a “set the rule and walk away” affair; it is backed by a standing system of one-to-one language support, anchored in the Language Commons run by the CLE.

According to the CLE’s official introduction, the Centre employs more than 80 language-education professionals and serves over 6,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students each year^※. Its mission is to help HKUST students “maximise their English and Chinese competence in social, professional and academic communicative potential.” Beyond the credit-bearing courses such as LANG 1002 and the ESAP offerings, the CLE operates a physical Language Commons (Room 3018, near Lifts 2 and 3)^※ on the Clear Water Bay campus, open to all students regardless of local/non-local status: during term time, it is open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 7 pm, offering one-to-one advisory sessions on speaking, pronunciation and writing, as well as group discussion rooms, workstations with language-learning software, and reference collections in Chinese, English and third languages^※. During examination periods and holidays, closing time is brought forward to 5 pm. This drop-in or appointment-based language-advising service in some measure fills the gap left by the “English in the classroom, no one minding after class” pattern: if a student encounters difficulty with discipline-specific English writing, presentations or thesis drafting, individualised help is available at any time—not just during the fixed contact hours of an ESAP course.

Academic research corroborates the necessity of this support system. A questionnaire survey of science students at Hong Kong EMI universities found that, among 73 respondents, Year-1 students experienced significantly greater difficulty in “applying knowledge learned” than senior students^※, and that the majority of students adopted “L2-centred” (English-centred) learning strategies—such as reorganising notes in English and conducting peer discussions in English—rather than relying on their mother tongue as an intermediary. The study interpreted this as evidence of students’ active adaptation to the EMI environment, but acknowledged that a real “transition shock” exists in the early stages. That logic aligns with HKUST’s practice of making LANG 1002 a compulsory first-year course and streaming students by English proficiency into Pathway 1 or Pathway 2 (see the earlier section on the “invisible threshold”). In other words, the tiered support design—admissions screening, a compulsory first-year course, second-year discipline-specific English, and the year-round, bookable Language Commons—addresses precisely the documented reality that the greatest impact is felt in the first year.

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# How do academics and commentators assess HKUST-style full English-medium instruction?

In a sentence: Hong Kong linguists generally agree there is a structural gap between the “biliteracy and trilingualism” ideal (equal emphasis on three languages) and the reality (stratified functional division). HKUST’s strict EMI regime is a concrete projection of that gap at the higher-education end.

The mainstream diagnosis among Hong Kong linguists is that the post-handover “biliteracy and trilingualism” policy has in practice produced a stratified imbalance, which can be caricatured as: the elite speak English, the masses speak Cantonese, and a minority master Putonghua^※. Professor Cheng Yin-cheong, Emeritus Professor of The Education University of Hong Kong, has argued that language education should simultaneously fulfil the four functions of “integration, pattern maintenance, adaptation and goal attainment,” and has proposed that Hong Kong “anchor itself in the Greater Bay Area while facing the world” to cultivate compound language talent. Dr Leung Wai-mun of PolyU questions whether the goal of “balanced trilingual competence” is itself realistic, advocating instead a “function-led” division of language labour—one that matches language requirements to specific occupations and scenarios, rather than demanding trilingual mastery from everyone. While this diagnostic framework addresses Hong Kong’s overall language ecology rather than any single institution, it can readily be applied to interpreting HKUST’s EMI positioning: by betting on English as the single medium in the higher-education domain and leaving Chinese-language development to SHSS language courses and the wider social environment, HKUST represents an extreme campus-level embodiment of “function-led” logic.

A further study published in 2025 in the journal Language Policy points out that Hong Kong’s medium-of-instruction controversies display a persistent misalignment between “policy rhetoric” and “classroom practice”^※: official documents prescribe English as the instructional medium, yet teachers and students routinely switch to Cantonese or Putonghua in informal interactions, creating what the researchers term a gap between “espoused theory” and “theory in use.” This finding corroborates the classroom observations cited above in the section “Mainland student numbers have surged—is English really the lingua franca?” The study calls on universities to acknowledge the multilingual reality of classroom practice more candidly when formulating language policies, rather than resting at the level of a written single-medium stipulation.

The lessons of this academic consensus for HKUST are twofold. On the one hand, a strict EMI standard does yield tangible benefits in international rankings and employer recognition (HKUST has consistently placed near the top of Hong Kong institutions in QS subject and overall rankings; for detailed figures see QS and US News 2027: An In-Depth Analysis). On the other hand, if the “English-only” formulation at the policy-document level is not accompanied by adequate in-class and out-of-class support, and by a frank acknowledgement of the multilingual reality, it risks deepening the linguistic divide among local, mainland, and international students in informal social and learning networks. That is the root reason why the “language clustering” phenomenon identified by the Times Higher Education report is amplified at a high-non-local-proportion institution such as HKUST.

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# Key figures at a glance

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