Frequently Asked Questions on Course Selection

Students cannot drop or change sub-classes of ACCT1101 in particular by themselves in the SIS. We also do not suggest students dropping the other pre-registered subclasses as quota is limited and there is NO GUARANTEE that you will be given a seat again if you dropped the pre-registered course in the SIS on your own.

Time clash, no matter how short the duration, is not allowed. As mentioned, there is no guarantee that a seat will be available again once you dropped the pre-registered subclasses. You may need to take the other courses in future semesters, or you may see if they offer other subclasses and can try to reschedule your enrollment.

While some core courses will be pre-registered for you, you need to select the remaining required courses for the academic year 2024-2025 and enroll them in the SIS by yourself during the coming course selection period, which starts on August 20. Please be reminded of the credit load for each semester as I have mentioned earlier.

Generally speaking, most undergraduate courses carry 6 credits each. With the study-load range being 24 to 36 credits for each regular semester, you can take 4 to 6 courses.  As for the summer semester, you may at most enrol in 12 credits, that is, 2 courses. Please also note that the yearly load is 60 to 72 credits (including the summer semester). That means you should take 10 to 12 courses in each academic year. A note that summer courses are normally offered to non-final year students only.

Yes, pre-registered courses will be counted towards your study load.

No. Please refer to the regulations of your intake, and in general, our 4-year undergraduate programmes require not fewer than 240 credits of courses, with the exception of the BBA(Law)&LLB programme, which is a 5-year double-degree programme and it requires not fewer than 300 credits of courses.

Dual degree students should refer to the course enrolment email for information about the total credit requirements for the dual degree curriculum.

The credit load could vary for different full-year courses. Students may email the course offering department or faculty to check if there is a specific full-year course they are interested in. As for enrollment in full-year courses, BBA(Law)&LLB students in particular, will be required to take several full-year Law courses over the course of their study. They may refer to the course selection email and the important notes sent to all BBA(Law)&LLB freshmen for detailed instructions on how to enroll these full-year Law courses. Other students may email the Faculty Office if they encounter difficulties enrolling other full-year courses.

In case there is a genuine need for credit overload or underload, please seek prior approval from the School. The application form can be downloaded from our School's website. Students should provide relevant supporting documents and valid justification along with their application.

CAES1000 is a compulsory course for all Year 1 students unless exemption or advanced standing has been granted.  Students who have achieved Level 5 or above in English Language in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), or equivalent, may be exempted from the CUE requirement, and CAES1000 is optional. Those who do not take CAES1000 should take a 6-credit free elective course in lieu.  For students admitted via JUPAS that have achieved Level 5 or above in the HKDSE English Language, you are automatically exempted from CAES1000. As for students admitted via non-JUPAS, International Admissions or Mainland Admissions Scheme who have attained the equivalencies of Level 5 or above in HKDSE English Language, you are eligible to apply for exemption from CAES1000. Please refer to the exemption criteria and arrangements on our website.

For students who have applied for exemption from CAES1000 and waiting for the result to be released, they are advised to enrol CAES1000 in semester 2 during the course selection period and drop the course later on during the semester 2 add/drop period if exemption approval is granted. Those who do not take this course should take an elective course in lieu.

If you have not studied Chinese language during secondary education or have not attained the requisite level of competence in the Chinese language to take the course, you may apply for exemption and take a 6-credit Cantonese or Putonghua language course offered by the School of Chinese or a free elective course in lieu. Again, please refer to our website for the application arrangements or to the course selection email you will receive later today. Please understand that only requests with genuine grounds will be considered.

For non-local Putonghua/Mandarin-speaking students, they should take a 6-credit Chinese Language Enhancement Programme course for non-local Putonghua/Mandarin-speaking students (i.e. CUNDxxxx course) instead.

To fulfil the Common Core Curriculum, students are generally required to complete a total of 36 credits, comprising at least one and not more than two courses from each Area of Inquiry, with not more than 24 credits of courses being selected within one academic year except where you are required to make up for failed credits. As for dual degree students, you should complete 24 credits of Common Core courses comprising one course from each Area of Inquiry.  

You may refer to your programme-specific suggested order of study for the number of common core courses you should take in your first year of study. You may also want to note that course approval of Common Core courses will be on a first-come-first-served basis during the course selection period, while auto-ballot will be performed during the add/drop period. You can visit the Common Core Curriculum's website for more information and peer tips on how to select your common core courses.

Yes, students may declare optional major/minor within or outside our School. However, majors and minors of the same discipline are impermissible combinations. You can refer to our website for majors/minors offered by our School. As for other majors/minors, please contact the offering Faculty/Department on the requirements.

Please also take note that with your major/minor declaration, you must keep within 360 credits for BBA(Law)&LLB students and 288 credits for students under other programmes. Also, if you have fulfilled all curriculum requirements for graduation but fail to complete the requirements for any optional major/minor, you will NOT be allowed to defer your studies.

Major/minor declaration can be done via the Student Information System (SIS) from the pre-enrolment period in late July/early August before the commencement of the second year of study.  You may change your declaration in the subsequent pre-enrolment periods, course selection periods, or add/drop periods, but you must be finalized the declaration by the September add/drop period in the first semester of your fourth year of study. For BBA(Law)&LLB double-degree students, the declaration must be finalized by the September add/drop period in the first semester of their fifth year of study.

