All RPg students need to complete their coursework with a qualifying Grade Point Average (GPA) of 2.7 or above before submission of their thesis to the relevant offices for oral examination.  They may take more subjects than required in order to improve their GPA or in order to strengthen their knowledge.  However, subjects taken after thesis submission will not contribute to the qualifying GPA.

Minimum Number of Credits with a Letter Grade

An RPg student may take subjects graded as "pass" or "fail", or transfer credits without any grades assigned during his/her research studies at PolyU.

However, an MPhil student must complete at least three credits with a letter grade and a PhD student must complete at least six credits to allow for a meaningful calculation of the qualifying GPA.

Calculation of Qualifying GPA

The qualifying GPA is the result of the accumulated value of the subject grade point multiplied by the subject credit value divided by the total credit value for those subjects. It is computed as follows:

For RPg students admitted from 2014/15 cohort onwards:

1. credits earned from all compulsory subjects and elective subjects (with the best grade points) will be included in the calculation of the qualifying GPA;
2. the following subjects will be excluded from the calculation of the qualifying GPA:
• exempted subjects
• ungraded subjects
• incomplete subjects
• subjects taken after thesis submission
• subjects assessed with a “Pass” or “Fail” grade
• subjects for which credit transfer has been approved, but without any grade assigned
• subjects from which a student has been allowed to withdraw (i.e., those with the grade “W”).

For all RPg students admitted before 2014/15 cohort:

1. only the best 9 credits will count towards the calculation for MPhil students;
2. only the best 15 credits will count towards the calculation for PhD students.

Grading Table

The numerical grade point is assigned to each letter grade according to the grading table below: