HKUST Hall Fees in Practice: Full-year Costs at the Nine Halls and How the Hall Point System Works

The one-line verdict: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's Clear Water Bay main campus has nine undergraduate halls of residence (UG Hall I–IX), together providing approximately 4,544 bed spaces^※ in 2025–26 (excluding the Tseung Kwan O Jockey Club Hall and the Jockey Club i-Village). Beds are allocated competitively through a four-part "hall point" (住宿分) system; local and non-local students queue in two separate quota pools, and the House Students' Associations of UG Halls I–V are the heart of hall culture and identity.

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# Where are the nine halls, and how big are they?

The Clear Water Bay campus is built into a mountainside, and its nine undergraduate halls^※ (UG Hall I–IX) went up in two waves. UG Hall I–VI, known collectively as the "Sea View" cluster, opened with the University in 1991; UG Hall VII–IX were completed between roughly 2009 and 2015 with a more modern apartment-style layout. Together the nine halls provide about 4,544 bed spaces^※ (UG Hall I–VI around 2,976; UG Hall VII–IX around 1,568), making them the main undergraduate accommodation resource on the main campus — before counting the Tseung Kwan O Jockey Club Hall (about 512 bed spaces) and the Jockey Club i-Village (UG Hall X–XIII, 1,551 bed spaces), which opened in June 2026.

UG Hall I–VI are conventional corridor-style halls of double or triple rooms (UG Hall V has bunk beds), with shared bathrooms and kitchens. UG Hall VII–IX, by contrast, use an apartment format: single rooms are grouped six to a flat sharing a living room and kitchen, while double rooms share bathroom facilities among four students. The newer halls are more modern but charge correspondingly higher fees (see the charges table below).

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# What traditions and identities do the UG Hall I–V House Students' Associations have?

Each of UG Hall I–V has a House Students' Association (HSA)^※ affiliated with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Students' Union (HKUSTSU), with seats on the Union's Representative Council. These five HSAs are the most institutionalised and historically layered self-governing bodies in HKUST's undergraduate hall culture, running inter-hall sports, orientation events, academic talks and community-building work. The governing teams of UG Hall VI–IX (the Connection Team "Unify" / Leadership Team / Organizing Team) are smaller outfits with looser formal links to the Students' Union.

Take VERTEX as an example: its stated aims cover "developing the unique hall culture of the house, promoting culture and social interests, and fostering members' sense of belonging"^※, and its colours are red, symbolising "passion, vitality and drive". VERTEX fields six competitive teams — basketball, football (its largest membership), mixed volleyball, badminton, table tennis and women's basketball — plus a cheerleading squad. Each floor maintains its own floor committee, using playful names like "Fierce Man", "Phoenix" and "American Pie" to build sub-identity, and runs a snack shop called "Dim Siu 2". It has also kept annual publications, a newspaper and archives of past executive committees since 1995. The depth of self-governance here is striking for a non-collegiate hall system anywhere in Hong Kong's universities.

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# How does the hall point system work?

Hall allocation for undergraduates centres on the hall point (住宿分) scheme. Bed spaces are split into two separate quota pools — one for local students and one for non-local students / local students without a home in Hong Kong^※; within each pool, students are ranked by the hall points they have accumulated, and the higher the score, the better the chance of a bed. The scoring dimensions are the same for both pools, but the weights and caps differ, reflecting the different situations of local students (commuting distances) and non-local students (international backgrounds).

# The four components of hall points

Hall points are built from four criteria^※:

Part 1 (travel time) applies to local students only: the longer the commute, the higher the score, up to a cap of 60 points. Part 2 credits leadership positions held in recognised student organisations (Students' Union, sports clubs and the like): the nomination mode earns 15 points (local) or 30 points (non-local), while the basic mode earns 10 (local) or 20 (non-local)^※, with a multiplier rule that counts at most two positions. Part 3 recognises awards at city level or above: gold medals earn 7 points (local) or 21 (non-local), silver 5 or 15, and bronze 3 or 9, capped at 10 (local) or 30 (non-local)^※. Part 4 gives extra points to students who failed to win a place the previous year (5 for local, 20 for non-local), softening the blow for those repeatedly unlucky.

