Sources & notes
Consolidated references, data conventions and notes on multi-source cross-verification.
Every key fact on this portal carries a verifiable official source, and readers can follow the links to check for themselves. hkuniwild.com draws on just two kinds of sources: the official websites of the universities themselves (domains *.edu.hk) together with the published statistics of Hong Kong's University Grants Committee (UGC); and the original release pages of the four major official ranking bodies — QS, U.S. News, THE and ShanghaiRanking's ARWU. This page explains what data we use, how it is defined, how ranking years are named, and how you can verify it all.
Whose data prevails?
For factual data about an institution (founding year, size, faculty structure, tuition, scholarships, areas of strength), the university's own website is the primary source — for example the University of Hong Kong (hku.hk)※, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (cuhk.edu.hk)※, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (hkust.edu.hk)※, City University of Hong Kong (cityu.edu.hk)※, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (polyu.edu.hk)※.
For student and funding data that must be comparable across institutions, the authority is the UGC※. The UGC is the non-statutory advisory body that advises the Hong Kong government on higher-education funding and development, and it currently funds eight universities (including the five research-intensive ones listed above). It publishes student numbers, staff counts and grant/financial data for every institution on a consistent basis, which makes cross-institution comparison possible: the UGC Annual Report 2022–23, "Statistics" section※ (PDF) contains the full tables, including "student enrolment by university, level and mode of study, and academic programme category", "staff by source of funds, grade, employment mode and university", and "grants to UGC-funded universities". The gateway to these tables is the UGC statistical database (CDCF)※, where you select the tables yourself in your browser. Whenever we cite UGC figures, we state the academic-year basis (e.g. "2024/25").
How rankiing years are named
The four rankings each have their own naming convention, and the release year often does not match the version year. This portal consistently uses the official version year adopted by the institution, and notes the release date, to avoid confusion between old and new editions:
| Ranking | Version used on this portal | Official release | Naming convention |
|---|---|---|---|
| QS World University Rankings | 2027 | 2026-06-18 | Named after the following year |
| U.S. News Best Global Universities | 2026–2027 | 2026-06-16 | Spans two years |
| Times Higher Education (THE) | 2026 | current edition | Named after the version year |
| ShanghaiRanking ARWU | 2025 | current edition | Named after the release year |
So "QS 2027", for instance, refers to the edition QS released on 18 June 2026※, in which HKU ranked 11th worldwide and CUHK 18th. Because the methodologies differ (U.S. News, for example, leans heavily on research output and bibliometrics, with data supplied by Clarivate based on the Web of Science — see the official U.S. News methodology※), the same university can land at different positions in different rankings — a point explored in a dedicated article in the "Rankings" section.
Data currency
Rankings follow the latest edition from each institution (QS 2027, U.S. News 2026–2027, THE 2026, ARWU 2025); all other factual data is compiled as of June 2026. Tuition fees, admissions timelines and places change from year to year, so before citing anything please check the latest announcements on the universities' own websites and from the UGC.
Editorial method: every claim traced to a source
The content on this portal is AI-assisted, and every item has gone through multiple rounds of cross-verification — wherever possible a fact is checked against two or more of the university website, the UGC and the original ranking pages before it is published. We adhere to the principle of every claim traced to a source: each figure, ranking, year, tuition fee and statistic carries an official link right where it appears; where we are uncertain or cannot verify something, we leave it out rather than speculate or invent.
One reminder: this site is not an official body, and the information may be wrong or out of date. For formal applications and important decisions, please rely on the latest announcements from the universities' official websites (*.edu.hk) and authoritative sources such as the UGC. If you spot an error or omission, we welcome corrections backed by the official sources cited in the text.