Tuition Costs at HKU, CUHK and HKUST for Canadian Students

What HKU charges

HKU splits its international undergraduate tuition by faculty group for the 2026-27 academic year, according to HKU's admissions office . Programs in Architecture, Arts, Business and Economics, Education, Law, Social Sciences and the School of Future Media charge HKD 224,000 a year. Programs in Dentistry, Engineering, Medicine, Science, the School of Biomedical Engineering, the School of Computing and Data Science, and the School of Innovation charge HKD 249,000 a year, a HKD 25,000 gap tied to the higher lab and equipment cost of STEM-track programs.

What HKUST charges

HKUST runs a single flat rate rather than splitting by program. Non-local students pay HKD 215,000 a year for the 2026-27 academic year, close to USD 28,000, according to HKUST's admissions office . That puts HKUST below both HKU tiers, though a specific program's lab fees or field trip costs add to the base rate depending on your major.

CUHK: check the current figure directly

CUHK charges non-local undergraduates its own published tuition rate, set independently by CUHK each year the same way HKU and HKUST set theirs. That figure was not accessible from CUHK's admissions site during this research, so confirm the current amount on CUHK's own admissions pages before you compare it against HKU and HKUST, rather than assuming it lands between the two.

Table: at-a-glance comparison

What tuition does not cover

These figures cover tuition only. Budget separately for your student visa, housing, whether a university dorm or private rental, meals, textbooks, and Hong Kong's public health cover, which does not automatically extend to non-local students the way it does to Hong Kong ID holders. Hostel places at all three universities stay limited and often prioritize students by year and program, so apply for one as soon as your offer turns unconditional rather than waiting, the same offer process covered in applying to HKU, CUHK and HKUST as a non-JUPAS applicant.

Graduate tuition works differently

The figures above cover undergraduate programs. Taught postgraduate tuition, for a masters or a graduate diploma, is not a single published rate the way undergraduate tuition is. Each program sets its own fee, and an MBA, a one-year taught MSc and a research-based MPhil at the same university can carry very different price tags. Check the specific program's own admissions page for its current fee rather than assuming it scales from the undergraduate figures above. Research postgraduate students, including PhD candidates, generally pay a lower, separate research postgraduate tuition rate, and many cover it partly or fully through a scholarship or a teaching or research assistant stipend rather than out of pocket.

Entrance scholarships can offset the gap

All three universities run entrance scholarship competitions for incoming non-local undergraduates, separate from the tuition figures above, awarded automatically or by application depending on the program. Ask your faculty's admissions contact which entrance awards apply to your specific offer, since eligibility and value change by faculty and by cohort year, unlike Singapore's tuition grant scheme and the service bond it carries, and none of the three publishes a single university-wide amount that applies to every admitted student.

Paying tuition from Canada

All three universities accept international wire transfers, and most also work with a dedicated payment platform that locks in an exchange rate and tracks your payment through to the university's account. Check your specific offer letter for which payment platform your university uses rather than wiring funds directly to a bank account you found through a search, since scams targeting new international students target exactly this step.

Deposits and installments

Expect to pay a portion of first-year tuition as a deposit once you accept an unconditional offer, with the balance due closer to term start. Ask your specific faculty's admissions office whether it allows a split payment across the academic year rather than a single lump sum, since practice varies between faculties within the same university.

Currency conversion

The Hong Kong dollar trades in a tight, government-managed band against the US dollar, close to HKD 7.8 per USD 1, so HKD figures stay fairly stable in USD terms. Its value against the Canadian dollar moves with the broader CAD-USD exchange rate, so convert using a current rate close to your payment date rather than a fixed number from this article, since a shift of a few cents on the dollar changes a HKD 220,000 tuition bill by hundreds of Canadian dollars.

Tuition moves every year

All three universities revise tuition for new cohorts most academic years, generally announced months ahead of the intake it applies to. Treat the 2026-27 figures above as your planning baseline, then confirm the number for your actual entry year directly on each university's fee page before you commit to an offer or sign a housing lease, the same diligence worth applying if you're also comparing what non-EU tuition costs at Dutch universities.