About HKUST Accounting Department

　　HKUST is Asia's premier accounting program, combining world-leading research, award-winning teaching, outstanding students, and a state-of-the-art curriculum to train tomorrow's leaders. All faculty are PhDs from the world's foremost universities - such as Illinois, Columbia, Duke, UC Berkley, Maryland, MIT, Purdue, Rochester, Texas, and UBC, - who offer cutting-edge insights and international perspective vital for career success in the 21st Century. HKUST is accredited unconditionally by the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants. According to , the Department ranks 13th worldwide in publications in top three accounting journals in the last ten years (2006-2015).

　　Program Structure

　　Students are expected to complete the program and obtain the doctoral degree in five years. However, students with outstanding research performance are encouraged to graduate earlier. During the first two years, students will take courses in accounting, finance, economics, and general management that form the foundation of accounting research. All courses are taught in English. Students are required to pass a comprehensive exam at the end of the second year before they work on their theses starting from the third year In addition to thesis, students are highly encouraged to work with faculty and develop other research projects. Our past graduates typically have two working papers coauthored with faculties, in addition to their own thesis when they finish the program.

　　Financial Support

　　Full-time regular postgraduate students are eligible for a postgraduate studentship of HK$15,700 per month for five years. The studentship is intended to help cover daily subsistence, tuition fees and other expenses that students may incur during the course of their study. The department also sponsors outstanding students to attend local or international conference (e.g., CAPANA, MIT Asia, AAA, etc.). Applicants are encouraged to apply for the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS), which was established by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong to attract the best students in the world to pursue their PhD studies in Hong Kong's institutions. The Fellowship provides the awardee with a monthly stipend of HK$20,000 and a conference travel allowance of HK$10,000 per year for a maximum period of three years. Subject to a continuously outstanding performance, the Business School will provide monthly stipends at the same rate to HKPFS awardees for an additional year.

　　Placements

　　Our PhD students have been placed to premier universities around the world, including Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, The University of Queensland, Singapore Management University, Nanyang Technological University, and The Lancaster University.

　　Application procedure

　　Applicants for admission to PhD programs must possess a good first degree from a recognized university or an approved institution. An applicant's undergraduate background is not a precondition for admission. We encourage students from both business (accounting, finance, economics, and management, etc.) and non-business majors, such as science, engineering, arts and other areas, to apply.

　　Online application for 2018/2019 admission is expected to be available at https://pg.ust.hk/cgi-bin/pg/eng/index.php in early September of 2017

　　Contact

　　If you have further questions, please contact

　　Professor Zhihong Chen

　　PhD program director

　　Department of Accounting

　　HKUST

　　Email: aczh@ust.hk