The Hong Kong Polytechnic University — Key Figures at a Glance

Module: 00 Overview · Sub-file: Key Figures (key-numbers) This page brings together the core institutional statistics of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Unless otherwise noted, the primary frame of reference is the official PolyU in Figures 2022–2023 snapshot (published by PolyU's Institutional Planning and Analytics Office, IPAO); some institutional and campus items have been updated to 2025–2026. A note on statistical scopes: different sources (official statistics vs the Wikipedia infobox vs individual faculty pages) do not always count "total students," "staff," etc. in the same way — whether branch campuses, affiliated colleges, offshore programmes, part-time students, full-time/part-time staff are included or excluded. This page sets these figures side by side wherever possible, with the year and source noted. A quick overview of basic identity, leadership, and academic structure can be found in general-facts.md.

28,410, or 33,900? Which figure you get for PolyU's student population depends on which official document you trust — which is precisely why this page exists: to lay out, side by side, the numbers scattered across sources that cannot agree on a single count.

---

# 1. Students (official 2022/23 figures)

Postgraduate-level students (research postgraduates MPhil/PhD, taught postgraduates, professional doctorates) and their distribution by place of origin appear on the same page of PolyU in Figures 2022–2023, under "by programme type and student origin"; the page also breaks down the proportion of non-local undergraduate students from Hong Kong, mainland China/Macau/Taiwan, and other regions. None of the above figures include students at branch campuses, affiliated colleges, or offshore-awarding programmes.

Alternative figure: the Wikipedia infobox lists total student numbers at around 33,900^※. The gap versus the official PolyU in Figures count of 28,410 stems mainly from differences in what is included or excluded; the two are best read side by side.

# 2. Staff (official 2022/23 figures)

Wikipedia separately lists around 1,569 "academic staff"^※, a figure that counts differently from the official "academic and teaching/clinical staff" of 1,427 (for instance, whether clinical and research-track staff are included); again, compare side by side.

# 3. Alumni and graduates

Graduate progression to further study or employment (by faculty and degree level) appears in the "Graduates & Alumni" section of PolyU in Figures 2022–2023, drawn from the 2022 Graduate Employment Survey^※ (based on full-time graduates who responded to the survey).

# 4. Academic structure and programmes (from 2025)

• Seven faculties: Business; Construction and Environment; Engineering; Health and Social Sciences; Humanities; Science; and Computer and Mathematical Sciences (established on 1 January 2025^※).
• Three schools: Design; Fashion and Textiles; and Hotel and Tourism Management.
• The Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences comprises three departments (Applied Mathematics; Computing; and Data Science and Artificial Intelligence), with over 125 academic staff and 390 research staff^※.

No medical school: nursing, medical technology and informatics, rehabilitation sciences, and optometry sit within the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences. The contest for Hong Kong's third medical school was won by HKUST in November 2025 (see recent-developments-2020-2026.md).

Estimated student distribution by faculty (approximate, based on the university-wide total of 28,410 students in 2022/23; not official figures, for reference only): the Faculty of Business and the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences each about 18–21%; Engineering about 14–18%; Computer and Mathematical Sciences and Construction and Environment about 9–12% each; Humanities about 7–11%; Science about 5–9%; Design and Fashion and Textiles about 4–5% each; Hotel and Tourism Management about 5–7%. For definitive numbers, refer to each faculty's website and the relevant edition of PolyU in Figures.

# 5. Campus and facilities

The Pao Yue-kong Library separately reports its 2024/25 holdings: print volumes 1,100,513^※, e-books 8,117,470 titles^※, e-journals 255,412 titles^※, and 453 databases^※, for a combined total of 10,284,711 items^※ (this scope includes electronic resources, which is why it exceeds the 2022/23 figure). There are roughly 2,000+ self-study seats across seven service floors (Pao Yue-kong Library main building).

# 6. Finance (2023/24)

These financial figures are for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2024 and are cited via third-party compilation; for the authoritative numbers, see PolyU's Annual Report and audited financial statements. Detailed finances are covered in Module 08.

# 7. Internationalisation and research scale (composite)

• Research facilities: over 80 research laboratories, institutes, and centres^※.
• International partnerships: collaborations with over 360 universities and institutions in more than 40 countries and regions^※.
• Student exchange: PolyU in Figures 2022–2023 lists around 277 exchange programme partners^※; roughly 1,500–2,000 local students travel abroad or to mainland China on exchange per year (International Affairs Office estimate); international students come from over 60 countries and regions.

# 8. Key research figures (2020–2025 composite)

PolyU's research scale has expanded markedly in recent years:

Scope corrections and lone-source notes: ① "Cumulative startups nurtured" follows the UGC Knowledge Transfer Annual Report (2021/22) figure of 452, replacing an older "over 1,500" — the latter had no official source and has been deleted. ② "External competitive research funding on the order of HK$1 billion per year" is an order-of-magnitude directional statement, not a precise official figure: this site has not located a single directly citable "annual total external research funding" figure in PolyU's audited annual reports; what searches turn up are mostly individual scheme amounts (e.g. the four RGC schemes combined around HK$101 million in 2023/24). It is therefore stated only as an order of magnitude; precise numbers follow PolyU's annual reports.