One detail deserves emphasis: hall points earned under Part 2 for leadership positions are clawed back if the student steps down mid-term, and an already-issued hall offer may be withdrawn as well^※. This rule binds "holding hall points" tightly to "keeping the relevant student role", creating an institutional logic that uses housing security as the carrot for sustained participation in hall life.

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# How do the quotas and guarantees differ for local and non-local students?

Hall places are split into two independent pools, with the quota ratio set dynamically according to actual admission ratios over the past three years. About 25% of the non-local pool is reserved for a random ballot among students who missed out under the points system^※, giving some non-local students without top scores a chance at a bed too.

On "Priority Housing", the policy varies by year of admission:

The upshot: non-local students entering from 2026–27 have their guaranteed housing cut from two years to one^※, in the same breath as the Jockey Club i-Village (UG Hall X–XIII) adds around 1,551 bed spaces — in other words, a reallocation strategy that expands total capacity while narrowing the guarantee for particular groups. If a student takes a leave of absence during the priority-housing period, the remaining entitlement does not carry over on re-enrolment^※: the clock does not pause.

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# What happens to students who miss out? How does the waitlist work?

Students who do not win a place in the main allocation round join the waitlist, ranked by hall points. The waitlist runs as two separate queues, one for local and one for non-local students, with those on equal points ordered by a random number^※. As beds free up, the University runs "top-up exercises" in batches and proactively contacts the students at the top of the list. Waitlist positions are published periodically for students to check, and the rankings roll forward as top-ups are made.

When applying, students may list up to three hall preferences, but the system does not guarantee a place in any particular hall^※; room types and specific beds are also assigned at random, and special needs (for medical reasons, say) require a separate application. Students who accept an offer are liable for the full cost of the occupancy period, even if they check out early or arrive late.

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# How much do hall fees vary?

Fees differ markedly between halls, driven mainly by room type (double/single/triple) and the age and standard of the facilities. The table below gives the full-year hall charges for new local undergraduates as published on the SHRL website^※, comparing the 2025–26 and 2026–27 academic years (both based on 278 nights):

On 2026–27 fees, a double room in the Sea View cluster (Hall I–VI) works out to about HK$74 a night — still noticeably cheaper than the newer halls (Hall VII–IX, around HK$90 a night), i-Village (around HK$97) and JCH (around HK$96). The corresponding 2025–26 nightly rates were roughly HK$70, $85, $90 and $92, with yearly increases across the halls in the single-digit percentage range. On this new-local-undergraduate basis, the i-Village double room (HK$26,966) overtakes JCH (HK$26,688) in 2026–27 to become the most expensive room type in the table; in 2025–26 it was the other way round, with JCH (HK$25,576) above i-Village (HK$25,020). Air-conditioning charges in all buildings are metered separately and are not included in these figures.

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# What support structures and daily-life arrangements exist inside the halls?

Every hall has a "Hall Education Team", a three-tier support network made up of a Residence Master (RM) — a full-time staff member — a Residential Life Officer (RLO), and a number of postgraduate Hall Tutors. The Residence Master lives in the hall, provides academic and personal guidance, and takes the lead in planning hall activities^※.

On the day-to-day side, the Student Housing and Residential Life (SHRL) office organises cross-hall "Residential Experiential Programs" covering such things as making Hong Kong-style milk tea, forest bathing and beginner field hockey; "Floor Gatherings" get residents on the same floor together; and the "Residence Masters' Cup" is an inter-hall competitive tournament spanning singing contests (solo and choir categories, one group each) and other cultural-sporting events, with halls battling it out for honours.

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# What is the First-Year Experience @ Residence (FYE) scheme?

The "First-Year Experience @ Residence" (FYE) programme was officially launched in August 2017^※ as HKUST's dedicated adaptation support package for first-year students living in hall. In its first year it covered around 500 freshmen (about 125 of them non-local), and the University organised its first-ever two-day, one-night orientation camp at university level directly.

