PolyU residential halls system, Hung Hom and Homantin halls, and hall culture

The Accommodation System: Student Halls Replacing Colleges, and Continuing-Education ‘Colleges’

Positioning note: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) does not have a collegiate system (see the module overview). Undergraduates are not affiliated with any ‘college’. Accommodation is provided centrally by the Student Halls of Residence and falls under the administrative purview of the Student Affairs Office. This article maps out PolyU’s halls system—Hung Hom, Homantin, and the two new projects under construction—along with bed-space allocation and hall culture. It also distinguishes two continuing-education units named ‘College’ that are not residential colleges: CPCE and HKCC. For daily life in halls, catering arrangements, and the full application process, see its companion piece residential-halls-2.md; for an in‑depth look at hall culture, see residential-halls-3.md.

# 1. Overview of the Halls System

According to the ‘Residential Life’ page of PolyU’s Student Affairs Office, the University’s self-operated student halls are concentrated in two areas: Hung Hom and Homantin. The orientation website states that the halls in these two areas together house over 4,600^※ students from diverse cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, in what the University calls a ‘living and learning’ environment.

PolyU operates on a model of limited bed-spaces allocated by scheme, not guaranteed accommodation. This differs from the near-universal residence promise found in some of CUHK’s newer colleges—PolyU undergraduates typically cannot live in halls for their entire four-year degree. The current Vice-Chancellor has publicly stated that, once the two new hostels under construction in Homantin and Kowloon Tong are completed, students should be able to secure roughly two years of hall experience across a four-year programme (per a University press release of May 2023^※).

All figures are approximate and may fluctuate with the academic year or project progress; the source pages linked are definitive.

# 2. Hung Hom Student Halls

According to the PolyU entry on Wikipedia, the Hung Hom Student Halls were the University’s first student halls, completed in 2002^※. Located at 1 Hung Lai Road, Hung Hom, the building is a single 22-storey^※ tower block connected to the main campus by a covered footbridge. The Student Affairs Office’s ‘Hung Hom Halls’ page states that the tower comprises 9^※ individual halls, together accommodating over 3,000^※ students. As PolyU’s earliest residence, the Hung Hom Halls carry the origins of the University’s hall culture—hall traditions, inter-hall activities, and student self-governance largely began here (for details, see residential-halls-3.md).

According to the same page, the 9 halls are distinct, each occupying roughly two floors of the tower, with the following breakdown:

• Boyan Hall (博研堂) — reserved exclusively for research postgraduate students;
• Xuemin Hall (學敏堂) — women-only;
• The remaining seven halls (Kaiyuan, Wuhua, Chengde, Lizhi, Lisheng, Yuxian / Minyin, etc.) are undergraduate co-ed.

The Chinese names of individual halls are taken from the official handbook; bed-space quotas per hall have not been publicly released hall by hall by the University. The hall names listed here are collated from the Student Affairs Office’s halls page and handbook. Hung Hom has its own canteen (Hung Hom Hall Canteen), which is managed by the Catering Facilities division.

# 3. Homantin Student Halls

Wikipedia records that the Homantin Student Halls were completed in 2012^※. Located at 15 Fat Kwong Street, Homantin, the building is 25 storeys^※ high, with communal facilities on the lower floors and bed-spaces on the middle and upper floors. It is about a 15-minute walk from the Lee Shau Kee Building on campus. The Student Affairs Office’s ‘Homantin Halls’ page states that the building currently houses over 1,600^※ students.

# The ‘Colour Halls’ and the Evolution of the Residential Colleges

The Homantin Halls’ distinguishing feature is that they are named after colours. Wikipedia notes that when the complex opened, it contained six colour-themed halls^※: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet. Subsequently, some colour halls were reorganised into Residential Colleges. According to the Student Affairs Office page, Homantin now consists of two residential colleges plus four individual halls:

Per Wikipedia, Green Hall was reorganised into ‘CURI Residential College’ in 2021^※, with a theme of fostering research and innovation; students on the University’s Undergraduate Research and Innovation Scheme (URIS) receive priority for bed-spaces there. The other residential college, STARS Residential College, was established around 2022^※, according to multiple sources.

