Hall Application Information for Residential Year 2023-24 (Continuing UG Students)

Hall Application Period: 22 March - 12 April 2023
  

 

Important Points to Note:

  1. Application for student housing in 2023-24 is only accepted once a year for the entire Residential Year 2023-24. Students who wish to apply for any residential periods in 2023-24 (e.g. Fall Term 2023 or Spring Term 2024 only) or have unconfirmed plans yet shall consider submitting the application within the application period. 
     
  2. Applications are NOT on first-come-first-served basis; all applications received within the application period will be processed together.
     
  3. Online system for applications and acceptance of hall offers is closed automatically by the respective deadlines. Late submission of applications / late acceptance of hall offers will not be considered. Only submissions successfully recorded in the online system will be considered and processed.
      
  4. Upon successful submission of application / acceptance form via the online system, an acknowledgment email will be sent to the applicants' HKUST ITSC email address. Applicants should make sure that they check their mailbox including the spam and junk mail folders for the acknowledgment email. Students who do not receive an acknowledgment email may consider that their submission as NOT successful and should submit again before the respective deadlines. 
     
  5. After a student has submitted the hall application, the information on the online system cannot be changed. If applicants wish to change the reported information, they should write to ughousing@ust.hk before the application deadline. No changes will be considered after the application deadline.
     
  6. All applicants must provide accurate and complete information in the hall application. Provision of inaccurate or incomplete information may lead to disqualification and cancellation of the housing application and associated offer and may be subject to further disciplinary action.
Residential Period

Full residential year hall offers are normally offered to successful applicants. No requests for adjustment of residential period would be accepted unless students are on leave of study or going on exchange.  

Residential Year Periods (both nights inclusive)
Full Residential Year 2023-24 27 August 2023 - 2 June 2024

 

Students are required to arrange other sources of accommodation on their own before and after the offered hall residential period. Early check-in or late check-out will NOT be arranged.

 

Important Dates
Procedure Dates
Online Hall Application 22 March 2023 00:01 (HKT) - 12 April 2023 23:59 (HKT)
Submission of Required Proof of Home Address Submission Schedule is available in the section "Verification of Reported Home Address"
Submission of Proofs of Outstanding Achievements Within the Application Period
(22 March - 12 April 2023)
Release of Hall Application Results

Hall application result will be announced before the 2nd week of June.

Online Acceptance of Hall Offer (1st Batch of Main Round Offers)

Around End of May or Early June 2023

Release of Room Assignment Results & Payment of Hall Charges

Late July or Early August 2023
Check-in Date & Time 27 August 2023 after 10:00 (HKT)
Check-out Date & Time 3 June 2024 before 12:00 (HKT)
 
Application Method


Click here to submit application for Regular Residential Year > https://studenthousing.hkust.edu.hk/page/applyhall
 
Only those who have successfully submitted a hall application within the specified application period will be considered for student accommodation in the Residential Year 2023-24 according to the Hall Allocation Policy, including those under the priority stream and hall point system.

Guidelines for Underage Students

Underage students (i.e. those who are under the age of 18 as of 1 September of the each year they are applying) are eligible for hall residence by completing the required procedures in the hall application, such that written approval from their parents/ legal guardians indicating their acknowledgment and understanding that allocation of hall place does not constitute the University acting in loco parentis is sought.

Underage students will be requested to return the Parental Consent Form for Accommodation for Underage Students in an email attachment to ughousing@ust.hk within the specified period as given by the Student Housing and Residential Life Office. For students under the age of 16, additional assessment will be conducted on students' readiness to reside without their parents/ legal guardians in an adult environment. 

The handling of hall applications for underage students is summarized as follows:

Age
(As of 1 Sep)
Parental Consent Form
for Hall Application
Additional Assessment Inform Residence Masters before Start of Residential Term
17 Required Not Required Yes
Below 16 Required Required Yes

 

The Student Housing and Residential Life Office would not process the applications if underage students fail to do as instructed. 

Acceptance of Hall Offer

Successful hall applicants will receive a Hall Offer Letter via emails stating the instructions to confirm the hall offer acceptance on the online hall system. They are required to follow instructions to confirm their acceptance of hall offers online within 3 calendar days. Failure to complete the online acceptance by the deadline will result in cancellation of hall offer. No late acceptance of hall offer will be considered. 

Important Note to Non-Local Continuing Students: 

Non-local UGs are NOT guaranteed University housing starting in their 3rd year since being admitted to the University. Students are advised to plan ahead for their accommodation arrangements. If they are interested in living outside of HKUST campus, they may approach the Off-Campus Housing Section of the Student Housing and Residential Life Office at off-camphouse@ust.hk for assistance. Information on off-campus accommodation is also available online.