The backbone of FYE is the Senior Undergraduate Mentor (SUG) system: in the inaugural year the University trained 69 SUG mentors in topics including mental-health awareness, leadership and personal development, each responsible for 6 to 8 first-year students from diverse backgrounds^※, helping them connect with Residence Masters and other on-campus support channels. Dr. Robert Wessling, then Dean of Students, said: "Living on campus plays an integral part in students' education; it is a source of friendship and support." FYE treats the halls as an extension of the formal educational mission, not merely places to sleep. How this 2017 top-down initiative sits alongside the student-organised, voluntary O-Camp tradition running in parallel is covered in the full record of orientation camps, student societies and hall controversies^※.

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# What are the structural causes of the housing squeeze?

Hall places at HKUST have long been oversubscribed, and the roots are structural, compounding one another. First, the Clear Water Bay site runs up against the mountain and the sea, so land for new halls is extremely scarce — which is why HKUST built its tenth undergraduate hall off campus in Tseung Kwan O in 2017 (see the Tseung Kwan O Jockey Club Hall^※). Second, the proportion of non-local students keeps rising (there were 10,712 undergraduates university-wide in 2023–24^※, a substantial share of them non-local), and non-local students' need for housing is more pressing than that of local commuters. Third, taking part in campus activities to build hall points becomes an implicit pressure to keep one's bed, encouraging "point farming" (刷分) and sharpening competition at the margin of the waitlist.

The opening of the Jockey Club i-Village (UG Hall X–XIII) in June 2026 substantially expands total undergraduate capacity. HKUST has said that once i-Village opens it will be able to offer on-campus housing to all first-year students^※, but the tightening of priority housing from 2026–27 (non-local students cut from two years to one) means that upper-year students will still be fighting for beds — and the strategic value of the hall point system is far from spent.

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# How does this article relate to the others in this module?

This article focuses on the culture, institutions and allocation mechanics of the nine main-campus halls (UG Hall I–IX). The companion pieces in this module take different angles:

• Student Hall System — an overview of HKUST's accommodation estate^※: a university-wide view of capacity, including postgraduate halls and the Jockey Club i-Village
• Tseung Kwan O Jockey Club Hall — the "tenth hall" off campus^※: the building's background, design features and whole-person education philosophy

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# Frequently asked questions

Q: How does the hall application queue work?

A: Hall places are allocated under the hall point system. Local and non-local students (including local students with no home address in Hong Kong) form two separate quota pools, ranked by hall points within each pool — the higher the score, the better the chance of a bed. Students who miss out in the main round join the waitlist, ranked by hall points; the University runs "top-up" exercises in batches and actively contacts those at the top of the list. Applicants may list up to three hall preferences, but the system does not guarantee assignment to any particular hall.

Q: What are the four components of the hall point score?

A: Hall points have four criteria. Part 1, "travel time to and from campus", applies to local students only, up to 60 points. Part 2, "leadership and contribution to campus life", is capped at 25 points for local and 50 for non-local students. Part 3, "outstanding achievements", is capped at 10 (local) or 30 (non-local). Part 4 gives extra points to those who missed out the previous year: 5 for local, 20 for non-local. The overall cap is 100 points in both pools.

Q: In the hall guides you see online, which hall is cheapest and which is most expensive?

A: Based on the full-year 2026–27 fees for new local undergraduates, the cheapest are the triple rooms in Hall II, III, IV and VI and the bunk-bed rooms in Hall V, all at HK$16,124 (in 2025–26 they were HK$15,012 and HK$15,568 respectively). The most expensive is the double room at the Jockey Club i-Village (Hall X–XIII) at HK$26,966, followed by the Tseung Kwan O Jockey Club Hall (JCH) double at HK$26,688 and the Hall VII/VIII/IX doubles at HK$25,020 (in 2025–26 the ordering was HK$25,020, HK$25,576 and HK$23,630, with JCH the priciest).

Q: Are the priority-housing guarantees the same for non-local and local students?

A: No — and the policy varies by year of admission. Non-local students entering before 2026–27 are guaranteed priority housing for their first two years; those entering from 2026–27 onwards are guaranteed only their first year. Local freshmen (general) move from "at least one semester" to a full first year. Local students with a one-way commute of more than 120 minutes keep the two-year guarantee in both periods.

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