The HKU-BICI Entrepreneurship Joint Educational Placement Programme for PhD is suitable for those who wish to pursue forward looking research and to transfer fundamental scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces.
If you are interested in participating in practical entrepreneurship training and developing your research commercialisation skills in one of our five key research areas, namely optoelectronics, materials, environment engineering, biomedical engineering and intelligent manufacturing, this is your chance to enter an excellent network of top scientists in different disciplines contributing to solving real-world problems and making positive impact to the world.
Traditional PhD training requires students to undertake independent research to produce original ideas with significant impact, while the HKU-BICI Joint Programme engages the students in both scientific research and practical entrepreneurship training on real-world projects to develop their entrepreneurial spirit, creative thinking, research commercialisation skills, professional knowledge and expertise.
Admitted students are expected to spend 2 years at HKU (1st-18th months and 43rd-48th months), and 2 years at BICI (19th-42nd months). Students will follow the regulations and procedures of the PhD programme at HKU including coursework requirement, progress monitoring, etc, and take innovation and entrepreneurship courses and receive practical project-based training offered by BICI at its research centres in Beijing or Guangzhou together with peers across universities and disciplines.
The below diagram outlines the programme’s unique dual-track training model. Click here to learn more about BICI’s innovation and entrepreneurship course.
Applicants should be proficient in Chinese and English communication and writing.
An applicant who is seeking admission on the basis of a qualification from a university or comparable institution outside Hong Kong of which the language of teaching and/or examination is not English is required to submit English Language Proficiency Test results. Please click here for the details.
Please click here to check the supporting documents needed. Applicants to the HKU-BICI Joint Programme should also complete (i) an additional Application Form in simplified Chinese, (ii) a Study Plan in consultation with their intended supervisors and (iii) a Chinese CV.
If some of the required supporting documents are not available at the time of submission, please upload the documents to the Online Application System once the document is available. The reviewer(s) will consider your application based on the documents submitted and it is your responsibility to provide sufficient information.
Interested applicants should contact their proposed supervisor at HKU and obtain his/her consent in advance before submitting an online application. You may look for supervisors from the HKU Scholars Hub. A list of supervisors from the BICI can be found at the BICI website, you may share this link with your proposed supervisors at HKU for their consideration.
This programme is open for application all year round and considered in batches. In view of the limited admission quota, applicants are strongly encouraged to apply in the Main Round as far as possible. Applications will be considered in the clearing rounds only if there are vacancies after the Main Round. Please click here for the application period in the latest round.
No. You only need to go through the application process for admission to this joint programme. In the online application form under “Section 1: Programme Apply For”, please specify that you would like to be considered for the “HKU-BICI Entrepreneurship Joint Educational Placement Programme for PhD”. If you are admitted into this joint programme, you are also admitted into the discipline you selected.
The Graduate School will inform all applicants of the result of their applications in writing in about three to four months after the closing date of application. Applicants may also check the result via the Online Application System.
Students admitted to this joint programme will receive scholarships for up to four years provided by BICI. During the student’s study period in HKU in Hong Kong, students will receive scholarships in accordance with the standard HKU Postgraduate Scholarship (PGS) rate. During the residency at BICI or BICI’s designated project locations, the scholarships will be granted by BICI in accordance with its regulation and policies (up to RMB 20,000 per month).
Applicants only need to submit once for each academic year. If your application was unsuccessful in the previous academic year, you may re-apply in the new academic year by submitting a new application via the Online Application System including full set of supporting documents and pay the application fee for each new application.