Around 90% of our programme courses are conducted in English. Our goal is to cultivate students’ creative and critical thinking skills, which are essential in today’s ever-changing society.
Our teaching materials combine Western theories with local research. The aim of our curriculum is to advance your learning capacity in reading, writing and IT application skills. In addition to lectures, students are also encouraged to articulate their ideas on various social issues in tutorial discussions.
Our department offers broad-based training that emphasises both disciplinary knowledge and generic competence which is essential for future professional development. We offer three areas of concentration: Social Research, Sociology and Liberal Studies, and Sociology and Social Policy. Sociology majors who have taken 15 to 18 units in any of these areas can have it declared on their transcripts that they have fulfilled the concentration requirements.
To aid students who are interested in pursuing a professional career after completion of their Bachelor study, our department offers a double-degree programme in conjunction with the Faculty of Law and a double-major option with the School of Journalism and Communication.
Many of our students take advantage of curricular flexibility to pursue a minor programme or to spend one or two semesters at an overseas university on an exchange programme. Our programme boasts 28 institutions in a variety of host countries/regions: mainland China, Singapore, Japan, the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Australia. We encourage our students to experience multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural learning environments through a flexible credit transfer system that provides a way to transfer credit from foreign institutions to CUHK. In the 2015-2016 academic year, 21 of our students participated in various exchange activities.
We also provide summer internship opportunities with the ongoing support of our partners in the local community and mainland China. Internship experience, whether at home or across the border, empowers our students by broadening their horizons and cultivating an ability to work independently.
Our department offers broad-based training. Most of our students excel in a variety of professions after graduation, such as the civil service, business and education. Our programme is also an excellent springboard for pursuing a higher research degree in a local or overseas university.
In addition to meeting the University’s minimum requirements, students are expected to demonstrate good performance in language subjects, which gives them good preparation for sociological training. We also place considerable weight on Liberal Studies in our admission formula.
Students who acquire good results in extra elective subjects will get bonus points in the admission process. In addition, we also accept “Attained with Distinction” in Applied Learning subjects as extra elective subject for awarding bonus points. For details, please refer to the homepage of the University’s Office of Admissions and Financial Aid.
The CUHK Office of Admissions and Financial Aid presents the admission scores of all departments in each academic year in its webpages, where you can find additional details.
We admit about 40 students each year (as announced by the CUHK Office of Admissions and Financial Aid)
Students can apply for admission if they possess any qualification that is acceptable for admission in another region/country (e.g. IB; GCSEs and A-levels, SAT and AP scores) or they are overseas students/associate degree holders. The non-JUPAS quota is determined each year by prevailing conditions.
JUPAS applicants who indicate CUHK Sociology as a Band A option may receive an invitation to an interview held in May 2019. Details have yet to be confirmed. Please watch out for future announcements. Applicants who display excellent performance in their interview may earn bonus points in the admission exercise. Non-invited applicants will not be affected if they meet our admission standards.
In addition, students who apply for admission through the School Principal’s Nominations or Sports Scholarship Scheme and indicate CUHK Sociology as a Band A option will be separately invited to interviews. Please contact the CUHK Office of Admissions and Financial Aid for any enquiries.