Dual and Joint Degrees: Cultivating Doctoral Talent with the World's Leading Universities

International exchange lets students "go and see the world" for a semester; dual and joint degree programmes let students "earn degrees from two institutions" — the most consequential category of PolyU's international partnerships. This piece maps PolyU's Dual PhD programmes, Joint PhD Supervision, the industry-linked PolyU-ASTRI joint doctorate, and undergraduate dual-degree schemes, and explains why these arrangements form the "deep water" of the University's internationalisation. For the global picture see global-partnerships.md; for the Greater Bay Area, mainland-and-gba.md; for undergraduate exchange and overseas placements, polyu-global-internship-and-exchange.md; for Belt and Road collaborations, polyu-belt-and-road-collaborations.md. Sources are primarily PolyU's Graduate School and partner institutions' official pages, current as of July 2026.

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# 1. Three ways to earn two degrees / gain two institutional experiences

PolyU's deep international partnerships fall into three broad categories, each with different levels of intensity and different outcomes:

What these four types share: students becomedeeply immersed in two (or more) institutions rather than paying a short visit — an escalation of internationalisation "from exchange to co-cultivation". They also differ progressively in time commitment, the weight of the credential, and entry requirements, which we unpack below.

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# 2. Dual PhD: dual registration, dual supervision, dual degrees

According to the**PolyU Graduate School: Dual PhD Degree Programmes page^※**, the Dual PhD mechanism works as follows:

• Students aresimultaneously enrolled as full-time PhD students at both universities;
• They enjoy academic and all other facilities at both institutions;
• They are supervised jointly by chief supervisors from both universities;
• They are assessed according to the standards of both institutions;
• Study time is normally divided equally between the two universities — the normal period of study is 4 years, typically with about 2 consecutive years at PolyU and the remaining time at the partner institution;
• Upon completion, students receive a doctoral degree awarded separately by PolyU and by the partner institution.

What this means: a graduate of a Dual PhD programme walks away holdingdoctoral degrees from two universities, with their research scrutinised by both — an extremely weighty form of academic collaboration, and for the student an uncompromising "two-front campaign": the proposal defence on both sides, the annual review on both sides, the thesis committees on both sides. None of these can be skipped.

Source strength: dual registration, dual supervision, dual standards and dual degrees are set out on the Graduate School's Dual PhD programme page.

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# 3. Partner institutions: the full list of 35 leading mainland and overseas universities

The number of partner universities in PolyU's Dual PhD programme is larger than piecemeal press coverage suggests. According to the Graduate Handbook Appendix I^※ (published by the Graduate School and updated annually), in the current academic year the Dual PhD programme has 35 partner institutions, split into a mainland group and a Hong Kong/Macau and overseas group. Importantly, many institutions are restricted to specific faculties/departments — this is not an "any department, any pairing" arrangement.

# 3.1 Mainland partners (26 institutions)

# 3.2 Hong Kong/Macau and overseas partners (9 institutions)

According to a University of Surrey news release^※, PolyU and Surrey have signed a framework agreement for a joint PhD programme allowing doctoral students at both universities to obtain degrees from both institutions; the first scheme to be launched sits in hotel and tourism research — fittingly echoing the world-class standing of PolyU's SHTM in the discipline (see section 5 of global-partnerships.md). Agreements of this kind plug PolyU into the network of the world's leading research universities; and restrictions such as "SHTM only", "FB only" and "SFT only" show that Dual PhD collaborations are not general university-level pacts but discipline-to-discipline precision matchmaking — partners tend to select exactly the flagship subjects where PolyU itself is strongest.

In February 2026, PolyU and the University of Macausigned an agreement to establish a "Joint Laboratory of Robotics and Embodied Intelligence" and launch a Dual PhD programme^※, the latest case of substantive collaboration between Hong Kong and Macau universities in frontier technology under the "Greater Bay Area higher-education cooperation" framework — the joint laboratory comes first, the Dual PhD follows. This is the usual sequencing for such collaborations: build the platform first, then send in the students.

On 21 January 2026, the PolyU Graduate School and Loughborough University co-hosted anadmissions talk for the Dual PhD programme^※, led by Professor Feng, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, and Jill Thurman, Registrar of Loughborough's Doctoral College, introducing prospective applicants to both institutions' resources and scholarship arrangements. Cross-institutional admissions talks of this kind are routine outreach for recruiting international students into Dual PhD programmes — evidence that these deep collaborations are taken seriously on the "actually attracting applicants" front, and are not simply signed and shelved.

Source strength: the full list of 35 Dual PhD partners with departmental restrictions comes from Appendix I of the Graduate School's official Graduate Handbook; specific partners such as Surrey and Loughborough are documented on the Graduate School and partner institutions' public pages; the University of Macau scheme is covered in a PolyU official press release (Feb 2026); the Loughborough admissions talk is in Graduate School news (Jan 2026).

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# 4. Joint PhD Supervision, the industry-linked ASTRI doctorate, and undergraduate dual degrees

# 4.1 Joint PhD Supervision: 8 Greater Bay Area research institutions

According to the**PolyU Joint PhD Supervision Programmes page^※, this scheme gives doctoral students aPolyU-awarded PhD plus a certificate of completion from the partner institution** — a degree lighter than the Dual PhD. The graduate holds a single degree certificate (from PolyU), but benefits throughout the research process from the resources and supervisory teams of both institutions. For the student, it resembles a "major in PolyU, minor in the partner" arrangement, with lower entry hurdles and coordination costs than the Dual PhD.

