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Hong Kong Creative Media Bachelor Complete Guide 2026: CityU School of Creative Media — JS1041, JS1042 & JS1043

If your DSE choices include words like “animation”, “game design”, “cinema”, “interactive media”, “VFX” or “new media art”, there is really only one address in Hong Kong that anchors all of these under one roof: The City University of Hong Kong’s School of Creative Media (SCM). Founded in 1998 and now housed in the award-winning Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, SCM is the largest dedicated creative-media school in the Greater Bay Area and the only programme in Hong Kong that places art, moving image, computing and emerging technology inside a single undergraduate curriculum.

This 2026 guide walks DSE and JUPAS candidates through everything you need to know: the three JUPAS codes (JS1041, JS1042, JS1043), how BACM, BScCM and BAS New Media differ, subject requirements, admission scores, the portfolio you should be preparing now, the six BACM specialisations, the capstone thesis, and where graduates actually end up.

Why creative media, and why CityU SCM?

Hong Kong’s creative industries — film, TV, animation, gaming, advertising, branded content, museum and exhibition design, immersive XR — are listed by the HKSAR government as one of the city’s eight “advantageous industries”. The Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency, the M+ museum, the Hong Kong Palace Museum, Cyberport’s digital entertainment cluster and growing animation studios across the GBA all need graduates who can both create and engineer.

CityU SCM was deliberately designed to sit between an art academy and a computer-science department. Students take cinematography, drawing and critical theory alongside Python, Unity, Unreal Engine, Houdini, computer vision and physical computing. The school’s lab list reads like a creative technology road map: motion capture, virtual production, immersive XR, sound recording, game research, and a Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media (ACIM).

For DSE students this matters because the labour market increasingly rewards “hyphenated” media talent — director-coder, animator-technical artist, game designer-researcher. SCM’s curriculum is one of the few in Asia that explicitly trains for that hybrid.

The three JUPAS codes: JS1041, JS1042, JS1043

In the 2026 JUPAS catalogue, SCM offers three different ways in. They lead to different degrees even though many of the early courses overlap.

JS1041 — School of Creative Media (3 majors)

This is the “umbrella” code. Students apply to the School and choose a major (BA Creative Media, BSc Creative Media, or BAS New Media) at the end of Year 1. JS1041 is the most flexible option and is often the right choice if you are not yet sure whether you lean art-side or science-side.

JS1042 — BA Creative Media (BACM)

Direct entry to the Bachelor of Arts in Creative Media. Best for students who already know they want a primarily artistic, theoretical and production-oriented path and want to pick a specialisation feature early.

The six BACM features are:

JS1043 — BSc Creative Media (BScCM)

Direct entry to the Bachelor of Science in Creative Media, jointly delivered with the Department of Computer Science. This is the most code-heavy of the three. Students take a full computer-science core (programming, algorithms, computer graphics, AI) and combine it with creative-media studios in animation, games, installation and interactivity.

BScCM is increasingly popular with students who would otherwise have applied to a pure CS programme but want a creative output rather than enterprise software.

Which code should you pick?

If you… Pick
Want maximum flexibility, still deciding between art/tech JS1041
Are sure you want art-led production (film, animation, sound, games as art) JS1042
Want technical depth (programming, graphics, AI) with creative output JS1043

Strong applicants frequently put all three in their Band A. The school treats them as separate programmes for admission, so you do not “waste” a Band A by listing them together.

JUPAS 2026 admission requirements

CityU’s published minimum entry profile for SCM programmes is the standard “3-3-2-Attained + 3-3” pattern, with two electives at Level 3:

What counts as an elective

In addition to Category A electives, SCM accepts:

The Applied Learning pathway is genuinely useful here — students who completed ApL Animation, Film & Video, or Design subjects can use them as a substantive Cat-B elective for an art-led degree.

Score formula and 2024/2025 reference scores

CityU uses a Best-5 (4C+1X or 4C+2X equivalent) scoring approach, with most SCM programmes weighting English slightly higher and offering bonuses for Level 5/5*/5** in arts-related subjects like Visual Arts, Music, Design & Applied Technology, Literature in English, and Chinese Literature.

The most recent published reference data (2024 JUPAS Main Round):

Code Programme Median Lower Quartile
JS1041 SCM (3 majors umbrella) 25 23
JS1042 BA Creative Media 25 24
JS1043 BSc Creative Media 25 24.5

These are Best-5 scores (DSE 7-level scale, 5** = 7). A student with 4-4-3-3-3 sits at exactly 17, well below median — meaning serious applicants generally need a few Level-4 results and at least one Level-5 to be competitive, unless a strong portfolio and interview pull them up.

