Programme Aims
The mission of the High Performance Buildings (HPB) programme is to engage in education and research for the advancement of high performance buildings. In particular, the HPB programme provides an opportunity for students to broaden and deepen their knowledge on assessment of High Performance Buildings, which impose minimal impacts on global carbon footprints (global impacts), and facilitate optimised performance of building systems (building impacts), as well as the best indoor environments for the health and well-being of occupants.
To fulfil this mission, the High Performance Buildings programme adopts an interdisciplinary approach by linking sustainable development and high-rise building construction together with socio-economic development, focusing on climate changes, carbon footprint assessment, building services system management and optimisation, and indoor environmental quality evaluation. It is designed to cut across traditional boundaries of management, engineering and environmental sciences to take a broad view of sustainability issues. Integrating knowledge of high performance buildings and urban construction, this programme provides the most up-to-date knowledge based upon contemporary research findings.
Characteristics
The multidisciplinary nature of the programme not only offers students advanced knowledge in their specialist areas, but also expands their perspective of the broader field of building services engineering. Students can take a combination of subjects to suit their careers, and can also choose an appropriate dissertation project.
Recognition & Prospects
This programme is recognised by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) under the specialism of Environment and Building Surveying.
This programme is also accredited by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) as suitable further learning to meet the academic requirement for CEng registration.
Curriculum
Programme Structure
Students can select from a wide range of subjects, each of which normally requires 39 hours of attendance over a 13-week semester.
For the MSc with Dissertation
Students must complete 7 taught subjects, including 4 Compulsory Subjects, 3 Core Subjects and a Dissertation that is relevant to their area of specialisation.
For the MSc without Dissertation
Students must complete 10 taught subjects, including 4 Compulsory Subjects, and at least 3 other Core Subjects.
Students can exit at the PgD level, having satisfactorily completed 7 subjects (21 credits), including 4 Compulsory Subjects, 2 Core Subjects and 1 Elective Subject.
Core Areas of Study
The following is a brief summary of the core areas of study.
Compulsory Subjects
Core Subjects
Expected April 2024
More details
Start date
Expected September 2023
Faculty of Construction and Environment, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
ZS1201, 12/F, South Tower, Block Z,
Hung Hom,
Kowloon City, Hong Kong, Kowloon
A Bachelor’s degree with Honours relevant to architecture, construction and real estate industry, or the equivalent (including recognised professional qualifications).
If you are not a native speaker of English, and your Bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification is awarded by institutions where the medium of instruction is not English, you are expected to fulfil the following minimum English language requirement for admission purpose, unless otherwise specified by individual programmes concerned:
A Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score of 80 for the Internet-based test or 550 for the paper-based test; OR
An overall Band Score of at least 6 in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).