You can visit HKU's Academic Advising and Scholarships Office's website for a list of Majors and Minors offered by different Faculties. You should check whether there are any specific requirements in declaring the concerned major or minor. You must also keep within the maxmium credit load of your specific programme like I mentioned earlier.

Several majors offered by our School require a selection process, such as Major in Asset Management and Private Banking, Major in Entrepreneurship, Design and Innovation, and Major in Quantitative Finance. If your programme allows for a declaration of the above majors and that you are interested in them, you may refer to our School's website for more details on the selection processes. Please also be reminded that majors and minors of the same discipline are impermissible combinations and you should check carefully.

Majors generally require not fewer than 72 credits nor more than 96 credits and minors generally require not fewer than 36 credits nor more than 48 credits unless otherwise specified. Once again, you can visit the Academic Advising and Scholarships Office's website for more details on the structure and credits required for specific majors and minors.

No, your declaration of an optional major/minor offered by our School will not guarantee you a place in courses for fulfilment of the major/minor requirements.

Courses shall not be double-counted in your major or minor programmes offered by our School, except for the four Faculty Core courses in the combination of “double-major”. Where a course applies to more than one major or minor programme, an advanced level disciplinary elective in the second major or minor must be taken in lieu of the overlapped course. For other majors or minors, please check with the respective major or minor offering Faculty.

No, you will not be able to enroll in more than 36 credits in a regular semester by yourself in the SIS. The system will bar you from doing so. Please plan accordingly.

No. If a course is full, it will be closed and SIS will not allow further enrolment. For a higher chance for approval, if there are more than one subclass for the course, please see if you can reschedule your enrolment and add a subclass with more vacancies. You can refer to the enrollment statistics of courses offered by our School which have been posted on our School's website, for reference. If the other subclasses cannot fit your enrolment, you may need to consider taking the courses in future semesters or academic years.

A reminder that your course enrolment should be finalised before the end of the add/drop period of the semester concerned.  Please make sure that you have enrolled all courses required and will be able to meet the study load for the semester. No further amendment can be made after the add/drop period.

One of the reasons you might be disapproved from a course offered by our School would be that the quota is limited and that the number of students who wish to enroll the course exceeds the remaining quota. If that is the case, you may try to enroll other less competitive subclasses if there are any, for a better chance of approval. Students might also continuously add and drop courses during the course selection and add/drop periods, and you can keep an eye out to see if a spot becomes vacant, and you can try enrolling it again. There is however no guarantee for approval.

For courses offered by our School, you may refer to the timetable posted on our website for the detailed timeslot of different subclasses and their corresponding course teachers. For courses offered by other Faculties, please check with the respective offering Departments/Schools/Faculties directly.

The suspension period is to facilitate staff members to grant course approval and for course auto-balloting, where applicable.  No course approval will be performed until the suspension period, and you are not allowed to amend your course enrollment during the suspension period. You may then check your course selection status and ballot result online and can make further changes to your course selection when suspension period ends.

Please note that the Course Selection Period ends at 4 pm on August 26, 2024 (Monday) and you cannot make enrollment changes until the September add/drop period. The add/drop period for Semester 1 of 2024-2025 starts at 10 am on September 2, 2024 and ends at 4 pm on September 16, 2024. No further amendment on course enrollment can be made after the add/drop period.

You are expected to have met all pre/co-requisite requirements for enrolment in courses offered by our School. Please refer to the enrolment requirements stated in the SIS. You will not be able to enroll the course in SIS if you have not met the enrollment requirements.

You should not further enrol in courses that have been granted advanced standing credits. For example, if advanced standing is granted for the Chinese Language Enhancement course, you should not further enrol in the Chinese Language Enhancement course prescribed for your curriculum, for example, CBBL9001 for BBA(Law)&LLB students, or a CUNDxxxx course for non-local Putonghua/Mandarin-speaking students. Please take note of the remarks stated in the advanced standing notification letter upon receipt.

We will try to inform applicants of the results as soon as possible. As applications are reviewed case-by-case, if you have applied for advanced standing and have further questions on this matter, please email the Faculty Office so we may review your individual circumstance and provide more accurate advice.

It is a system code for showing which semester and subclass the class is offering at. For example, section "1A" means the course is offering in semester 1 as subclass A.

Not every course comes with tutorial section. The course instructors will provide more information to the students about tutorials sign-up after semester begins, where applicable.

The suggested order of study is designed to facilitate students' timely completion of curriculum requirements especially for programmes with advanced courses that have certain pre-requisites. You may feel free to change the study order of electives, as long as it is within the prescribed study load range and that all pre-requisites are met. You should however seek the School’s prior approval if you wish to change the order of study for Common Core course(s) or compulsory course(s).

No, you are not allowed to enroll in courses where significant portions of the course content overlap with each other, or where the courses are mutually exclusive. A list of “Mutually Exclusive Courses for FBE Students” is appended at the end of the syllabus for “FBE Majors and Minors”. You may refer to the one of your intake year on our School's website.

UG5E1001 is an online course which adopts a self-directed learning approach.  Students will have the flexibility to take the course in any semester throughout their period of study.  Enrollment on the course is automatic. Please refer to the CEDARS-General Education website for more information about UG5E1001.

All course enrollments must be conducted online via the Student Information System (SIS). If you encounter any difficulties enrolling courses via the SIS, please feel free to write to the Faculty Office for assistance.

Just a reminder that you should check your final course enrollment via the SIS, usually one week after the add/drop period. It is your obligation to check and confirm your enrollment is correct.