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Hong Kong Future Talents Scholarship Scheme for Advanced Studies

Background

The Government introduced the Hong Kong Future Talents Scholarship Scheme for Advanced Studies (FTSS) starting from the 2025/26 academic year to attract more local students to pursue advanced studies in priority areas conducive to the development of Hong Kong and expand the pool of high-calibre talents for various domains, while further promoting the development of our city into an international hub for post-secondary education.

Number of scholarships

The FTSS provides each year to up to 1 200 local students enrolling in designated taught postgraduate (TPg) programmes at the eight UGC-funded universities or self-financing universities (including universities of applied sciences) starting from the 2025/26 academic year. For the first cohort (i.e. 2025/26 intake) and second cohort (i.e. 2026/27 intake) of the Scheme, 1 000 of the scholarship places will be allocated to TPg programmes of the eight UGC-funded universities.

Amount of scholarship awards

Under the FTSS, awardees are required to pay a minimum tuition fee being the prevailing rate of the UGC-funded full-time degree programmes (i.e. HK$44,500 for 2025/26 academic year and HK$47,000 for 2026/27 academic year), and the differences will be subsidised by the scholarship subject to a cap of HK$100,000 for each student for the whole TPg programme, regardless of the actual study period of the programme and mode of study. The scholarships are provided for the purpose of offsetting the tuition fee.

For example, if the total tuition fee for a designed programme for 2025/26 academic year exceeds HK$144,500, the remaining balance after deducting the maximum amount of scholarship (i.e. HK$100,000) shall be borne by the student. If the total tuition fee of a programme is HK$100,000 or below, the student will only need to pay HK$44,500 as tuition fee, with the remainder covered by the scholarship.

Noting that some students may opt to take more credits than required, the FTSS will only cover the tuition fees for the list of courses in relation to the prescribed graduation requirements of the eligible programmes. The remaining balance arising from additional academic credits out of the prescribed graduation requirements and/ or for elective courses which are not on the programme course list would be borne by the students. Please contact universities direct for further information.

To avoid "double benefit", students received financial support from other public sources for the purpose of meeting tuition fee expenses would not be eligible for the FTSS. Students received such financial support from other sources (e.g. education subsidies from a private company or foundation) should declare and provide relevant details to the universities. If the sum of such financial support and the scholarship award would exceed the tuition fee level, the amount of scholarship awards should be reduced to ensure that the awardee would not receive financial support in excess of the tuition fee to safeguard the effective use of public money.

Criteria for selection of scholarship recipients by universities

The universities would invite suitable candidates newly admitted to the eligible programmes to apply for the FTSS in each cohort. The FTSS adopts a merit-based approach in selecting the most outstanding students pursuing designated TPg programmes to apply for the scholarship. The applicants are required to be admitted to the universities and submit their application to the universities with a proposal expounding on how they will contribute to the priority areas of Hong Kong and their commitment to contribute to the relevant industries or sectors in Hong Kong or Greater Bay Area upon graduation. The selection of awardees must take into account their readiness and ability to contribute significantly to the development of Hong Kong after graduation from the TPg programme. All awardees must, as a condition for receiving the scholarship, sign a written undertaking that he/she would contribute towards relevant industries/sectors either through relevant full-time employment or entrepreneurial activities in Hong Kong, or within the Greater Bay Area, upon graduation. Awardees will be required to submit a mandatory return no later than 12 months after the end of his/her last semester of studies under the relevant programme, with (i) (for full-time employment) specific information on at least the name of employer, position held, job nature and salary level of the scholarship awardee or (for entrepreneurial activities) company name with business registration number, description of business nature and details of entrepreneurial activities conducted, as well as (ii) a one-page summary of the awardee's contributions to Hong Kong after graduation and its relevance to the programme pursued. In accepting the scholarship, an awardee would be liable to refund of the scholarship amount in full to the university concerned should there be any failure to complete the mandatory return in time or the provision of untrue information therein.

Applications for the scholarships will be assessed by the universities based on a rigorous and holistic approach, subject to the following criteria:

  1. applications are open to local students of eligible programmes only (for the definition of non-local student, please refer to Q3 of "Frequently Asked Questions");
  2. students admitted to the existing TPg programmes before respective academic year but not yet completed their study should not be considered for that cohort onwards;
  3. students awarded with other government scholarships for pursuing the same programme, including the Continuing Education Fund, will not be considered to avoid "double benefit". Nevertheless, students provided with financial assistance in the form of loans from the Government (e.g. Extended Non-means-tested Loan Scheme under Student Finance Office) to settle the tuition fees for the TPg programme are still eligible to apply;
  4. both full-time and part-time local students of eligible programmes can apply for the scholarships; and
  5. the award of the scholarships will be based on merits taking into account the students' academic achievements, professional qualifications, relevant working experience and achievements in other areas as well as the proposals submitted by the students. The Universities will also take into account students' readiness and ability to contribute significantly to Hong Kong's priority areas after completing the programme.

On the basis of the above principles and the principle of institutional autonomy, each university may devise its own application procedures and additional requirement for assessing the scholarships independently, in which the UGC would not intervene.

List of eligible taught postgraduate programmes

The eligible TPg programmes should be directly related to one or more of the following eight priority areas:

  1. "STEM" (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics);
  2. Digital transformation and innovation;
  3. Hong Kong as an international trading and financial centre;
  4. Law, dispute resolution and intellectual property trading;
  5. East-meets-West cultural exchanges and humanities;
  6. Creative industries;
  7. Healthy living and caring community; and
  8. Sustainable city and regional development.

You can find the allocation of coming cohorts at the following links:

  1. The first cohort (i.e. 2025/26 intake) (Click here)
  2. The second cohort (i.e. 2026/27 intake) (Click here)

Universities' websites on the FTSS

The eight UGC-funded universities have established the dedicated websites on the details of eligible TPg programmes under the FTSS and the respective application procedures:

  1. City University of Hong Kong (Pending updates)
  2. Hong Kong Baptist University (Pending updates)
  3. Lingnan University (Pending updates) (Pending updates)
  4. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Pending updates)
  5. The Education University of Hong Kong (Pending updates)
  6. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Pending updates)
  7. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  8. The University of Hong Kong (Pending updates)

Students enrolling under self-financing universities are also eligible for the FTSS, please click here for more details from the Education Bureau. (Pending updates)

Frequently Asked Questions (Click here)

Targeted Taught Postgraduate Programmes Fellowships Scheme (TPgFS)

Enquiries

For application arrangement including details of eligible TPg programmes and the application procedures, please refer to the universities' websites or contact the admission offices of the universities for details.

For other enquiries relating to the FTSS, please call the UGC's enquiry hotline at 2524 3987 or email to ftss@ugc.edu.hk.