A key distinction: The ‘Residential Colleges’ here are themed living clusters within the Homantin Halls (grouping residents by interest, e.g. research), and are not equivalent to the CUHK-style collegiate system that spans a student’s entire undergraduate career and includes general education delivery. PolyU as a whole still has no collegiate system; CURI and STARS are accommodation-level residential community units, falling under the halls system rather than being independent academic divisions. The discrepancy between the original ‘six colour halls’ and the current ‘four colour halls plus two residential colleges’ arises because the colour halls have been progressively reorganised over time—the two descriptions are snapshots from different periods and are not contradictory.

# Naming / Donations

According to available official and Wikipedia sources, the colour halls in Homantin are named after colours, not after donors; there is no record of halls named after organisations such as ‘The Hong Kong Jockey Club’ or ‘Wharf’ (note: PolyU campus has non-halls buildings with Jockey Club naming, such as the Jockey Club Innovation Tower and the Jockey Club Auditorium, which are not part of this residential system). Jockey Club / Wharf-named hall blocks: none found.

# 4. Hall Allocation and Hall Culture

The Student Affairs Office’s ‘Hall Applications’ page describes a system of application plus scoring, not guaranteed residence: applicants are scored against set criteria (typically involving residential distance from campus, year of study, prior hall involvement/service, special needs, etc.), and bed-spaces are assigned by score against quota. Non-local students and those with genuine accommodation needs are usually prioritised. There are distinct application rounds for semester-time, summer, and ad‑hoc stays. Because bed-spaces are limited, local students may not secure a place every year—this is consistent with the ‘no collegiate system, no universal residence promise’. The full application process and detailed scoring criteria are in residential-halls-2.md.

According to the halls and orientation pages, PolyU’s hall life is built around residential education activities and hall communities: each hall has student resident organisations, floor/hall associations, and orientation and residential activities, creating a ‘living and learning’ environment that encourages cross-cultural interaction and whole-person development. The Homantin residential colleges (CURI/STARS) go further, grouping residents into themed communities (e.g. research and innovation). Overall, PolyU’s hall culture is closer to ‘residential community + residential education’, and it does not include CUHK college-style elements such as compulsory communal dining, high-table dinners, or college mottos. For a full treatment of hall culture and traditions, see residential-halls-3.md.

# 5. New Hostels Under Construction

According to a University press release of May 2023^※ and project pages of the Campus Development Office (CDO), PolyU is constructing two new student hostel projects, both of which are targeted for completion in 2028^※:

• Ho Man Tin Slope Student Hostel: on a sloping site in Homantin granted by the Government, it will provide over 1,200^※ bed-spaces.
• Kowloon Tong Student Hostel: located around Tat Hong Avenue, consisting of four^※ hostel blocks arranged in a radial/fan layout, providing 1,680^※ bed-spaces along with social, recreational, and catering facilities.

Combined, the two projects will add roughly 2,880^※ bed-spaces, in support of the Vice-Chancellor’s stated goal of ‘around two years in halls over a four-year degree’. More broadly, the HKSAR Government has in recent years been promoting multiple student-housing developments (through the Hostel Development Fund, the ‘Hostels in the City’ scheme, etc.), increasing bed-spaces across the entire tertiary-education sector. PolyU’s two new projects are the University’s own expansion within this larger policy context. For the policy background behind the new hostels—including the historical bed-space deficit left by the ‘3-3-4’ academic reform and the origins of the ‘two‑year residence’ target—see residential-halls-2.md.

# 6. Units Called ‘College’ That Are Not Residential Colleges: CPCE and HKCC

PolyU has several units whose names include the word ‘College’. It must be clear: these are self-financing continuing-education colleges, not residential colleges, unrelated to any collegiate system, and they do not offer CUHK-style college affiliation.

According to CPCE’s official ‘College Overview’, the College of Professional and Continuing Education (CPCE) was established in 2002^※. It is a self-financed college under PolyU that oversees two teaching units: Hong Kong Community College (HKCC), which offers sub-degree programmes (associate degrees and higher diplomas), and the School of Professional Education and Executive Development (SPEED), which according to SPEED’s official site was set up in 1999^※ and offers self-financed bachelor’s, master’s, and continuing-education programmes. CPCE provides an articulation pathway from HKCC sub-degree programmes to SPEED bachelor’s degrees (2‑year sub-degree + 2‑year honours degree). It is a continuing-education unit, not a residential college.

