Bachelor of Arts in
Humanities and Digital Technologies
JS6286
The Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Digital Technologies (BA(HDT)) is first of its kind offered in Hong Kong and Asia. This programme combines a humanities focus with a focus in interdisciplinary digital technologies and it aims to gear up talented students to become future leaders with innovative thinking, problem-solving skills and an interdisciplinary mindset. Students are prepared to make an impact in the workforce with a broader creative vision and skills needed across a wide range of public and private sector enterprises. Internship and capstone experiences are among the highlights that bring knowledge from the classroom to practice in the real world. ​
FLEXIBLE & PERSONALISED LEARNING
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Allows students to customise their study path by combining digital technology with any Arts discipline
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Compulsory Major in HDT (7 cores and 9 electives)
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Optionally pursue a second major or up to two minors
GAIN REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE
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Internship placement to strengthen one's skills in real-world industry settings
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Individual project portfolio to showcase one's passion and problem-solving abilities
PRACTICAL SKILLS AND JOB-FOCUSED TRAINING
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Offers hands-on and teamwork training relevant to a wide range of industries (media & culture, education, business, research...)
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"Arts Tech Lab" - an innovative space dedicated to facilitate hands-on undergraduate research experience
What is the programme about?
What are the Humanities?
Humanities is the study of the stories, ideas, and words that help us understand our lives and our world. They help us decide what matters and how to make our lives, and others’, meaningful. Humanities comprise disciplines such as philosophy, history, art history, comparative literature, linguistics, gender studies or yet music.
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​What do ‘digital technologies’ mean?
Digital technologies encompass a wide variety of emerging technologies which involve computers. They reshape our societies and can also impact how we study them. Extended reality, digital twins and the blockchain are some recent well-known examples. Mobile phones and social networks have been around for a longer time and have dramatically altered how we communicate with each other. They can now help us to understand significant social phenomena, such as the spread of infectious diseases or fake information.
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Why combine the humanities with digital technologies?
The digital humanities are defined as the use of digital tools and resources in the humanities, and as the analysis of what this approach entails. This helps revisit old questions with a new perspective and discover new questions. Today, an archeologist can rely on 3D printing to recreate old artifacts or use drones to map a digging site. A librarian can use scanners to digitize old manuscripts and make them available to anyone on the Internet, while scholars in literature can take advantage of algorithms from natural language processing to study the content of thousands of books at once. Your creativity is the only limit!
Further, given the humanities focus on human societies and these are being deeply transformed by emerging digital technologies, it becomes crucial to be able to critically assess the latter and their impact on our lives.
Student Sharing
Kate Kim
Kazakhstan
The HDT programme was one of the main reasons I chose HKU and after the commencement of studies, I became even more in love with this programme! First of all, I really enjoy the freedom that this programme gives you. Right now, I’m taking an intro course to digital humanities, a course in python and different humanities electives. This major allowed me to design my path and I plan to focus on philosophy and computer science in the future. I also really appreciate that this programme allows me to learn through real experience, most of my subjects have projects as the final assignment, which I think prepares me for real work much better than exams or tests. HDT is a truly unique programme and I highly recommend it for students that are interested in interdisciplinary studies!
Syed Ali Mansoor
Pakistan
Hello, and as-salaam alaykum! I’m Ali, a first-year Muslim student from Pakistan, in the BA(HDT) programme at HKU!
I have always been one for interdisciplinary learning. Back in high school, you would see me building contraptions for science olympiads in the morning, preparing presentations for economics competitions in the evening, and working on personal coding projects by night. The HDT programme has enabled me to combine my love for computer science with my passion for exploring different fields of study. In my current group project for HUDT1001 Introduction to Humanities and Digital Technologies, we will be pursuing a topic that merges cultural analytics, East Asian studies, web-scraping, and data analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the East Asian film industry. Experiences like these teach you not just technical skills, but rather tactics, methodologies, and toolsets to solve problems in much larger contexts. I look forward to the many more such experiences that BA(HDT) has in store!
Alice Huang
China
The only word I would use to define BA (HDT) is “undefined”. Being the perfect fit for individuals seeking to embrace new ideas and innovations, this programme epitomizes interdisciplinarity by offering a profusion of course options and a wealth of extracurricular activities such as trajectory workshops and field trips for students to freely explore and investigate. As a BA (HDT) student, I foresee my future commencing here, which is both excitingly unforeseeable and promising.
Solomon Ho
Hong Kong SAR
The BA(HDT) programme has offered me with numerous opportunities to achieve my ambitions. Over the past year, I have participated in several internships both within and outside the university. The programme's interdisciplinary nature enabled me to gain hands-on experience in Virtual Reality (VR) and immersive technologies at the Engineering Faculty, as well as at the French May Arts Festival, a local arts promotion organization. Moreover, we had the privilege of presenting our student projects to peers and digital humanities experts and learning from them at CUHK, which has been an invaluable learning experience.
Admissions Standards
JUPAS - BA(HDT) JS6286
University Entrance Requirements
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English Language
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Chinese Language
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Mathematics
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Liberal Studies / Citizenship and Social Development
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Elective Subject 1
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Elective Subject 2
Level 3
Level 3
Level 2
Level 2 / Attained
Level 3
Level 3
HKDSE Scoring Formula for 2025 - 2026 Entry
(The scoring formula considers category A subjects and M1/M2 only, unless otherwise specified.)
2 x Eng + Best 4 Subjects with Weighting
(Best 4 Subjects: May include M1/M2 or category C subject whichever is higher.)
Subject Weighting(s):
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Chinese Language X 1.5
Consideration of Other Factors
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Interview performance
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No. of level 5** / 5* / 5
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​Additional subjects
Consideration of HKDSE Combined Results & Penalty for HKDSE Repeaters
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Best results in year 2024 and 2025
International/non-JUPAS admissions scheme - BA(HDT) 6286
Eligibility
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Non-local students with an international qualification or other national examination qualifications other than Mainland China’s National Joint College Entrance Examination (NJCEE) or GaoKao.
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Local students with an international qualification or pending international qualification other than the HKDSE.