Minors in Degree programmes

Students studying a normative 4-year degree programme of the College can take a structured group of courses required for a minor as their free electives, and upon satisfactory completion of the courses, may declare the minor. The completed minor will be shown on the student’s academic transcript but not on the Degree Certificate. 

Owing to limits on class quota and timetabling constraints, the College does not guarantee that a student can complete any course required for a minor or can declare a minor.

A minor may require 15 to 18 credit units. Double counting of courses is impermissible between the courses under the requirement of the major and the requirement of a minor. Credits earned to fulfil the minor requirement cannot be used toward meeting the requirement for a major taken by the student. 

Four minors listed below are being offered:

1. Business Studies
2. Chinese History and Culture
3. Computing
4. Social Studies

For the courses required for a minor, you may read the Curricula of Minors (see below).

For each minor, there are Exclusive Majors. Students of the Exclusive Majors may register for individual courses in the minor as free electives but are not allowed to declare that minor.

Business Studies

This minor aims to equip non-business undergraduate students with the essential business and management knowledge enabling them to make useful contribution to a company and its management decisions.

Chinese History and Culture

This minor aims to equip students with the essential knowledge of Chinese history and culture and prepare them to appreciate the present complexities in the light of past developments. It also encourages students to critically examine the contributions and limitations of Chinese history and culture and their relevance to contemporary society.

Computing

The minor aims to provide non-science-related undergraduate students with the essential knowledge and concepts of computing and database technologies enabling them to design computer-based solutions to simple practical problems.

Social Studies

The minor aims to equip undergraduate students with the essential social science knowledge so that they can acquire analytical concepts to understand society, apply analytical tools to work on problems in society and develop solutions to the problems.

Students intending to declare a minor but experiencing difficulties registering for a required course in the minor may make an application to the minor-offering faculty for using another relevant course to substitute the required course (which can be a core or elective course). Students may only submit at most two course substitution requests in a minor. 

If the required course is a D3 level course (i.e. the first digit of the course code is 3), the proposed substitute course must also be a D3 level course and is not restricted to students of the major. Students are encouraged to seek advice from the Leader responsible for the minor before making the application. 

Because the following courses are a prerequisite course of another required course in the minor, application for course substitution normally will not be approved.

To apply, students must submit the “Application Form for Substitution of Minor Course” in their Year 3 or 4 of study, before the substitution course is taken or within the first week of the semester when the course is offered. The application should be submitted to the General Office of the minor-offering faculty. Late requests submitted after the first week of the semester will not be processed.

The minor-offering faculty will send an email to inform the applicant of the outcomes.

Students are eligible to declare a minor if they have successfully completed the courses required for the minor (or approved substitute courses). They can also declare the minor if they have already registered for the remaining required courses (or approved substitute courses) in the final semester of their study. 

To apply for graduation with Minor, students must submit the “Application Form for Declaration of Minor” in February of their final year of study to the College Office. Late applications will not be processed. 

Applicants will receive an email from the Academic Registry by mid-March to inform them of the outcome.