21 April 2011 Dear Engineering Exchange Students ... - seng, hkust

21 April 2011
Dear Engineering Exchange Students,
Welcome to HKUST! To help prepare you for the study abroad term at HKUST, we have prepared
this detailed information kit. Please read through this document carefully and visit the following
websites for more details.
School of Engineering (SENG)
http://www.seng.ust.hk/exchange/intl.html
then click the “Post Admission Details” icon on the left hand side
Global Student Office (GSO)
http://gso.ust.hk/
Student Housing Office (SHO)
http://sao.ust.hk/housing
You are required to complete a set of documents and return them to HKUST for processing by the
specified deadlines, which we will explain in the following.
1. Term Dates for 2011-2012
The term dates of 2011-2012 are as follows:-
Fall Term: 1 September 2011 – 21 December 2011
Spring Term: 1 February 2012 – 25 May 2012
Please do NOT plan on leaving Hong Kong before the end date of the term that you spend
with us as this may disable you from sitting for your final exams. Absence from final exam
will result in loss of mark for the exam and thus most likely failure in the course. For the
provisional calendar dates of 2011-2012, please refer to HKUST website at
http://www.ust.hk/vpaao/calendar_dates/dates2011prov.pdf
2. Orientation
Orientation for exchange students is tentatively scheduled for the morning of 31 August 2011
(Wednesday). There are 2 orientation sessions for you. The first one is organized by the
University and is designed to help exchange students get to know more about Hong Kong and
the campus. Immediately following the University orientation is the Engineering orientation
session, which is offered exclusively to exchange students joining the School of Engineering.
The School session will focus on academic information, such as course registration and
selection, learning Chinese language, exam arrangements, grading system, etc. You will also
be asked to complete the paperwork for issuing official transcripts for your study at HKUST
during their session. These orientation sessions are compulsory and you are required to
arrive at HKUST no later than 29 August 2011 in order to attend them.

3. Course Registration
3.1 Course registration period for Fall 2011-2012 is scheduled in August 2011. Exact
dates and further details will be announced to students via e-mail in July 2011. Please
watch out for e-mails from SENG around that time. If there is any change in your
e-mail address (i.e. different from the one that you put down on your application form
for admission), please let me know by email at egstella@ust.hk as soon as possible.
Otherwise, you may lose track of the information and fail to register your desired
courses.
3.2 For administrative convenience and as necessitated by on-campus housing allocation,
our School categorizes all engineering exchange students as “undergraduates” (UG),
including those of you who are pursuing a master’s degree at your home university.
3.3 Course registration is done by students on their own via internet. Students must have
internet access in order to register for courses. You will receive email regarding the
procedures to activate your own account for accessing the course registration system in
July 2011. Please write to me at egstella@ust.hk if you do not receive the
information by 31 July 2011.
4. Course Selection
When devising your study plan at HKUST, please pay attention to the following points.
4.1 The Academic Calendar is the official publication by HKUST listing all its approved
courses. The 2011-12 Course Catalog is not available yet. For the time being, please
refer to the 2010-11 Course Catalog on-line at
http://publish.ust.hk/calendar/ “Course Descriptions”
Please take some time to go through the course description before deciding on the
courses you are going to take. In particular, please pay attention to the prerequisite,
which is specified at the end of the description of the course in the Course Catalog.
In all cases, students must meet the prerequisite specified for a course in order to enrol
into it, e.g. by having completed a course similar to the prerequisite at their home
university.
4.2 Not all the courses that you find in the Course Catalog are offered every term. To
help you devise your study plan, the School of Engineering has compiled a tentative
list of engineering courses to be offered in Fall 2011-2012 with the help of engineering
departments and post it on the SENG exchange website in July. Offer of
non-engineering courses will be added to the web once available. But please note
that the information is subject to revision by the offering departments without prior
notice. The finalised course offer information and class timetable will be released by
the university around early August 2011. We will inform you of this by e-mail in due
course.
4.3 Exchange students are expected to maintain a full-time study load with no less than 12
credits per term. The normal study is 15 credits per term and the maximum is 18
credits per term. As UG students, you are required to obtain approval from the course
instructors in order to enrol into postgraduate (PG) courses (i.e. courses at 500-level or
above.) Further information on how to do this will be provided when we announce
the course registration procedures and policies to you in August. Requests to take more
than 18 credits in one term are normally not entertained.
4.4 Students who wish to work on research under supervision of HKUST faculty have to
approach the professors on their own and work out the details of the research project,
such as topics, value of credit, amount of work involved, number of meetings with
supervisor, etc. To register the project work on the official transcript, the student

