The Faculty of Arts is pleased to bring your attention to a fully funded opportunity for a postgraduate programme -- We are prepared to nominate outstanding UG final-year students and recent graduates for the Yenching Academy (Cohort 2027)!
About Yenching Academy
The Yenching Academy (YCA) offers a 2-year Master's programme in China Studies for English speakers with varied levels of Chinese language competency. YCA provides full fellowships to its Scholars. Scholars can choose courses from six research areas: Economics and Management, History and Archaeology, Law and Society, Literature and Culture, Philosophy and Religion, Politics and International Relations. They will also complete a thesis from one of these research areas. Please click the YCA website and the FAQ page for further information about the programme.
Application for YCA (Cohort 2027)
Part A: The Faculty's Nomination
The following candidates are eligible* to apply for the Faculty's nominations for YCA (Cohort 2027):
- Final-year students of HKU with a current CGPA of 3.30 or above and who are expected to complete their UG degree by July 2027; or
- Graduates of HKU who completed their UG degree with the First Class Honours or the Second Class Honours Division One in 2025 or 2026.
* Priority will be given to Arts UG final-year students with a current CGPA of 3.50 or above, or Arts recent graduates with the First Class of Honours.
Eligible candidates interested in the programme can make an application here now until October 30, 2026 (5:30 pm) (GMT+8). Please prepare the following before clicking the application link:
- Curriculum Vitae (within two A4-size pages);
- Personal Statement (within 750 words in English);
- Partial Statement of Research Interest (within 750 words in English, excluding citation)
<It should include key research question(s), background to study and/or summary of literature, and study design that could reflect you academic training.>; and
- Two names of Professors or Associate Professors who have agreed to write an Academic Letter of Recommendation for you if you will obtain the Faculty's nomination. These Professors or Associate Professors should be from the field of study that you intend to pursue in the Master degree.
The Faculty will invite shortlisted applicants for an interview in November 2026.
After the interview, the Faculty will request applicants shortlisted for nomination to submit (a) two Academic Letters of Recommendation in the format required by YCA, and (b) the English proficiency test result deemed suitable by YCA, by December 2, 2026. The Faculty will provide our nominations to YCA for their consideration in early December 2026.
Part B: Other application procedures
Please read the YCA's application page here and complete all procedures (incl. the additional ones (to be advised by YCA) for applicants from China’s HK, Macao and Taiwan) accordingly by the stipulated timeline. YCA requires all applicants, including those nominated by a Partner University, to submit an application to their system by November 30, 2026 (9:00 am) (GMT+8). Their selection process also includes an interview, please read the FAQ "What is the selection process and timeline?" for details.
Please note that applicants studying or graduated from a Partner University have to obtain the nomination of the respective Partner University for YCA to consider their applications. For mainland Chinese applicants, please read the FAQ "What are the eligibility requirements for PRC passport holders?"
For someone who had never set foot in China before YCA, I could not have asked for a better insight into its complex landscape. My two years at YCA changed the way I see, interact with and approach my world. I was able to understand China, somewhere so far away from home, in an immersive and multidisciplinary environment. I took courses which focused on Chinese cultures, African Studies and most notably where these two worlds interconnect. Together with the many professors I met along the way, here I laid the foundations for my understanding of Sino-African cultural relations. This has now led me to undertaking a PhD at HKU where this is my primary research focus.
YCA was much more than an academic programme, but more of a journey. YCA dismantled my comfort zones and forced me to discover through travel, writing and experiential learning. Above all, I met some of the most amazing people within those two years. The programme attracts curious minds from across the globe, and exploring China alongside scholars with a multitude of perspectives and worldly experience was truly unforgettable.
If any period in time was to be a seminal chapter in the story of my life, YCA would be that chapter. Two years of boundless exploration of China, both as a subject and a place, has allowed me to form a renewed understanding of the country. At YCA, I took classes on the historiography of Sinology, wrote on artefact repatriation as a Chinese foreign policy signalling tool, moderated panel discussions on cultural exports in China, and through internships and research, developed a much more thorough understanding of China’s museum industry.
YCA was also where academic and personal lives supplemented one another: each course reading contextualised my travels across the country, which were in turn made even more meaningful by the unique perspectives of YCA friends who came along.
In many ways, YCA was the definitive destination to my undergraduate journey at HKU. My academic interest in China’s cultural diplomacy sprung first from Prof. Greg Thomas’ class on historical cross-cultural artistic interactions between Asia and Europe. This class is one of the many examples that demonstrate HKU’s unique advantage in offering the most comprehensive and immediate perspectives on China-World relations, which readily prepares students for multicultural and multidisciplinary environments such as YCA.