Cross-referencing successive editions of the official PolyU in Figures with annual reports, over the decade from 2012/13 to 2022/23, full-time students grew from roughly 18,000 to 23,670^※ (approx. +32%, estimate); cumulative alumni grew from about 250,000 to 402,211^※ (approx. +61%, estimate); library holdings grew from about 5 million items to 9.027 million^※ (nearly doubling). The 2012/13 figures cited are estimates/directional statements (not individually checked against that year's edition; they indicate orders of magnitude only). For precise numbers, consult the official PolyU in Figures for the relevant year.

# 9. Non-local student composition (official UGC figures, 2023/24)

Per Appendix I of the LegCo written reply dated 20 November 2024, "Numbers of Local and Non-local Students of UGC-funded Programmes in the 2023/24 Academic Year" (full-time equivalent, FTE):

Undergraduate programmes

Research postgraduates (RPg) — the non-local share is markedly higher than at undergraduate level: local students 191 (14.0%)^※; non-local total (predominantly mainland China) 1,171 (86.0%)^※.

All levels combined (undergraduate + taught postgraduate + research postgraduate): local 13,606 (76.8%)^※; non-local 4,116 (23.2%)^※.

Policy correction: the earlier edition of this page stated a "20% cap on non-local student numbers" — this is out of date. According to the LegCo document, the cap on non-local students at UGC-funded institutions was doubled from 20% to 40%^※ from the 2024/25 academic year (announced in the 2023 Policy Address); the 2025 Policy Address further proposed raising the cap from 40% to 50%^※. These caps apply only to non-local places over and above locally funded places, and do not apply to RPg programmes.

# 10. Sustainability and employment figures

Employment and salary figures are based on survey respondents (voluntary responses, not the full cohort), so selection bias exists, and results vary considerably by faculty and programme. The table gives university-wide summaries; see Module 02 (Admissions and Outcomes) for details.

# 11. Faculty-level figures (not directly summable)

The official PolyU in Figures editions (from 2012/13 to the latest) are published by PolyU's Institutional Planning and Analytics Office^※ and allow year-by-year comparison of student, staff, and financial trends. Individual faculties also publish their own "Faculty at a Glance" figures (with scopes that differ from the university-wide count and cannot simply be added together):

• Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS): 6,195 students (4,056 undergraduate, 1,688 taught postgraduate, 451 research postgraduate)^※, 1,889 staff (1,305 research/teaching/clinical)^※, competitive external funding over HK$94.31 million (October 2024 – September 2025)^※.
• Faculty of Business (FB): 5,514 students (Semester 1 of 2025/26; 38.2% local, 61.8% non-local)^※ (faculty scope; not directly comparable with university-wide statistics).

# 12. Rankings at a glance (2025–2027)

Each ranking system uses its own methodology, and positions across different league tables cannot be directly compared; see World Rankings and Subject Rankings for details.

---

# Q&A: Common questions about the numbers

Q: Which is the "real" total — 28,410 or 33,900? A: Both are real, but they measure different things. The 28,410 comes from the official PolyU in Figures 2022–2023 and excludes affiliated colleges, offshore-awarding programmes, and certain categories of part-time students; the 33,900 comes from Wikipedia and is usually a broader count (possibly including students at affiliated bodies such as SPEED or HKCC). Which figure is appropriate depends on the context; setting the two side by side gives a fuller picture.

Q: How many libraries does PolyU have? A: The main library is the Pao Yue-kong Library; there are small reading resource points at Hotel ICON and on several campuses, but the core collection is concentrated in the Pao Yue-kong Library in Block L of the main campus.

Q: How is the "over 400,000 alumni" figure compiled? A: The 402,211 listed in PolyU in Figures 2022–2023 is the cumulative number of graduates across all programmes (including part-time, taught postgraduate, and continuing education programmes) since the Hong Kong Polytechnic was founded in 1972 — it is not all full-time degree graduates. That is why the figure far exceeds the current student population.

Q: Does the "10.23 hectares of campus" include Hotel ICON? A: No. The 10.23 hectares is the land area of the main campus in Hung Hom; Hotel ICON is in Tsim Sha Tsui East and counted separately. Several off-campus sites (the Industrial Centre, the Digital Media Centre, the Ho Man Tin campus, etc.) are likewise not included in the main-campus area.

Q: How does PolyU's number of faculties compare with other Hong Kong universities? A: By number of faculties, HKU has 10 (the most), CUHK has 9, and PolyU has 10 (7 faculties + 3 schools), on a par with HKU. But the definition and size of a "faculty" differ from institution to institution, so direct comparisons need careful attention to scope.

---

# Further reading

Data current as of: June 2026. Official figures primarily follow PolyU in Figures 2022–2023; some research and ranking figures have been updated to 2025–2026. Where a newer edition exists, PolyU's current PolyU in Figures takes precedence.

---