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Research guide

RA, MPhil or PhD: name the thing you are applying for

A job, a taster and a degree are different applications. Pick one path for this round, then read that path's official rules.

Last checked 2026-10-25

This is a method guide, not a university rule

The split below helps you choose which page to read this round. How one university, department or year admits students is decided by that programme's official page.

Who this is for

Undergraduates, taught master's students and anyone at a Hong Kong university who is deciding whether to try research. It does not replace a graduate school or department rule.

Last checked

2026-10-25. A citation covers only the official page named below, as checked that day.

The point

A job, a short taster and a degree are different applications. Pick one path for this round, then read that path's official rules.

A few words stay separate:

  • RA here means a research-assistant role. It may have pay and a contract. It is not the same fact as admission to a degree.
  • MPhil and PhD are research degrees. Materials, supervision and funding follow that degree and that year.
  • RPg is a label some Hong Kong universities use for research postgraduate study. It is not the name of one scholarship.
  • PI means the person leading a group, often a possible supervisor. A name in an official directory is not proof that recruitment is open.
  • HKPFS is the Research Grants Council Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme. It has its own initial application, and you usually also submit a full application to the university you choose. Those are two submissions, not one deadline.

What to do

  1. Write down whether this round is a taster, an RA role or a degree. Keep one.
  2. Open that university's graduate school or programme page and copy its own name, year and materials.
  3. If the page says contacting a supervisor is optional, recommended or unmentioned, record the page's words. Do not rewrite them as "you must email first".
  4. Leave eligibility, dates and funding as unknown when the page does not state them.

An example

On the 2026-10-25 check of HKU Graduate School's "How to Apply", the university-level steps listed looking for or contacting a potential supervisor as optional. That describes the university-level steps. It does not describe one faculty, one supervisor or the 2027 programme.

Easy mistakes

  • Treating an RA interview as admission to a degree.
  • Copying one university's process onto the other seven.
  • Merging the RGC HKPFS deadline and a university deadline into one clock time.
  • Treating a page that still loads as an open vacancy.

Template

Use the direction card. Leave blanks unwritten.

Next step

Go to Getting started and narrow the field to a question you can try within two weeks.

Direction card

Narrow an interest into a question, a subject, what you know and a two-week task. A blank is unwritten, not a negative.

Question: 【未填写】
Subject: 【未填写】
What I know: 【未填写】
What I do not know: 【未填写】
Two-week task: 【未填写】
Next decision: continue, change the question, change the method, or pause. Blanks stay unwritten.

Blanks stay unwritten. Copying does not mark this as sent.

Sources