ACADEMICS
Students enrolled in this program must complete at least 15 credits of coursework, including 6 credits of a core course (BIEN5010 or BIEN5040 or BIEN 5820), 3 credits from the restrictive bioengineering electives, 6 elective courses selected from the students' chosen area of major concentration.
In addition to the program requirements, all full-time and part-time PhD students are required to complete the school requirements, which aim to help students gain a wider exposure to multidisciplinary areas, and attain allrounded learning by broadening their knowledge base. PhD students are required to take at least a 3-credit course at 5000-level or above outside their programs offered by the School of Engineering. The 3 credits may be satisfied by courses from other Schools upon approval. In some exceptional cases where students can provide sufficient justifications and obtain prior approval from their supervisors, PG Coordinators, and Heads of Department/Program Directors or designees, they are allowed to take the 3-credit course within their home departments/programs but the course must be in areas outside their specialty. Details of the requirements are available on the website of the School of Engineering.
Students without a degree in Biology or related disciplines is required to take at least one additional undergraduate course covering appropriate basic knowledge in life science: BIEN2410 / BIEN2610 / LIFS2040 (BIOL104) / LIFS2210 (BICH121) / LIFS2220 (BICH122) and obtain a passing grade of C+ or above. Subject to the approval of the Program Director, students may be exempted from this requirement.
PhD students entering with a master’s or equivalent degree in Engineering or related discipline may be granted credit transfer of up to 6 credits. Students entering with a master’s degree in Bioengineering may be granted credit transfer of up to 12 credits, subject to the approval of the Program Director.
Students are required to complete PDEV 6770 (Professional Development) and PDEV 6800 (Introduction to Teaching and Learning in Higher Education). PhD students who are HKUST MPhil graduates and have completed PDEV 6770 or other professional development courses offered by the University before may be exempted from this requirement, subject to prior approval of the School.
Students must complete LANG 5005 Postgraduate English for Academic Purposes. They may be exempted from taking LANG 5005 with the agreement of the Program Director.
The credits earned from PDEV 6770 and LANG 5005 cannot be counted toward the credit requirements.
Full-time students must take BIEN 6800 every regular term, and present at least two seminars during their study. They must pass BIEN 6800 five times including the terms when they present their seminars. Part-time students must take and pass BIEN 6800 at least twice in the terms when they present their seminars.
To become a doctoral candidate, the student must pass a Qualifying Examination within the first 1.5 years of study. Upon completion of the course requirement and the thesis, the candidate is required to defend the thesis before a Thesis Examination Committee.
In addition to the existing program requirements, students admitted in 2017-18 who opt for the Scientific Computation Concentration can find the details at the website of Scientific Computation Concentration.