must also register for a project course WITHIN THE COURSE REGISTRATION
PERIOD. Students can find out more about the research work undertaken by
HKUST faculty at
http://research.ust.hk/
Please understand that the research project work is NOT part of the exchange program
and we cannot guarantee project work for any exchange student. Should a student
manage to work out a research project with a professor, he should also realise that the
research work is by no means accepted as an excuse for taking less than the minimum
credit load expected for each term. However, the credits designated to the project
course can count towards the total credit load of the student for that term.
4.5 Subject to availability of places and fulfilment of course prerequisites, you may enrol
into other non-engineering courses outside the School of Engineering. For your easy
reference, courses offered by the School of Engineering are identified by the following
course codes:
CENG, CIVL, COMP, ELEC, IELM, MECH, ENGG
4.6 Some courses are earmarked for special programs (mostly self-financed PG programs).
Students who are not enrolled in these special programs are not allowed to register for
their courses. These courses are identified by the following prefixes in the course
codes:
BMGB, BTEC, CIEM, CSIT, EEMT, EESM, EMBA, EVNG, EVSM, FYTG,
GFIN, HLTH, IBTM, IMBA, JEVE, LABU, LAGR, MAFS, MALS, MASE,
MESF, MGMT, MTM, NANO, PDEV, SBMT, SCED, SCIE, SHSS, SSMA,
TEMG, TYSP, UROP
4.7 Business courses at postgraduate (PG) level (i.e. 500-level or above) are reserved for
special business programs and are closed to any student who is not in the program.
Therefore, exchange students admitted to the School of Engineering should NOT plan
on taking business courses at PG level. Business courses are identified by the
following prefixes in the course codes:
ACCT, ECON, FINA, ISOM, MARK, MGMT, SBMT, GFIN
4.8 Some of the Humanities (HUMA) courses and some of the Social Science (SOSC)
courses require solid knowledge in the Chinese language. These courses are marked
with [C], [Ca] or [Pu] next to the course title found in the Course Catalog. Students
without knowledge in the Chinese language should not enrol into these courses. The
School of Humanities and Social Science will identify those courses that do NOT
require Chinese language background so as to facilitate exchange students in selecting
the appropriate courses. Meanwhile, you may refer to the course description in the
Course Catalog and look for the signs [C], [Ca] and [Pu] for a preliminary indication.
4.9 Some exchange students may wish to learn some functional Chinese for daily
communication. When talking about Chinese language in Hong Kong, we usually
refer to either Cantonese (i.e. the local Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong), and
Putonghua (i.e. Mandarin, which is the official language of PRC). There is a pair of
courses on Putonghua that are designed for students who have no prior knowledge of
the Chinese language at all. They are LANG113, LANG114, LANG115 and
LANG116. Interested students can register for these courses on-line during official
course registration period. Such courses carry credits and will be recorded in the
HKUST transcripts. Please note that all other courses on Chinese language that you
find in the University’s Course Catalog are intended for students who have already got
a solid foundation in the language, and are thus not suitable for exchange students.