According to HKCC’s official ‘College Overview’, Hong Kong Community College (HKCC) was founded in 2001^※. It is a self-financing post-secondary college under PolyU, offering associate degrees and higher diplomas spanning arts, science, social sciences, business, as well as specialist areas such as design, health studies, social work, and surveying. It is mainly taught at PolyU’s West Kowloon Campus. Its official page states that it has helped over 44,400^※ graduates articulate to degree programmes since its founding. Though named a ‘College’, HKCC is a sub-degree institution, not a residential college.

According to HKCC’s official ‘CPCE Student Hostel’ page, CPCE also runs a small student hostel, a 5‑storey building with only 46^※ bed-spaces (14^※ single beds and 32^※ bunk beds), available for application by full-time HKCC and SPEED students, with priority given to non-local students and those with genuine accommodation needs. This hostel serves students of the self-financing college and is a separate system from the main University halls at Hung Hom and Homantin described above.

# 7. Residence Fees at a Glance

According to the hall fees page^※, the daily rate for the 2025/26 residence year is approximately HK$61.7 (for double or triple rooms; the full-term charge is approximately HK$16,905.8; triple rooms are available only in the Homantin Halls). All rooms are equipped with air-conditioning, a refrigerator, and internet access. Specific charges are adjusted annually and are subject to the official prevailing rates; for more detailed room types, the bed-space application process, and scoring criteria, see residential-halls-2.md.

# 8. PolyU Halls System vs. CUHK Collegiate System—Side-by-Side Comparison

PolyU’s CURI and STARS residential colleges borrow the name ‘Residential College’, but in substance are themed learning communities within the halls and cannot be equated with the institutional depth of CUHK’s collegiate system.

# No Record Found / Not Applicable

• Collegiate system (CUHK-style residential college system): No record found—not applicable to PolyU. PolyU has no collegiate system overall; the CURI/STARS ‘Residential Colleges’ in Homantin are themed communities within the halls only and do not constitute a college affiliation spanning the undergraduate career.
• Jockey Club / Wharf-named hall blocks: No record found. Homantin halls are named after colours; Jockey Club-named buildings (Innovation Tower, Auditorium) are not student halls.
• Bed-space quota per individual hall: The University has not publicly released hall-by‑hall figures; only cluster totals are given, and no conjecture is offered here.
• Whether CPCE / HKCC are residential colleges: No—they are self-financing continuing-education colleges and have been explicitly distinguished as such.
• Housing Allowance: No official scheme for a universal housing allowance for local students who do not secure a hall place has been found; for related resources, see residential-halls-2.md.

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# See Also

• ./residential-halls-2.md — Daily life in halls, catering facilities, detailed application process, arrangements for students without a hall place, frequently asked questions
• ./residential-halls-3.md — Hall culture and residential education in depth (colour-hall traditions, CURI/STARS, hall culture contrasted with CUHK’s collegiate system)
• ./README.md — 10 colleges / accommodation module overview
• ../21-residence-college-life/ — Campus life · halls and traditions
• ../12-misc/continuing-education-and-affiliates.md — CPCE/HKCC/SPEED detailed profiles
• ../16-mainland-students/composition-and-language.md — Mainland Chinese students’ hall allocation and residential interaction

# Splitting Note for This Article (2026‑07‑02)

The original residential-halls.md (32.4k) was formed by merging three old cards and exceeded the recommended length. It is now split by topic into three stand‑alone cards, with the main article retaining this slug:

• This article: overview of the halls system, composition of Hung Hom / Homantin Halls, CPCE/HKCC differentiation, fee snapshot, and comparison with the CUHK collegiate system. The 2025/26 fee data from the former ‘Merged old card: student halls deep-dive’ has been incorporated into section 7, avoiding a separate thin card that would have repeated the Hung Hom/Homantin structural descriptions.
• residential-halls-2.md: daily life in halls, catering arrangements, hall traditions, detailed application process, arrangements for students without a hall place, frequently asked questions (spun off from the original sections 12–17).
• residential-halls-3.md: hall culture and residential education in depth (spun off from the original ‘Merged old card: hall culture and residential education’ section).

The merging principle is maintained: verifiable facts, sources, and see‑also trails from the original card are retained; repeated definitions appear only once; should a single topic later expand beyond 12,000 characters, it will be split further into Part 1 and Part 2.