Hong Kong, HK · 16 months
HKUST MBA: cost, salary and payback
95% of the full-time intake of 2025 accepted an offer within three months, yet the school keeps the salary behind a download form.
Paid back after graduation in
salary not published
Total cost $237,908
| Tuition and fees, whole program | $76,454 |
| Living budget | $41,454 |
| Salary given up, 16 months | $120,000 |
| Total cost | $237,908 |
| Salary after: salary | not published |
US dollars at the ECB rate of the last update. Raises of 5% a year with the MBA and 3% without, discounted at 5%, before tax. How this is calculated.
Fees and budget read on October 13, 2026 · employment: Full-time MBA Intake of 2025 (headline); MBA graduates 2025 (GES) (MBA CSEA (headline); school (GES) standard) · Built by Radif Partners · Method
- Tuition and fees
- HK$600,000
- Total cost, salary given up included
- n/a
- Salary
- not published
- Payback, reference person
- not computable
The HKUST full-time MBA charges a program fee of HK$600,000, about $76,454, which already covers core textbooks and some activities. The school's living budget is written for 12 months; scaled to the 16-month standard mode, which includes a summer internship, it comes to HK$325,325, for HK$925,325 before any salary you give up. No total cost for a person earning $90,000 and no payback can be shown here: the career report with the salary is gated behind a form, and the open pages publish none. What the school does publish is a headline under the MBA CSEA standard: 95% of the intake accepted an offer within three months. The sector, function and location splits shown below come from a different source, the university-wide graduate survey, which counted only a few dozen MBA respondents. They point to Hong Kong and finance, but they are thin. A shorter 12-month accelerator mode exists for students who skip the internship.
Two sources that do not describe the same group
HKUST reports its MBA careers in two places. The career development page gives the headline for the intake of 2025, measured under the MBA CSEA rules. The detailed tables come from the HKUST Graduate Employment Survey, which covers every taught master's program; its MBA rows rest on a small sample and use broad sectors instead of consulting, finance and technology. That is why the industry table on this page shows a single "other" line, and why every respondent appears in Asia. The two sources may not even count the same people: the headline follows the intake, while the survey counts MBA graduates of the year who chose to answer it.
Read by job nature instead, 65.6% of the survey respondents work in banking or finance roles and 31.3% in administration and management. The survey's salary figures are monthly gross income with bonuses and allowances, not an annual base salary, so we do not use them.
A fee or a salary in US dollars
In US dollars
$111,880
| 1 EUR | $1.119 |
ECB reference rate of October 13, 2026. Prices on the ground do not follow exchange rates one for one.
The standard mode or the accelerator
The standard mode lasts 16 months and leaves room for a summer internship; the accelerator mode finishes 4 months sooner. The program fee is the same HK$600,000, so the choice changes only living costs and the salary you give up. At the school's budget, each extra month in Hong Kong costs about HK$20,333. For someone who already has a job lined up or is sponsored, the shorter mode removes about HK$81,332 of living costs and 4 months without pay; for a career switcher, the internship is the chance to test a new sector before signing.
Scholarships are merit-based and every applicant is considered automatically. The school names a few endowed awards, including a small number of trade leadership scholarships, but publishes no average amount or share of the class aided. HKU, the other Hong Kong school with a full page here, charges HK$648,000 for 12 months and also publishes no salary.
The salary you give up while you study
Salary given up, net of the internship
$157,500
| Gross salary not earned | $157,500 |
| Per month away | $7,500 |
Pension contributions and raises you would have had are not counted here.
Where HKUST stands in our rankings
Not ranked: HKUST does not publish a graduate salary or the split of the class by industry, which our ranking needs. Its cost is complete above.
Our fit score, reference person earning $90,000 before the MBA (method). Third-party rankings play no part in it. For reference, HKUST was ranked 24 in the FT Global MBA 2026.
What the HKUST MBA costs
| Item | HKD, and US dollars |
|---|---|
| Tuition, whole program | HK$600,000 $76,454 |
| Living budget, whole program | HK$325,325 $41,454 |
HKUST employment report: Full-time MBA Intake of 2025 (headline); MBA graduates 2025 (GES)
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Graduates who accepted an offer within three months | 95% |
HKUST graduates by job function
| Function | Share | Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Banking / Finance | 65.6% | HK$47,083 |
| Administration / Management | 31.3% | HK$52,013 |
The HKUST class
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| International students | 89% |
| Women | 37% |
| Average age | 30 |
Not published by HKUST in the documents we read: a graduate salary; the split of the class by industry; where graduates went to work. We leave these blank rather than fill them with an estimate.