4.10 If you wish to learn some Putonghua without committing too much effort and time to
the courses, you may consider subscribing to the fee-paying Putonghua courses offered
by the Language Center. Details of these courses will be announced to all students at
the beginning of the term. Students have to apply directly to the Language Center
and pay to the Center if they are accepted into the courses. These courses do not
carry credits and will not appear on HKUST transcripts. HKUST does not offer
courses with credits on Cantonese. Therefore, students who would like to learn some
Cantonese can only subscribe to the fee-paying Cantonese classes offered by the
Language Center. The procedures and policies are the same as the fee-paying
Putonghua classes.
4.11 The vector [x-x-x:x] next to the course title indicates the lecture hours per week,
tutorial hours per week, laboratory hours per week and the credit value of the course
respectively.
5. Visit/Entry Permit Application
5.1 Those who do NOT have the right of abode in Hong Kong must obtain a student visa
in order to study in Hong Kong. To apply for the Hong Kong student visa, you
should follow the steps specified on the enclosed “Application for Student Visa/Entry
Permit – Instruction Sheet”.
5.2 You are required to register your accurate mailing address for visa application via the
online registration system: http://gso.ust.hk/studentvisa_address.html.
5.3 You have to submit “Application for Entry for Study in Hong Kong” (ID 995A) and
“Request for Routing the Student Visa Application through The Hong Kong University
of Science and Technology”, fill in and return them to the Global Student Office (GSO)
at the following for processing:
Global Student Office
Room 2581 Academic Building
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon
Hong Kong
Please remember to sign all the pages of the form before returning them to GSO.
5.4 It may take 4 to 6 weeks to process the visa application. To ensure that your student
visa can reach you before your departure, please return the complete set of visa
application to GSO at the address above not later than 31 May 2011.
5.5 To prevent delay in processing your application, please ensure that you have attached
with your visa application the information as specified in “Checklist of forms and
documents to be submitted for Visa/Entry Permit Application”.
5.6 HKUST recommends that students should have no less than HK$21,000 per term
(approximately USD2,700) to cover their expenses during the entire exchange period
at HKUST. Please note that the above amount is for one term of study only. Students
who stay at HKUST for 2 terms should certify an amount that is double of the figure.
Information on the cost of living in HK as required in Section 6 of Part A of the
application form ID 995A has already been filled out for you. Please fill in the other
parts and sections only, and sign it. Do NOT try to change the figures in Section 6.
5.7 Please ensure that all documents that you provide are written in English.
Applicants are required to provide an English translation of the documents if
they are written in another language. Students from non-English speaking
countries please pay special attention to this.

5.8 Once the visa label is ready, HKUST will collect it from the Hong Kong Immigration
Department. A visa fee will be charged against the credit card that you provide on
“Request for Routing the Student Visa Application through The Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology”. Once the visa fee is paid to the Hong Kong
Immigration Department, it is non-refundable and thus impossible to get the fee back
if you decide to withdraw from the exchange program after it is paid.
6. On-campus accommodation
6.1 Information on on-campus accommodation can be found at the SHO website.
The complete housing application form should be returned directly to the Student
Housing Office by 30 June 2011 the latest by fax or email. Owing to extremely
tight demand for on-campus housing, application received after 30 June 2011 may risk
being put on waiting list and failing to get a place in the end.
6.2 Please kindly read through the information before filling out the application form.
All exchange students will be allocated to double twin-bed rooms in the undergraduate
halls of residence.
6.3 The UST student number and program of study on the application form should be left
blank.
6.4 The earliest official check-in dates are specified at the SHO website. Students who
wish to check in ahead of the official earliest check-in date have to contact SHO
directly for arrangements by email at shoug@ust.hk.
7. Insurance
7.1 All exchange students are required to have sufficient insurance coverage for their
entire exchange period before registering with HKUST. Exchange students who study
at HKUST not longer than 6 months and do not have comparable insurance plans of
their own are required to subscribe to the ChubbExcel Comprehensive Travel
Insurance Plan recommended by HKUST.
Insurance plan: https://sao.ust.hk/studentlife/pdf/insurance_exchin_appnform.pdf
Application form: https://sao.ust.hk/studentlife/popup_insurance_nl_sprograms.html
7.2 Students who arrange for their own insurance coverage should ensure that the
coverage is comparable to that provided by the ChubbExcel plan. Please refer to the
coverage summary of the ChubbExcel plan for comparison. Some of the items are
especially for exchange students because of the mobility involved, and we see this is a
must for students, for example, medical evacuation, repatriation and mortal remains. If
your insurance plans do not cover these items, we strongly recommend you take out
ChubbExcel plan. A summary of a recommended coverage is enclosed.
7.3 The ChubbExcel plan offers coverage only up to 6 months. Students who plan to
study at HKUST for a period longer than 6 months MUST arrange for their own
coverage PRIOR TO arriving at HKUST.
7.4 Please note that application for the ChubbExcel Comprehensive Travel Insurance plan
has to be returned to the insurance company directly. Detailed mailing address is
provided on the application form.
7.5 If you plan to travel outside Hong Kong during the exchange period, please also see
that your own plan covers activities outside Hong Kong or you acquire additional
plans to cover your trips.