This is one of the few JUPAS programmes where portfolio and interview can compensate for an average academic score. SCM has historically admitted students with mid-tier DSE results who arrived with strong creative work — particularly in BACM with the Animation, Game & Playable Media or New Media Art features.

The portfolio submission — this is the part most applicants underprepare

For 2026 entry, the official online portfolio submission window for SCM applicants is 22 January – 1 February 2026. Band A and Band B applicants are strongly recommended (in practice: expected) to submit.

Accepted material is broad:

Practical guidance:

  1. Quality over quantity. 5–8 considered pieces with a short reflective statement beats 20 unfocused works.
  2. Show process, not just polish. SCM faculty repeatedly mention that they look for thinking — sketchbooks, iterations, technical notes, why a piece exists.
  3. Range matters, but specialise. A portfolio entirely of anime fan art reads narrowly; a portfolio with one strong fan-art series plus original observational drawing, a short video, and a piece of code reads broadly.
  4. Caption everything. Title, year, medium/tools, role (especially for group work), 1–2 sentence intent.
  5. Submit a project even if unfinished if it demonstrates ambition — a half-built Unity game with a design doc is more impressive than three completed copy exercises.

A subset of applicants are invited to interview and/or further assessment (sometimes including a creative task). The interview is conversational and frequently tests whether you can talk about your work as much as make it.

Curriculum structure

BACM (4-year, 121 credits minimum)

Component Units
Gateway Education (university-wide GE) 31
School Requirement (SCM common foundations) 12
Major Core 12
Major Elective (your chosen Feature + crosses) 48
Free Elective / Minor 18
Minimum total 121 (max 144)

Year 1 is the SCM common foundation: Creative Media Studio I & II (cinematography, video post-production), Physical Computing and Tangible Media, drawing and visual literacy, and an introduction to Critical Theory and Socially Engaged Practices. This shared first year is the reason JS1041 applicants do not have to choose a major until later.

Years 2–3 are where you go deep in one of the six BACM features, plus cross-listed electives. Typical paths look like:

Year 4 centres on the Graduation Thesis/Project — a research-anchored capstone that can be a creative production (a film, game, installation, animation reel) accompanied by critical writing, or a primarily theoretical thesis. Students exhibit at the annual SCM Showcase at the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, which industry recruiters actively attend.

BScCM (4-year, similar credit count, CS-heavy)

BScCM students take the same SCM foundations but substitute roughly 30+ credits of computer-science coursework: programming (Python/C++), data structures, computer graphics, computer vision, AI for media, and game engine programming. The Major Elective pool is heavily skewed toward technical creative subjects — procedural animation, real-time rendering, technical art, machine learning for art.

BAS New Media (4-year, interdisciplinary)

BAS is the smallest and most experimental of the three. The cohort is capped, and the curriculum is structured around projects that explicitly cross art, science, technology and humanities. BAS students often take electives in physics, biology, neuroscience or cognitive science alongside studios. Expect work in bio-art, sonic art, AI-driven installations, and speculative design.

Advanced Standing entry

For students entering with GCE A-Level, IB, or Higher Diploma / Associate Degree qualifications, SCM offers:

This is a meaningful pathway for DSE students who do not hit the BACM/BScCM JUPAS cut-off in 2026 but want to enter via an Associate Degree (e.g. HKBU AVA, IVE Higher Diploma in Animation, HKDI Multimedia) and articulate up in two years.

Industry exposure: internships, exchanges, labs

SCM does not run a single mandatory internship, but most students complete at least one through the school’s industry network: Imagine Animation Studios, Pixel Hunter, One Cool Pictures, TVB, NowTV, The Egg Animation, plus advertising and post-production houses. The school’s external relations team maintains an opportunities board updated weekly.

Exchange is significant. SCM has partnerships with Aalto University (Finland), Goldsmiths (UK), Royal College of Art (UK postgraduate articulation), UCLA, NYU Tisch, Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai), Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA), CalArts and more. Roughly 1 in 5 BACM students spend a semester abroad in their third year.

Specialised research labs students can join as undergraduate research assistants include the Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media (ACIM), the Extended Reality Lab, and the Computational Media Lab.

Career outcomes

CityU’s most recent SCM graduate destination survey shows the typical split:

Starting salaries for 2024 SCM graduates clustered in the HK$18,000–24,000/month range, with technical artists, game programmers and VFX artists at the high end (~HK$28,000+).

Should you apply? A quick self-check

You should seriously consider CityU SCM if:

You should think twice if:

2026 application checklist

CityU SCM is one of the few JUPAS programmes where what you have made matters as much as what you scored. If your DSE result alone leaves you uncertain, the portfolio is the place to spend your effort. Start it now, and start it specific.