ELITE Stream

The ELITE Stream is offered by the Faculty to students with excellent academic performance. Its aims are to nurture outstanding engineering students and to develop their potentials through additional challenging coursework and invaluable extra-curricular activities. Any student who meets the entrance requirements is eligible for the Stream. The award of the ELITE Stream to qualified students will be officially recorded on the academic transcript.

A series of stimulating and inspiring courses will be offered exclusively for ELITE students. There will be a student society, special exchange opportunities, social and scholarly events specially organized for ELITE students.

1. Freshmen

   1. Freshmen with the following attainment shall be allowed to join the Stream in their first term of study:

      1. HKDSE entrants who have achieved Level 5* or above in Mathematics AND another one Science subject (Mathematics Extended Module 1 or 2 could be counted as one subject) AND one elective subject, PLUS Level 4 or above in any two of the remaining core subjects; OR

      2. Any high achievers admitted through non-JUPAS; OR

      3. Any entrants admitted to the Faculty of Engineering with renewable tuition scholarship

   2. Freshmen with extraordinary performance other than public examination results may be considered on individual merits.

2. Continuing Students (those who have completed at least one term of study at CUHK)

   1. Full-time engineering students who have a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or above; AND

   2. At least 2 terms from the expected graduation term.

   3. Students with extraordinary performance or contributions to the Faculty of Engineering or their Major Department may be considered on individual merits.

1. Students taking ESTR courses will be assessed separately from students of the parent courses.
2. If the students decided to opt out from the ESTR course and switch back to the parent one, he/she should get the consent from the course teacher no later than week 9 (almost 2/3 of the teaching weeks in a Term). The student shall then sit for the final examination of the parent course and be assessed together with other students without prejudice (if applicable).
3. All ESTR courses taken will be included in the calculation of the Major GPA for honours classification unless otherwise specified in study scheme of individual programmes.

A student’s ELITE status will be reviewed by the end of Term 2 of each academic year subject to his/ her academic standing (as measured by the CGPA), number of ESTR courses taken, and involvement in service and academic activities:

     a. CGPA Requirement

An ELITE student should maintain a CGPA of at least 3.3 after enrolling in the ELITE stream.  An one-semester grace period is given to those whose CGPA drops below the said threshold.  The student’s ELITE status will be revoked if he/she cannot attain the required CGPA at the end of the grace period.

     b. ESTR Course Requirement

An ELITE student should take at least two ESTR courses per academic year (each of ESTR 4998 and ESTR 4999 is counted as one ESTR course).  If a student falls behind, he/she must make up the deficit in the following term, failing which his/her ELITE status will be revoked.  The ESTR course(s) used for the makeup will not be counted towards fulfilling the ESTR course requirement of that year. Students who are on exchange or whose studies are suspended due to employment or civil/military service are exempted from this requirement during the term of suspension.

     c. Activity Requirement

An ELITE student should participate in at least one valid activity per term.  Participation in valid activities held during the summer will be credited to the first term of the following academic year. 

An activity is considered valid for the purpose of fulfilling the ELITE activity requirement if

1.        it is announced in the name of the ELITE Stream of the Faculty of Engineering in writing and a clear message stating that participation can be counted towards the ELITE activity requirement is present in the announcement

OR

2.        pre-approval for the activity is obtained from the ELITE Stream Director in writing and documentary evidence as requested by the ELITE Stream Director in his/her pre-approval letter is submitted to him/her as soon as the pre-approved activity is completed. (Gerneally Academic Seminars organized by University Academic Departments could be counted as ELITE Stream activity) 

Students who wish to use activities that do not fall under item 1 above to fulfill the ELITE activity requirement must strictly follow the approval procedure outlined in item 2 above. It should be noted that pre-approval is not automatic. In particular, students should NOT assume that activities organized, coordinated, forwarded or announced by any entities (including different units/departments/faculties under the Chinese University of Hong Kong) can be used to fulfill the ELITE activity requirement.

It should also be noted that activities including but not limited to the following categories CANNOT be used to fulfill the ELITE activity requirement:

i. Activities that come with remuneration, such as being a student helper.

ii. Activities that are associated with courses (with or without course registration, with or without academic units), such as talks, company visits, field trips, etc.

If a student falls behind, he/she must make up in the following term, in addition to the one approved activity that he/she needs to join in that term. The student’s ELITE status will be revoked if he/she falls behind for two consecutive terms. 

     d. Irreversibility

Once a student’s ELITE status is revoked, he/she will not be allowed to join the ELITE Stream again.