High price of going back to school

THE rising cost of adult education is not deterring workers from signing up for part-time courses in a bid to gain an edge in Hong Kong's increasingly competitive job market.

People are prepared to devote many of their evenings and weekends to study, and with some courses costing as much as $160,000, they are prepared to invest more than time.

Last year, almost 60,000 people were enrolled in evening courses at adult-education schools. The lion's share - almost 50,000 - opted for private rather than public educational institutions, and most registered for language and other tutorial courses.

'It is an increasing trend,' said Desmond Lee Yu-tai, chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Continuing Education. 'More people are enrolling.' Mr Lee said the reasons were clear: 'Experts say human knowledge as a total doubles in five years.

'We study at school and university for less than 20 years, but a career can be 30 or 40 years. You become outdated easily.' Like so much else, education does not come cheap in Hong Kong. Most courses cost between $15 and $40 per hour of attendance, Mr Lee said. At government-run courses, fees rose by up to 15 per cent this year alone, to as much as $2,650 a year.

Degrees are more expensive. 'You get a piece of paper at the end,' Mr Lee explained. 'It can improve career opportunities and salaries.' A degree can cost from $30,000 to $40,000 for each of up to four years of study, depending on the student's qualifications on entry and the number of evenings each week spent studying.

At up to $70,000 a year for what is usually a two-year course, a Master of Business Administration degree can be costlier still.