All full-time registered undergraduate (“UG”) students of HKUST are eligible for student housing, except some students are only eligible for consideration for limited University housing. Please find details at HERE.

The student category simply categories into Local student and Non-Local student at the University which is according to records from the Academic Registry. For housing application, there are four groups of students according to the admission timeline, New Local UGs, New Non-Local UGs, Continuing UGs and Exchange-In UGs. You may check out the definitions of each category at HERE.

Even if you have unconfirmed leave/ exchange plans in the coming Residential Year or your registration status is not active during the specified application period; you still need to submit a hall application within the official application period. However, it is your responsibility to inform the Student Housing and Residential Life Office (“SHRLO”) once there is an update on the leave/ exchange status.

Different categories of students have their own application period. Usually, the Continuing UG students are the first group of students to submit housing applications each year. For a detailed timeline, please check out the calendar under your student category at HERE.

Hall application is conducted once a year, with a clearly specified application period each year. You must submit your hall application within the specific application period. Late applications will NOT be considered strictly.

Students are strongly recommended to read through the UG Hall Admission Methods and Rules for Admission Procedures before applying. Please also get ready for all the required documentation before the application process as the online application may take at least 15 minutes to complete.

Housing applications should be submitted through the online hall application system. An application link will be available for application submission during the specified application period.

An email acknowledgement will be sent to your HKUST email account upon successful submission of an application. Please remember to check your email including junk or spam mail folder. In case you do not receive the e-mail acknowledgement, please contact us at ughousing@ust.hk before the application deadline.

There are 10 UG halls with over 4,500 bedspaces available. For detailed distribution, please feel free to visit Number of Hall Places and Room Types.

You may indicate a maximum of 3 hall preferences in the housing application for consideration only. Those who cannot be assigned to any of their preferred hall(s) due to the supply and demand imbalance will be assigned on a random basis, so there is NO GUARANTEE of any specific hall.

All room types and bedspaces are assigned to eligible applicants on a random basis by the residential management system. In general, applicants CANNOT choose a room type or bedspace. Only a few single rooms will be reserved on a special need basis. For its definition, please refer to Guideline for Special Applications with Exceptional Hardship.

As stated, all room types and bedspaces are assigned to eligible applicants on a random basis. There is no guarantee that you may remain in your present room. However, Continuing UGs will be given a chance to indicate their preferred roommate before the commencement of the coming Residential Year. If you and your roommate have offers in a same hall and have chosen each other to share a same room; there is a high chance that you may stay with the present roommate in next Residential Year.

Different categories of students have their own residential period and student status which may lead to different pricing. You may check out the hall charges section under your student category at HERE.

After submitting the application form, the information on the online system cannot be changed. You are recommended to make sure the information entered in your application form is accurate before submission.

As personal information is automatically retrieved from system record which cannot be revised by the applicant or Student Housing and Residential Life Office ("SHRLO"); if there is any discrepancy, please contact the Academic Registry (“ARO”) for direct assistance.

The hall application covers the FULL Residential Year. However, you may indicate your preference in the hall application if you would like to stay at the hall for one term only.

There will be NO Priority Housing under this situation as you are no longer within your first two years of study. For definitions and rationale behind, please feel free to read through the Guideline for Part 1 – Priority Housing.

The list of required documentation is stated in the Guideline for Part 1 – Priority Housing. Failure to provide accurate and valid documentation can lead to DISQUALIFICATION of your application for respective priorities, you are strongly recommended to also read through the Example before submission.

The average TT is determined by the HKeMobility which is developed by the Transport Department of the Hong Kong Government and only serves as the medium for achieving standardized and official measurement of travelling time.

There are several settings at HKeMobility should be unified to determine the one-way travelling time ("TT") Calculation, such as language, service mode, departure time, etc. For details, please refer to Guideline for Section 1 – Travelling Time to Campus and its User Manual attached.