7.6 To ensure that each exchange student is aware of the necessity to have sufficient
insurance coverage for his exchange period at HKUST, all students (including those
who subscribe to the ChubbExcel Comprehensive Travel Insurance Plan) are required
to sign the Undertaking on Insurance Requirements for Exchange Students (Form
xin-01) to declare that they will take full responsibility to acquire sufficient insurance
coverage for their entire exchange period. The duly completed form must be scanned
and returned to the School of Engineering via egwylie@ust.hk. The School of
Engineering will NOT sponsor a student’s application for student visa if the student
does not return Form xin-01 with their student visa application. Without the
sponsorship of HKUST, it is impossible for students to apply for the student visa.
7.7 All exchange students who choose to arrange their own insurance coverage (i.e. not
subscribing to the ChubbExcel Travel Insurance Plan) are required to show proof of
their insurance to HKUST together with the visa application. The proof of plan can
be your insurance card and a copy of the insurance papers which detail the coverage
and the amount insured (breakdown by different insuring clause and benefits required).
An English translation of the documents is required if they are written in a language
other than English.
8. Buddy International Program
Finally, to help you settle down and get familiarized with HKUST and HK promptly, GSO is
organizing a buddy program for all exchange students. If you are interested in joining the
program and getting a buddy, please refer to GSO website which the details will be posted
once available.
9. Local Tours
To enable you to get a feel of the city of Hong Kong and a taste of its cultural heritage, the
GSO is also organizing a few local tours at a reasonable cost. Details of the tours will be
posted on the GSO website once available.
Attached to the end of this letter are the checklists of documents that have to be returned to HKUST.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by email at egstella@ust.hk.
Yours sincerely,
Stella Tham (Miss)
Executive Officer

Checklist of Documents
Items
Deadline
Documents to be returned to the Global Student Office (GSO)
To be returned to:
Global Student Office
Room 2581 Academic Building
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon
Hong Kong
1. Student Visa Application Form (ID 995A) with all supporting
documents specified on “Checklist of forms and documents to be
submitted for Visa/Entry Permit Application”.
2. Request for Routing the Student Visa Application through The Hong
Kong University of Science and Technology” and “Fee Payment
Authorization Form
3. Checklist of forms and documents to be submitted for Visa/Entry
Permit Application
31 May 2011
31 May 2011
31 May 2011
Documents to be returned to HKUST Student Housing Office
To be returned to:
Student Housing Office
G/F, UG Hall II
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon
HONG KONG
4. On-campus Housing Application 30 June 2011
Documents to be returned to the School of Engineering
To be returned to: egwylie@ust.hk
5. Undertaking on Insurance Requirements for Exchange Students (Form
xin-01)
6. Proof of insurance (if you do not subscribe to ChubbExcel Travel
Insurance)
31 May 2011
30 June 2011
OPTIONAL documents to be returned directly to insurance
company
7. ChubbExcel Travel Insurance Proposal Form 30 June 2011