HKU 2027 Entry for IB Students: Scores, Subject Grades and Deadlines

HKU asks for the full IB Diploma, including CAS, TOK and the Extended Essay, and then sets two separate bars for each programme: a total in IB points and, for most science and engineering degrees, minimum grades in named subjects. Both come from HKU's own 2027 International Admissions information and its programme-by-programme IB requirements, read on 30 October 2026.

What the number means.

HKU calls the total an "expected lower boundary for admissions". It is the score HKU considers competitive for that programme, not a guaranteed offer line. HKU also reports that the highest IB score among admitted candidates in past years was 45 out of 45, which tells you that the strongest applicants are well above the boundary.

The programmes most Maths and Physics students look at.

The table below collects the 2027 figures for Engineering, Science, Computing and the most quantitative business degrees. For the exact subject wording of the main courses, with the source of each line, see the HKU IB requirements table on this site; for every other programme, HKU's 2027 International Admissions document is the reference.

How this compares worldwide.

A 34 at HKU sits below the 38 to 40 that many UK universities ask for in similar subjects; I compare those figures in my guide to IB score requirements at top universities. The difference is that HKU's subject conditions are strict and published as grades, so the maths and science lines matter as much as the total.

Yes for the main Engineering and Science routes, but not at every level. HKU names both Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches (AA) and Mathematics: Applications and Interpretation (AI) in its subject requirements, and the grade it asks for depends on the programme.

Engineering.

For Mechanical, Civil, Data and Systems, Biomedical and Computer, Electrical or Electronic Engineering, HKU accepts a 5 in AA HL or AI HL, or a 6 in AA SL. AI SL is not in the list, so a student taking AI SL does not meet the maths condition for these degrees, whatever the total.

Science.

The Bachelor of Science is the most open route: a 4 in any of the four maths courses (AA or AI, HL or SL) plus a 4 in Biology, Chemistry or Physics. This is the entry route for students who want to major in Physics or Mathematics later.

Computing, Actuarial Science and Quantitative Finance.

Here the maths grade rises: 6 in AA HL or AI HL for Computing and Data Science and for Actuarial Science, and a 7 in AA HL or AI HL for Quantitative Finance.

Physics is never compulsory in these lines.

Every Engineering programme in the table accepts Physics, Chemistry or Biology as the science. In practice, for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering I advise students to keep Physics if they can, because first year mechanics and circuits build directly on it. That is my teaching advice, not an HKU rule.

English counts too.

Mechanical Engineering, for example, asks for a 5 in English A (HL or SL) or a 6 in English B, or one of the alternative English qualifications listed by HKU. The same English minimum applies across the programmes in the table, except Quantitative Finance, which asks for a 6 in English A or B. Medicine (MBBS) also asks for a good working knowledge of Chinese, gives priority to first-choice applicants and interviews shortlisted candidates.

If your child is still deciding between the two maths courses, my guide to IB Maths AA or AI for university explains the trade-off course by course.

The dates below are the ones HKU publishes for international applicants to 2027 entry. Times are Hong Kong time (HKT, UTC+8), which in November is seven hours ahead of central Europe.

The two dates that matter most.

The 25 November deadline is for the application itself. The 1 December date is for the school: counsellors and referees must enter predicted grades and upload references by then for the application to be evaluated in the first round. HKU advises counsellors to submit predicted results within a week of receiving the invitation, so the student should register the counsellor early, not on 24 November.

HKU also asks applicants to enter all their results, predicted and actual, in the application system themselves; if only the counsellor holds the predicted grades, the student must make sure the counsellor has entered them.

After the first round.

Applications that arrive after noon on 25 November are still considered, on a rolling basis, until applications close at noon on 25 August 2027. Shortlisted students may be invited to interview between November and January. Offers from the first round are released from December 2026, and an offer must be accepted within three to four weeks with a non-refundable deposit.

Visas take time.

HKU tells non-local students to allow at least four to six weeks for an assessment and eight to ten weeks for a visa after an offer, which is one more reason to aim for the first round.

Read it as two checks, not one. The first check is the total against the lower boundary. The second, which families often skip, is every subject line in the programme's requirements. HKU's own wording is that satisfying the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission, and that decisions also consider interviews, the personal statement and references.

Two predicted profiles for Mechanical Engineering.

Take two students applying for the 34-point BEng in Mechanical Engineering.

• Student A is predicted 36 with a 5 in Maths AA HL and a 5 in Physics HL. Both subject lines are met and the total is above the boundary.
• Student B is predicted 39 with a 7 in Maths AI SL and a 6 in Physics SL. The total is higher, but AI SL is not an accepted maths course for this degree, so the maths line is not met.

On paper Student B looks stronger. Against HKU's published requirements, only Student A meets every line. The total is easy to focus on, but against HKU's published lines the HL maths grade can decide the outcome.

Where predicted grades come from.

Predicted grades are set by the school, usually from internal tests and mocks, which is why the first term of the final year matters so much. My guide to how IB predicted grades work and how to raise them explains how schools decide them and what a student can still change before the counsellor submits.

The offer is conditional.

A first-round offer made on predicted grades still depends on the final May 2027 results. A student who is predicted a 5 in AA HL and finishes with a 4 no longer meets the Engineering maths line, so the work does not stop once the application is in.

Most Hong Kong families apply to more than one local university, and the three publish their IB conditions in different ways. This comparison uses each university's own current admissions documents.

CUHK.

CUHK's 2027 IB admission sheet asks for the IB Diploma, with a grade 4 or above in an IB English subject and in an IB Chinese subject (the Chinese requirement can be waived for IB Diploma holders at the Dean's discretion). For individual programmes it lists subject preferences that it explicitly says are not requirements. Electronic Engineering, for example, prefers any mathematics course and Physics, preferably at HL.

HKUST.

The HKUST School of Engineering FAQ says it accepts Maths AA HL, AA SL or AI HL, so AI SL is not on the list, and it requires at least one science subject, which can be taken at HL or SL. It adds that some subjects are preferred for particular engineering disciplines.

What this means in practice.

HKU publishes grade minimums for Maths and the science in each programme line, which makes it easy to check against a predicted grade sheet. The AI SL issue is shared by HKU Engineering and HKUST Engineering, so a student who wants engineering in Hong Kong and is taking AI SL should talk to the school about the maths course before predicted grades are fixed.

With the first-round deadline on 25 November, the useful work for parents is a short checklist rather than a long plan.

1. Print the programme line. Open the HKU IB requirements table or HKU's own programme page and write down the total, the maths line and the science line for each programme your child lists. 2. Compare it with the school's predicted grades. If a subject line is not met, ask the school now, not after the counsellor submits on 1 December.

3. Check the counsellor registration. HKU advises counsellors to submit within one week of the invitation, so the invitation needs to go out this month. 4. Protect the HL maths grade. For Engineering and Computing the HL maths grade is the line most often at risk. The weeks before the mocks are the last chance to move it, and my guide for families in Hong Kong explains how IB Maths and Physics tutoring in Hong Kong fits around the school timetable.

If your child is also applying to the UK or Singapore, the same predicted grade sheet goes to every university, so a grade raised in November helps every application.