They may still apply for on-campus accommodation but spaces are extremely limited and allocated according to a hall point system, and then lottery after hall places are allocated to those with higher hall points among non-local/ local students with no home base in HK. 

Important Note to Students who are Currently/ Plan to be On Leave of Study/ On Exchange: 

Please note that the admission exercise for the Residential Year 2023-24 is conducted ONCE ONLY. Students who wish to apply for student housing for the Residential Year 2023-24 are required to submit their applications during the application period regardless of their current registration status. Students with unconfirmed leave / exchange plan in 2023-24 should also submit a hall application within the application period as there will NOT be an additional round of hall applications. Late applications will NOT be considered after the deadline.

Verification of Reported Home Address

According to the UG Hall Allocation Policy, hall applicants are divided into 2 separate pools in consideration of their status as local or non-local students, as well as the applicants' home addresses indicated in the housing applications. As such, students are required to submit documentary proof(s) to substantiate their claim on home address.

Local applicants with a home base in HK should refer to the details on the Travelling Time to Campus (e.g. travelling time and the determination methods of home travelling time) in the UG Hall Allocation Policy before submitting an application.

All applicants are reminded that the information provided in housing applications must be accurate and complete. Provision of inaccurate or incomplete information may lead to disqualification of the application and disciplinary action.

Submission of Address Proof

Non-Local Applicants

Applicants who are verified as non-local UG students (according to the records at the Academic Registry at the time of submission of application) are not required to submit an address proof.

Local Applicants with a Home Address in Hong Kong

Year 2 or above hall applicants under this category will be requested to submit relevant proofs to substantiate their reported home address for travelling time calculation. Upon request by the Student Housing and Residential Life Office, students are required to submit documents required including utility bills, bank statements and/or other personal residential proofs. Please make reference to the Schedule of Address Proof Submission tabled below and get ready the required documents.

Some students may be required to submit additional proofs as supporting when requested. Examples of the documents required are:

  • Tenancy Agreement (for public housing estates), or Recent Rate Receipt (for self-owned flat), or Stamped Tenancy Agreement (for rented flat), bearing names of parents
  • Most recent utility bill(s) bearing names of parents
  • Letters sent by the HKSAR Government / mobile bills / bank statements bearing your name within most recent 4 months
  • Proof of relationship between the applicant and parents (e.g. birth certificate)

Schedule of Address Proof Submission
Application Submission Date Submission of Address Proof (Tentative)
22 March - 27 March 2023 28 March - 11 April 2023
28 March - 1 April 2023 2 April - 16 April 2023
2 April - 6 April 2023 11 April - 21 April 2023
7 April - 12 April 2023 17 April - 28 April 2023

 

 

Local Applicants who Claim to have a Home Address Outside Hong Kong

To be eligible for a Local Student with No Home Base (NHB), students are required to submit hall application with the required documentary proof in their housing application within a period as determined by SHRLO within April 2023. Only when the application is approved will successful applicants be confirmed as NHB. 

Applicants under this category will be requested to submit relevant address proofs to substantiate the claimed home address. Examples of the required documents are:

  • Proof of home address outside of Hong Kong of BOTH parents (e.g. utility bills, bank statements, etc.)
  • Proof of BOTH parents' work outside of Hong Kong
  • Student's education history
  • Proof of Relationship between student and his/her parent (e.g. birth certificate)

 

For Continuing UG students reporting to have no home base in Hong Kong for the 1st time in their non-1st year of study OR have changed home base from Hong Kong to elsewhere outside Hong Kong, applicants concerned should submit the following additional information: 

  • Reason of parents not arranging accommodation for applicants
  • Reason of moving out of Hong Kong and the date of move (in written format)
  • Proof of termination of the last reported home address which states the address is no longer available to family of the applicant (e.g. lease termination/ sales agreement)
     

 

Applicants should note that any submitted documents may be further reviewed by the Hall Admissions and Selection Committee. Applicants may be asked to submit supplementary documents by a stipulated deadline. Applications will be rejected if applicants fail to provide proofs as required by the stipulated deadline, unless further advice on subsequent handling of the applications by the Hall Admissions and Selection Committee is sought. 
 
Applicants should contact the Student Housing and Residential Life Office in case of doubts.

Verification of Reported Information on Leadership and Contribution to Campus Life

Applicants who are not offered under the Priority Stream and would like to be considered for Leadership and Contribution to Campus Life under the hall point system will be requested to declare in their hall applications to be holding any post(s) or leadership role(s) of the eligible student bodies/ teams in their housing applications within the application period. Submission of documentary proof in individual housing applications for this section is not required.

