FAQs

Institutional exchange programmes are offered to students from all disciplines, while department-based ones are only open to students from SFT.
Students joining institutional exchange should first research on partner universities to identify suitable academic department and programme to study with. Students are encouraged to choose an overseas university that offers similar subjects to those in SFT. Students should personally choose programmes and subsequent subjects which allow credit transfer.
For departmental exchange, SFT has examined and ensure suitable curriculum of the partner institutions before signing up exchange agreements, therefore most courses are credit transferrable.

Not necessarily.

Before you confirm your exchange, you are required to discuss your choice of subjects with your Discipline Leaders and to seek approval from him/her as to whether these subjects fulfill the credits requirements of PolyU. In other words, with the right choice of subjects, you will be allowed to transfer credits to meet the requirements of your PolyU programme, even when you are studying at a university overseas. You will be able to continue your studies at PolyU without any delay when you return from your exchange.

It’s optional.

For some study destinations, you may be required to sit for IELTS/TOEFL to meet the language requirement. For details, please refer to the official homepage of the partner institution. Students holding Chinese mainland passports must provide IELTS/ TOEFL results when applying for student visa to study in Australia or the Netherlands.

The maximum credits that a student can take in one semester would be the number of full-loading credits suggested in the programme scheme book for that particular semester. For summer exchange, the maximum number of credits can be transferred are 3 elective course credits.

You will probably unable to transfer the credit back to PolyU.  You shall discuss your case with SFT Student Exchange Liaison Officer in case it really happens. However, your GPA at PolyU will not be affected.

Normally, our partner universities will reserve places for exchange students at their student halls or partnered accommodation services.

Each PolyU student is entitled for one exchange opportunity during the entire undergraduate study. It means if student can participate in one of the exchange programmes, school-level or institutional-level exchange (overseas, mainland China or Taiwain, or summer exchange).
The exchange must be credit-transferrable.

SFT will organize orientation programs for exchange students. You will be informed about the SFT orientation details by email, and which is usually arranged one/two days before the semester starts. You are advised to attend the orientation because important information about your study at SFT will be given.

Normally, full-time local students take an average of 5 subjects (15 credits) in one semester. For exchange students, you should take a minimum of 3 subjects (9 credits) in one semester due to visa regulations. Considering the total workload, you are not suggested to take more than 5 subjects (15 credits).

Basically, you are free to choose subjects of levels 2 and 3. For Level 4 subjects (ITC 4xxx), the fulfillment of prerequisite requirements will be determined case by case, according to the record on your academic transcript.

You will receive your subject registration confirmation and timetable by email about two weeks before the semester starts. Students can also change their subject choices within the subject add/drop period (normally, the first week of semester).

Upon receiving our email notifying your subject registration result, students should check the timetable (lectures, laboratory, tutorial, studio, etc.). Students can add/drop subject online, click here for a step-by-step guide. Students should also seek approval from home university for credit transferability before changing any subjects. For level 4 subjects (ITC 4XXX) or non-SFT subjects, you are not allowed to do add/drop online, which special approval must be sought. Students should contact the Exchange Programme Officer on this.

No, student is allowed to add subject beyond the subject add/drop period. Students who would like to withdraw a subject beyond the subject add/drop period should submit their application to Programme Leader via General Office for approval. Students should also pay an administration fee for subject withdrawal.

Students are encouraged to take SFT subjects exclusively. However, you can apply for taking subject(s) offered by other departments in PolyU (non-SFT subjects) if it's the curriculum requirement of your home university. You can apply for this when you return your subject preference form to our IAO office after finalizing your subject selection. (Click here for details) Upon receiving your subject preference form, our General Office will apply on your behalf to the offering departments for those non-SFT subjects. However, it's up to the offering department's decision whether the application is approved or not. You should make sure at least half of your subjects are SFT subjects. Students are not allowed to take subjects from other SFT full-time/part-time programmes.

The assessment component(s) could be found in subject syllabus. Details of assessment criteria would be determined by subject lecturers. Students' overall performance in a subject shall be graded as follows:

Most exchange students will do some travelling in Asia at the end of the exchange programme. You must ensure your passport is valid and check whether an entry visa is required for the country you are planning to visit e.g. you must apply for a visitor visa to travel to China, your HK student visa only permits you entry to Hong Kong.

To apply for China visa, you can apply via 'China Travel Services (HK) Ltd' (a travel agent), which has a counter at Hunghum Station. Since the fee and procedure might be slightly different depending on which country you are from, the best way is to ask the staff there:

Shop F1-F3, MTR Hunghom Station Concourse, 8 Cheong Wan Road, Hunghom, Kowloon

If you don't want to apply via agent, you can apply directly to the 'Office of the commissioners of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PR China in HKSAR'. You need to apply in person and pay the fee in cash to their office in the following address:

3/F (Visa Section) & 4/Floor (Chinese Travel Document Section), China Resources Building, 26 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Every semester, we may arrange one or two factory visits for exchange students, some factories are in China, so if you wish to join the factory visit, you might need a China visa.

Yes, there are a few low cost airlines flying from Hong Kong to different destinations in Asia, including Hong Kong Express, Hong Kong Airlines, Air Asia, JetStar, Scoot, Cebu Pacific Air, Peach Airlines, Juji Air, Air Busan, and etc
Apart from low cost airlines, Cathay Pacific and Dragon Air, based in Hong Kong, would provide discount flights every Tuesday. To check flight online, you can check with Zuji, Skyscanner and Expedia.
For China travel information, you can check CTrip. It is a reliable website in China that you can book flights, hotels or check train tickets. It also allows to payment with credit cards issued by banks out of China.