Students facing exceptional hardship can be referred to Student Housing and Residential Life Office ("SHRLO") as special cases for consideration. It is worth noting that not all hardship cases would be recommended for student housing. You are recommended to engage with supporting units in the University to explore the best support options for you before seeking referral. For details, please refer to Annex 1: Guideline for Special Applications with Exceptional Hardship.

Eligible students, to whom other UG Hall Admission Methods no longer applicable, will receive hall points according to four criteria and be prioritized in their respective pool subject to their Local or Non-Local/ No-Home-Base status. For the hall points distribution, please refer to Hall Point System.

To support hall point calculation, you may try out the Hall Point Calculator which generates a preliminary result of your hall points by answering a few questions. Please note that the result is for reference only and the final hall points will be subject to verification of information as required by the UG Hall Allocation Policy.

If you are holding a leadership role/ position in one of the eligible student groups suggested in the UG Hall Allocation Policy, you should declare the serving position(s) and your nomination in your hall application. Nominations can be made among student bodies themselves via record-reporting units/ departments, while a few by the University offices (e.g. School Student Ambassadors).

You are encouraged to communicate with your record-reporting units/ departments to ensure that you have been nominated or not. You may wish to read more to secure your hall points, referring to Guideline for Section 2 – Leadership and Contribution to Campus Life.

To be eligible for hall point, your personal award should fulfil a few criteria, such as, the award itself should be 2nd runner-up or above, the competition should be city level or above, sufficient evidence to submit for verification, etc. For details, please refer to Guideline for Section 3 – Outstanding Achievements.

Documentation proof is a MUST for the hall application. Application with any required documentation missing may be considered as incomplete, which will lead to disqualification of your application for respective priorities. You are strongly recommended to read through the following examples under each section for a clear understanding:

Example of Part 1. Priority Housing

Example of Part 2a. Section 1. Travelling Time to Campus

Example of Part 2a. Section 2. Leadership and Contribution to Campus Life

Example of Part 2a. Section 3. Outstanding Achievements

Example of Part 2a. Section 4. No Hall Offer in Previous Year/ Year

The hall point under this section is only given to those who did not receive a hall offer at the University in the previous year (for Non-Local/ No-Home-Base)/ previous years (for Local), which has no direct relation to your hall residential experiences. Once you have received a hall offer, regardless of your response, the hall point may not be granted under this section. For details, please refer to Guideline for Section 4 – No Hall Offer in Previous Year/ Years.

Non-Local/ No-Home-Base students who deem a hall offer not necessary during the year, you may consider withdrawing your application in advance to increase your chance of getting a hall point from this section in the next Residential Year. To request for the hall application withdrawal, please write to ughousing@ust.hk for assistance.

There are two separate waitlists for Local students and Non-Local/ No-Home-Base students. When bedspace becomes available in the respective pool, top-up exercises will be conducted. For the waitlist ranking, please feel free to check out the current waitlist under your student category at HERE.

The allocation of bed spaces will be done in 2 separate pools with different sets of hall point components so as to provide a more comparable ground within the same student category. For example, Travelling Time is a key factor for Local students who have a home base in Hong Kong. Yet, Non-Local students or No-Home-Base students do not have a home address in Hong Kong, so one-way Travelling Time should not apply to them as a comparison factor.

The allocation ratio is based on the average percentage of hall offer results from the past 3 years. Considering hall offer results, rather than the actual hall acceptance, the ratio determined will not be affected by the pandemic in past few years.

When a hall offer becomes available to you, you would receive it via email to your HKUST account. You should follow the instructions in the email to respond to the hall offer within the hall offer acceptance period. 

Late response to the hall offer will result in hall offer recovery. In other words, you will no longer be eligible for hall residence within the same Residential Year. Therefore, it is important to respond to the hall offer in a timely manner. 

Usually, it is included in your hall offer letter.