According to the UG Hall Allocation Policy, a certain hall points will be given to students, in the section of Leadership and Contribution to Campus Life, according to the corresponding categories, positions and their status as local or non-local/ NHB students subject to verification by the Student Housing and Residential Life Office. 

Required Information from Eligible Student Bodies/ Teams

SHRLO works with Schools and University Offices (e.g. Student Support and Activities Team, Sports Development Team under the Dean of Students' Office, etc.) for assigning hall points to serving positions of eligible student bodies/ teams. Eligible student bodies/ teams will receive detailed information on the terms and arrangements from the Dean of Students' Office/ Schools/ Departments/ Centers/ Offices for submitting lists of required information by a specified deadline, normally before the end of April 2023, or the 1st week of May 2023 at the latest. Upon receipt of the lists, SHRLO will verify the information against the information submitted by individual hall applicants.

Eligible student bodies/ teams will be requested to submit TWO lists of their students' information for SHRLO verification via the respective University units, one list is for the CURRENT YEAR (i.e. Session 2022-23 covering the term of service between September 2022 and January 2023), and another list for the COMING YEAR (i.e. Session 2023-24 covering the term of service between February 2023 and May 2024). The other information required such as name of student bodies/ teams, student names, student ID, ITSC email, positions held, nomination(s) for higher points per term of service, etc. will also be requested. 

Students are advised to approach the record-reporting units for amendments before and/or during the hall application period to avoid missing records or errors. 

Only verified name lists of serving positions in the eligible student bodies/ teams as endorsed by respective University units will be considered for hall points awarded to the section of Leadership and Contribution to Campus Life

Hall points are only valid for applicants who successfully submitted their hall applications within the hall application period with serving positions verified during the specified period. Failure to either report the serving position(s) in the hall applications, or to submit the required information to SHRLO via University units by the specified deadline will result in cancellation of hall points in this section as the declared serving position(s) cannot be verified by SHRLO.

 

Students should report IMMEDIATELY if there is a change of the reported serving roles/positions by writing to ughousing@ust.hk. Students concerned will be subject to disciplinary actions if they fail to report to SHRLO promptly. Such cases will be reviewed by the Hall Admissions and Selection Committee.

Verification of Outstanding Achievements

Applicants who are not offered under the Priority Stream and would like to be considered for Outstanding Achievements under the hall point system will be requested to indicate the outstanding achievement(s) and submit respective proof(s) as attachment(s) in their housing applications within the application period.  Submission of proofs after the application deadline will not be accepted. Applicants should also take note of the following: 

  • The events or awards must be city level or above and sufficient evidence must be shown to prove that the applicant represented HKUST/ HKSAR/ students' home countries in the events or awards
  • City level or above events refers to those in which participants are open at the state, province, sub-provincial, autonomous area, special administrative region, or directly-administrated municipalities scale. For example, the Business Case Competition (HK and China/ overseas region) organized by Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, who is open to all undergraduate students in Hong Kong (and China/overseas region) can be accepted. On the other hand, case competition organized by individual School Departments or inter-Universities societies will not be accepted
  • Acceptable achievement/ award proofs include certificates, medals, formal documents or notifications such as letter or email with official English translation issued by recognized institutes such as government bodies, public listed companies, academic institutions or non-governmental organizations
  • Full name of applicants and date of issuance should be shown on the achievement proofs
  • All proofs of each reported achievement should be combined into a single file for uploading to the online hall system within the application period. A maximum of 4 files can be accepted by the system.
  • Only achievements/ awards with documents issued between 1 January 2022 and 31 March 2023 will be considered
  • For hall applications after Residential Year 2023-24, only achievement/ awards issued in the past 1 year will be considered. In other words, outstanding achievements issued between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 will be accepted for application for Residential Year 2024-25
     

The reported events/ awards in their applications will be subject to further verification by the Student Housing and Residential Life Office before the corresponding hall points are awarded according to the hall allocation policy. In case of any dispute, the applications concerned will be brought to the deliberation and consideration of the Hall Admissions and Selection Committee for a final decision and interpretation. 

 

Announcement of Hall Application Results

Hall Application Results will be announced before the 2nd week of June. Results will be sent to applicants' HKUST ITSC email address.
 
It is the responsibility of the applicants to check with the Student Housing and Residential Life Office either in person or by writing to ughousing@ust.hk if they do not receive any notifications by early June 2023.

