CUHK Graduate School

Answer: With effect from the academic year 2021-22, degree conferment will be decoupled from the Congregation/Graduation ceremonies in December/November.

There will be three specified dates in a calendar year for conferment of applicable Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees awarded by the University, namely 31 March, 31 July, and 15 October. The dates to be printed on the graduate certificates will correspond to the three degree conferment dates on 31 March, 31 July and 15 October, except for degrees conferred on 15 October, graduates will be given two options regarding the dates to be printed on their graduate certificates: (i) 15 October; and (ii) 15 November.

Under this new arrangement, students who have fulfilled all graduation requirements will have their degree conferred at an earlier date, which will facilitate their further studies or employment needs.

Q2. Where can I get more information about the Congregation?

Answer: News about the University Congregation ceremonies are available from the website at https://cong.cuhk.edu.hk/ .

Q3. How can I choose my preferred degree conferment date?

Answer: Students with an expected graduation date in 2022-23 and 2023-24, please observe the email that GSO shall send in due course and complete the Online Form as required, if they wish to postpone their degree conferment date.

Q.4 How is the graduation process triggered?

Answer: Once students fulfill all graduation requirements (i.e. after release of grades for all courses taken and/or submission of a final thesis), a graduation assessment will be conducted. Details of the graduate process can be found at https://www.gs.cuhk.edu.hk/page/Graduation#G1.

Q5. I have not received the email invitation yet but my fellow classmates from the same programme have, may I obtain the online form from my friends and fill out the form instead?

Answer: No. If students graduating in 2022-23 and 2023-24 have not received the email invitation at their CUHK@Link email account just yet, it means that their graduation assessment is not complete.

Students should wait patiently and check their CUHK@Link email account regularly for any updates or important messages. Any online submissions which are not from the intended email recipients will be considered as invalid and ignored, since the concerned procedure is set to record information returned by the specified individuals.

Q6. Can I forward the email to my friend and ask my friend to fill out the form for me?

Answer: No, the online form can only be filled out by the intended email recipients only. The email invitation is not allowed to be forwarded to any third parties and only online submissions from intended email recipients will be accepted. Please also refer to Q5.

Q7. Can I send an email to the Graduate School to inform them my preferred degree conferment date directly?

Answer: No, please refer to Q3. Once graduation assessment is complete, an email with the link to an online form designated for the University specified graduating students to opt for their degree conferment dates (and the date to be printed on the certificate in cases of 15 October being the degree conferment date) will be sent to the students inviting them to respond by the deadline specified in the email. The online system cannot capture any replies sent to GS via other channels. Therefore, please check your CUHK@Link email account regularly for any updates. Only online submissions from intended email recipients will be accepted.

Q8. I cannot access the link to the Online Form and it says ‘can’t bind to the server’, what can I do?

Answer: There are several ways to solve this issue:

1. Use a different browser;

2. Clear the history of the cookies in your computer; or

3. Use an Incognito winder to login to the page.

Sometimes this technical error happens due to the server from the user end is not stable, by doing the above, students shall be able to log in to the form just fine.

Q9. I made a mistake on my preferred degree conferment date when I filled out the form, what can I do?

Answer: Unfortunately, the choice that you made from the Online Form submission is irrevocable and final.

Q10. I’m expecting to graduate in this academic year, can I choose to be conferred the degree in the next academic year?

Answer: No, students can only choose from the University-specified options in the year the student graduates from the University.

Q11. I got a general reminder email from my Graduate Division and in that email, I can see that there’s a link to an Online Form, can I just fill out that form instead?

Answer: No. Once students’ graduation assessment is complete, they will become eligible and GSO will send an email invitation to the student’s CUHK@Link email account directly. Only intended email recipient’s online submission will be recorded. Please refer to Q5 for more information.