The composition division emphasizes traditional Western musical training, and offers many collaborative and performance opportunities both locally and internationally to its students. Each year, its Ensemble-in-Residence and Composer-in-Residence Programs provide regular platforms for student works to be studied, performed, and critiqued by professional musicians. In order to cope with the demands of the ever-changing contemporary music scene, graduates from the CUHK composition program will be equipped to produce music in diverse styles and instrumental forces, whether it is solo, chamber, vocal/choral, orchestral, electronic or staged works. The quality of teaching of the CUHK composition faculty members is reflected in the high employment rate of its graduates, as well as in the many significant awards and commissions at international competitions and music festivals that its graduates have garnered over the years.

There are no course requirements for the DMus (Composition) and the study scheme focuses on the creation of a portfolio of new works.

Ethnomusicology at CUHK is grounded in an integrated curriculum emphasizing a balanced approach to theory, methodology, and area study. Students engaging in ethnographic as well as historical research are taught by a team of three faculty members whose own interdisciplinary work bridges the fields of anthropology, musicology, popular music studies, sound studies, cultural studies, and performance studies. The faculty has particular regional strengths in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. While our program has historically been an important international center for the study of Chinese music, we welcome students whose projects focus on any area of the world. Our program benefits from relationships with CUHK’s outstanding departments of Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Religious Studies, China Studies, Japanese Studies, and Communication. Our curriculum is enhanced by an internationally renowned archive of Chinese music located in the Center for Chinese Music Studies and Hong Kong's strategic geographic location, providing easy access to Asia and the Pacific. We have a close-knit and collegial community of about a dozen graduate students in ethnomusicology in any given year.

In historical musicology, faculty advising at the postgraduate level have complementary interests that cover a range of topics spanning the seventeenth century to the present. Our professors are interested in the creative process and has worked across the spectrum of German Romantic opera, while developing a secondary area of research in television and video game music; some specialize in music and modernism in the first half of the twentieth century and jazz and popular music in the second half; and on seventeenth-century Spanish religious music, from large-scale polyphonic liturgical compositions to issues of identity in local plainsong. They frequently combine historical research with music analysis in addressing questions of meaning and aesthetics.

The coursework for both MPhil and PhD students encourages students to acquire broad knowledge of music history and its methods, while simultaneously cultivating their own field of interest and expertise.

Students may be required to take additional foreign language study, if their research topic requires it.

Cheong Wai Ling and Mak Su Yin, the two full-time faculty members in the field of music theory, with their complementary training and interests, can ensure comprehensive coverage of research areas in music theory and provide supervisory support to research postgraduates on a diverse range of thesis and dissertation topics. Cheong specializes in post-tonal theory and the music of Messiaen and Scriabin, while Mak is a Schubert scholar with experience in Schenkerian analysis and semiotic theory. They have published in Acta Musicologica, Eighteenth-century Music, Journal of Musicology, Journal of Music Theory, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Music Analysis and Perspectives of New Music, as well as in monographs by international academic presses. Both faculty members have received major research grants and awards for their scholarship and teaching.

The core courses in the MPhil Theory programme offers training in research and analytical methodologies, and familiarizes students with the state of research within the field. Students will also be directed to take elective courses and study foreign languages that are relevant to their thesis areas.

There are no coursework requirements in the PhD programme in Theory, and the study scheme is primarily centered around the dissertation. Upon admission to the programme, students immediately begin working with their supervisors towards the refinement of their dissertation proposals, and are directed to undertake a comprehensive literature review relating to their research areas. As their work on the dissertation progresses, students are also encouraged to present their preliminary findings as conference papers and journal articles. Thus the dissertation, when completed, would have benefited from peer review and professional exposure.