Deviation from Curriculum (UG)

Under exceptional circumstances, deviations may be allowed where specific requirements may be substituted by other courses taken at HKUST or elsewhere, or waived with the approval of the relevant Dean or the Dean’s designee.

The Academic Regulations on deviation from curriculum is available here.

Application Procedure

Students who would like to apply for deviation from curriculum should follow the procedure below:

1. Consult the relevant academic unit (as below) for advice on the degree requirement to follow. The deviation should be approved by the relevant Dean or the Dean’s designee.

   Academic Requirement	Recommending Academic Unit
   University English Language requirement	Center for Language Education
   School requirements	School
   Major / Minor requirements	Relevant Major / Minor Program office

2. Submit the following documents to the Academic Registry. In particular, application for course substitution should only be submitted at the term when the replacement course is enrolled:

• Completed application form with approval from the relevant relevant Dean or the Dean’s designee - Application for Deviation from Curriculum (For Undergraduate Studies) – Form-GR23; AND

• Program Catalog or Curriculum Handbook - curriculum document of their cohort of admission.

The processing time for an application is normally two weeks.  Program Office will be informed of the result by email and details will be reflected in the Student Center (advisement report) in SIS.

Notes to Students

• Students are required to submit a separate application for each academic requirement (Common Core, English Language, School, major or minor programs).

• Upon program transfer, it is taken that all credits earned will be used to fulfill the degree requirements in the new program.  However, deviation(s) approved for the original program will NOT be applicable to the new one.  Students who wish to deviate from the new curriculum must submit a new application.

• The Advisement Report is available for students to understand their study progress. Students are responsible for ensuring that they will complete all credit and non-credit requirements for their program of study for the degree award. The advisement report is only a reference on students' study progress. There may be certain requirements which cannot be set up by system logic and they will only be verified upon graduation check near the last term of study. There are also other technical constraints which may affect the accuracy of the report. As such, students should NOT solely rely on the Report for enrolment or program requirement fulfilling purposes and are strongly advised to consult the advisors regularly for academic advice. Students should also refer to the Program Catalog regularly for the latest updates.

Students should consult their School or major department for advice on the degree requirement to follow.  For the application procedure, students may contact the Academic Registry.