But for the major round of offers for Continuing UGs, room assignment will be conducted AFTER the hall offer acceptance period, which means no room-related information regarding your hall offer will be available before or during the hall offer acceptance period. The room assignment result will be released via email to your HKUST account. It is reminded that the room assignment is on a random basis and no request on specific room/ room type will be entertained.

After you receive your room assignment, you may apply for room swapping with another resident. Please note that swapping means two-way relocation, which must involve at least two residents. And it is not allowed to ask for swapping with an unoccupied bedspace.

Please be aware that room swapping may NOT be successful under different circumstances, such as lack of agreement of roommate, rejected by Resident Master(s), involvement of different residential periods, incomplete swapping documentation, etc.

You should email ughousing@ust.hk as soon as you know that you are unable to do so with reasons provided. Student Housing and Residential Life Office ("SHRLO") may request you to submit relative proof in support of your request. If you do not raise the late check-in request in advance, your hall offer will be recovered subsequently, but you are still responsible for the hall fee incurred.

If you are facing financial difficulties or other situations (e.g. payment delay due to overseas wire transfer) which leads to late payment, you should contact the Scholarships & Financial Aid Office (“SFAO”) BEFORE the payment deadline for direct assistance. Any late payment may result in hall recovery, but you are still responsible for the hall fee incurred.

No, you are responsible for the entire offered residential period regardless of the length of your stay. In other words, you need to settle the hall charges IN FULL even if you check-in late or check-out early.

The hall fee will apply as soon as you accept the hall offer. If you did not accept a hall offer but hall fee is being charged, please contact Student Housing and Residential Life Office ("SHRLO") at ughousing@ust.hk for direct assistance. 

If you wish to withdraw the hall offer after accept it, you must raise your request via email to ughousing@ust.hk, as not checking-in and/ or not paying the hall fee does not imply your will of withdrawal. For your withdrawal request, the hall fee may/ may not apply depending on the withdrawal reason, the timeline and the check-in status. In general, you are responsible for the imposed hall fee.

The hall fee was handled through the Student Information System (“SIS”) which is a centralized system used across the University. You are required to log in to your own SIS account to view all your charges and payment records. 

All student fees were handled through the Student Information System (“SIS”), a centralized system used across the University, which not allow students or staffs to choose the imposed fees to be settled by any specific payment. In case of any other unsettled fees in the SIS, your hall fee might be absorbed by those charges, leaving your hall fee unpaid. You are advised to double check your SIS to ensure your hall fee is settled in FULL, but not being absorbed by other outstanding charges.

However, there could be a delay in the SIS or other different reasons causing your payment cannot be shown in the system. Once hall fee payment is made, you should notify SHRLO to prevent your hall offer from being recovered. You may submit your payment proof to SHRLO via email to ughousing@ust.hk while seeking help from the Finance Office (fostudent@ust.hk).

Students may consider applying for HKAC, or/and are welcomed to contact SHRLO’s Off-Campus Housing Section for direct assistance by emailing offcamphouse@ust.hk or calling 2358-8583. 

SHRLO will get back to you within 3 working days once the enquiry is received. Due to a large number of enquiries, your patience and understanding will be highly appreciated. It is recommended NOT to send duplicate enquiries within the said period to avoid further delay.

If you are a current resident and the enquiry is related to hall life (e.g. room condition, laundry & air-conditioning, etc.), please contact your hall office or visit your hall counter for immediate assistance.

Students are suggested to contact SHRLO by themselves. Due to privacy concerns, we will NOT answer any student-related personal enquiries from any incoming party which is out of the University network. If you have serious concerns about making the enquiry on your own and wish a third party to voice out on your behalf, please be reminded to include your HKUST email in the communication loop or to provide your Student ID over the phone for our further follow up.

If you are a current resident, please generate the Address Proof via the online hall system at HERE. If you are a past resident, please contact SHRLO at ughousing@ust.hk for assistance.