The research area covers:
Construction Project /Program Management, Sustainable Construction, Infrastructure Systems, Sustainable Infrastructure, Pavement Engineering
Intelligent Transportation System, Smart City, Transport modeling, Operation Research in Transport and Logistics, Transport Economics
Project Organisation Management, Infrastructure Life Cycle Assessment, Infrastructure Resilience, Construction Complex Systems
Sustainable Pavement Materials and Technologies, Transportation Structure Nondestructive Evaluation, Pavement Material Characterisation and Modeling, and Accelerated Pavement Testing and Instrumentation
Transportation Engineering, Travel Demand Forecasting, Network Analysis, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Public Transport and Pedestrian Studies
Transportation Systems Modeling and Analysis, Transportation Network Reliability Analysis, Non-motorized Transportation Modeling, Path Flow Estimator and Planning Applications, Applied Optimisation to Civil Infrastructure Problems.
Continuing the tradition started by the first Government Trade School in 1937, the mission of the Department is to provide high-quality, application-oriented programmes to educate future professionals to meet the infrastructure needs of Hong Kong and China. It also seeks to advance scientific knowledge and facilitate technology transfer in sustainable development through research and consultancy activities. The Department has 40 academic members (at Research Assistant Professor level and above) who teach undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, supervise 147 on-going PhD and 3 MPhil students and over 100 research personnel, lead research projects and undertake community services. To sustain and strengthen its research capability, three research centres and four research groups have been established in the Department.
The Department is dedicated to fundamental and application-oriented research to sustain urban development in mainland China and other parts of Asia. Four major focused research areas have been identified: Smart and Resilient Transportation, Sustainable Materials and Structures, Sustainable Urban Environment and Urban Geohazards and Mitigation.
Course Structure:
Three years (for students admitted on the basis of a Master's degree with a significant research component);
Four years (for students admitted on the basis of a Master's degree or a Bachelor's degree).
*Price shown is for indicative purposes, please check with institution
September 2025
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
ST305, 3/F, Ng Wing Hong Building,
Hung Hom,
Kowloon City, Hong Kong, Kowloon
3-year full-time PhD programme
Normally hold an MPhil or equivalent (a research postgraduate degree with a dissertation as an award requirement) conferred by a recognised university.
4-year full-time PhD programme
Normally hold:
A Master’s degree; OR
A Bachelor’s degree with First Class Honours (or equivalent qualification), conferred by a recognised university.
PolyU may accept other equivalent qualifications. The decision is made on an individual basis.
English Language Requirements
The requirements for those who do not have a degree for which English was the language of instruction at a recognized university are:
An overall score of at least 6.5 in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS); OR
A Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score of 80 or above for the Internet-based test or 550 or above for the paper-based test.
All English language test scores are considered valid for two years after the date of the test.
*There may be different IELTS requirements depending on your chosen course.
PolyU ranks 65th in the QS World University Rankings and 79th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings internationally.