Unlike the Dual PhD's "name-brand university matchups", the 8 partner institutions in Joint PhD Supervision are mostly frontier research platforms in the Greater Bay Area rather than conventional universities:

Mechanically, students must spend at least half of the normal period of study at PolyU, with the remainder at the partner institution; the partner provides a living allowance while students are at PolyU, and students may receive an additional scholarship while based at the partner. On fees, students pay both institutions, and if thesis submission runs beyond the normal period of study, additional examination and extension fees apply. This "pay both sides, receive from both sides" arrangement is, in its way, also a filter on how committed a student is prepared to be.

# 4.2 The industry-linked joint doctorate: PolyU-ASTRI

PolyU's deep collaborations do not stop at "university to university". According to the**Graduate School's PolyU-ASTRI Joint PhD Programme Guidelines^※, PolyU runs a joint doctorate with theHong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI)**: students register as PolyU PhD students, are co-supervised by supervisors from both PolyU and ASTRI, and graduate with a PolyU-awarded doctorate, with research directions aligned to ASTRI's technology priority areas (applied-technology fields such as communications and semiconductors). Places are allocated under annual agreements, applications go through PolyU's graduate admissions system, and selection involves representatives of both organisations.

Such "industry-linked joint doctorates" are not unique to PolyU in Hong Kong — HKUST and ASTRI launched the first joint technology PhD programme in 2023^※, allowing students to pursue a part-time HKUST doctorate while employed full-time as ASTRI R&D staff; HKU's work-study scheme with ASTRI^※ followed in the 2023/24 academic year. By comparison, PolyU's scheme is closer to the traditional "dual-supervisor joint supervision" model than to HKUST's "full-time employment + part-time study" arrangement. Three universities collaborating with the same applied-science research institute, each with a different design emphasis, reflects how ASTRI — as a hub for industry-university-research links in Hong Kong — is building differentiated joint-training relationships with individual local universities.

# 4.3 Undergraduate dual degrees: four programmes in place

According to the**PolyU undergraduate dual-degree page^※**, PolyU's undergraduate dual-degree schemes let students earn two degrees within the normal period of study, spanning different departments or international partner institutions — a "one allocation of time, two degrees" experience for undergraduates. In the current academic year, the official page lists 4 programmes in place, spanning the departments of applied social sciences, linguistics, logistics management, and hotel and tourism management:

These four programmes span Europe (Poland, Denmark, Austria) and mainland China (Shanghai Jiao Tong), and each maps onto a discipline where PolyU itself is strong — hotel and tourism to SHTM's flagship standing, logistics to the traditional strength of the Logistics and Maritime Studies department. This continues the "discipline-to-discipline precision matchmaking" logic of the Dual PhD programmes. Exact durations, fees and selection methods are adjusted slightly year by year in each programme's admissions materials; the latest official announcements prevail.

Source strength: the 8 Joint PhD Supervision partner institutions and the mechanics come from the Graduate School's official programme page; PolyU-ASTRI from the Graduate School's official guideline PDF; the HKUST and HKU comparison cases from ASTRI and both universities' official news; the 4 undergraduate dual-degree programmes from PolyU's official undergraduate admissions page.

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# 5. Why dual/joint degrees are the deep water of internationalisation

International exchange (a semester at a partner university) is the "shallow water" of internationalisation; dual/joint degrees are the "deep water":

Dual/joint degrees require the two institutions to coordinate deeply on curricula, standards, supervision and degree conferral — possible only where both sides trust each other and command comparable academic standing. PolyU's ability to build such partnerships with a range of internationally renowned universities is itself indirect proof that its academic standing is recognised abroad.

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# 6. Placing dual/joint degrees in PolyU's internationalisation map

Dual/joint degrees embody the move in PolyU's internationalisation "from breadth to depth":

• Breadth: the large web of exchange agreements and alliance memberships (see global-partnerships.md, polyu-global-internship-and-exchange.md);
• Depth: Dual PhD (35 partner institutions), Joint Supervision (8 Greater Bay Area research institutions), the industry-linked doctorate (ASTRI), undergraduate dual degrees (4 programmes) — cultivating talent jointly with leading universities and research bodies;
• Disciplinary vehicle: the world-class standing of flagship subjects attracts deep collaboration (see section 5 of global-partnerships.md);
• Along-the-route extension: complementing the professional training network of the Belt and Road university alliance (see polyu-belt-and-road-collaborations.md).

Add the cross-border presence in the Greater Bay Area (see mainland-and-gba.md), and PolyU's internationalisation takes the shape of a dual structure: "deep global cooperation + regional cross-border extension". It is worth noting that these deep collaborations tend to begin with a "well-matched" pairing in one specific discipline — Surrey chose hotel and tourism, the University of Macau chose robotics and embodied intelligence, Copenhagen Business School chose logistics, MODUL University chose hotel and tourism — rather than with a general university-level agreement. That also explains why the number of dual/joint degree partners (35 Dual PhD institutions and 4 undergraduate dual-degree programmes) is far smaller than the hundreds of universities covered by exchange agreements.

Compared with the 8 Greater Bay Area research institutions in Joint PhD Supervision, the 35 Dual PhD partners are almost all traditional universities; while industry-linked doctorates such as PolyU-ASTRI extend the object of "degree co-cultivation" from universities to an applied-science research institute. Taken together, the three models form PolyU's deep co-cultivation network across three dimensions: "university–university", "university–research institution", and "university–industry research institute".

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