Residence Masters’ Discretion

Applicants who are in situations demonstrating exceptional hardships may apply to the Residence Masters’ Discretionary Committee for special consideration. Applicants should indicate a detailed description of their circumstances and provide supporting documents if applicable in their housing applications within the application period. Cases will be reviewed by the Residence Masters’ Discretionary Committee.

After the release of hall application results, applicants not receiving any housing offer but who demonstrate exceptional need or hardship may contact ughousing@ust.hk, with detailed description of their circumstances and supporting documents for special consideration. 

Hall Charges & Payment

The table below lists the hall charges for the Residential Year 2023-24 for Continuing UG students for reference only, and may subject to further changes until around June 2023, before the room assignment is processed.

Room Type Available In Charge (HK$)
    Local Students Non-Local Students
Double Room UG Halls I, II, III, IV, VI 18,265 22,761
UG Halls VII, VIII, IX 22,199 28,100
Jockey Club Hall 23,604 30,348
Triple Room UG Halls II, III, IV, VI 13,769 17,141
Bunk Bed Room UG Hall V 15,174 19,108
Single Room UG Hall VII 30,067 37,935
UG Halls VIII, IX 32,877 41,869

 

Remark:

  1. Hall charges listed exclude air-conditioning and laundry charges. Room type(s) available depends on the hall allocated to successful applicants under the mechanism in the hall policy; there are no room type selection / preferences in the hall application.
  2. Hall fee for full residential year will be charged in 2 installments; charge for each installment are calculated on pro-rata basis.
  3. Hall charges must be paid in FULL. Any hall fee paid are non-refundable and non-transferable.
  4. Students with financial difficulty may submit application for payment deferment to the Scholarships and Financial Aid Office.
Hall & Room Allocation

Hall Allocation

 

Applicants are required to indicate 3 hall preferences in the housing application.

All successful hall applicants will be considered together in the order from 1st to 3rd hall preference. A system-generated random number is applied in each hall preference indicated by the applicant, in case the demand for a particular hall is greater than supply - in which case, allocation to the hall is determined randomly. In the case that applicants are not assigned to any of their preferred hall(s) due to high demand and limited supply, they will be assigned to any hall on a random basis. 

Please note that Therapy Dogs are currently residing in UG Hall VII and UG Hall IX. Applicants should take note of this when indicating their hall preferences. 

Applicants may refer to the policy or the illustration below on the hall allocation mechanism. Please refer to the flowchart on the handling of hall preferences. 


 
Room Allocation

Room allocation is carried out on a random basis. Details of room and room type will be sent to successful applicants in around late July 2023 after they have accepted the hall offer.

Waiting List

Eligible local and non-local/ local with no home base hall applicants who do not receive a hall offer for the Residential Year 2023-24 in the admission streams will be placed on 2 separate waiting lists of their respective pools, i.e. a waiting list for local students and another waiting list for non-local or local students with no home base in HK. The corresponding waiting list rankings will be available here for students' checking and will be updated after each round of top-up exercise.


General admission procedures (e.g. acceptance of hall offer) still apply and are required to be completed by the applicants receiving top-up offers within the specified period as indicated in the hall offer letters. Schedules of procedures of receiving top-up offers differ from the schedule announced above and the successful applicants will be informed by email individually.


Failure in completing any of the required procedures within the given deadlines shall result in cancellation of hall offers. 


Top-up hall offers will be issued once there are hall places recovered from non-acceptance, decline of hall offers and withdrawal of hall applications. Students on the waitlists will then be contacted with an offer of University housing according to their ranking on the respective waitlists. The first topping-up exercise is tentatively scheduled to be carried out in June 2023, while the second round will be carried out before the commencement of the residential period in around August 2023 subject to availability of hall places remaining. However, waitlisted applicants should be prepared for not getting any hall offers and are advised to plan ahead for their accommodation arrangements.

Off-campus Accommodation Options

If students wish to consider self-arranged off-campus accommodation, they may approach the Off-Campus Housing Section of the Student Housing and Residential Life Office at offcamphouse@ust.hk for assistance in sourcing off-campus accommodation in the private market and for the tips on property renting here.
 
Information on off-campus accommodation is also available online.

Support for Calculation of Hall Point

Hall Point Calculator provides hall applicants with a preliminary result of hall points they would likely be received under the Hall Point System. Applicants can input information following the sequences of questions in the Calculator to generate the hall point result.  Please click here to try it out. 

 

Applicants should understand that the hall point calculation results are estimates for reference only. The Student Housing and Residential Life Office is not responsible for the accuracy of projections in relation to the calculator.