Classroom junkies, fear not. There is life after an MBA after all.
'I, like most people, wanted to learn more and to improve myself,' David Ng Kin-ching, managing director, Medical and Health Services Scheme (HK), said.
'I already had two masters' degrees. So if I wanted to further my studies, I had to enrol in a doctoral course,' he said.
The problem was that a PhD could have taken several years of full-time study to complete. So when Mr Ng heard that the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was launching the SAR's first doctorate of business administration (DBA), it was too good to pass up.
'A DBA could be done in three years,' Mr Ng said. 'As businessmen, we are more practical and want to finish things in the most efficient way and the shortest time.' Mr Ng is among a growing number of working executives who believe that an MBA isn't enough to remain competitive in today's business climate.
In response, two universities in Hong Kong have established DBA programmes. PolyU, which launched a course in 1996, has just graduated its first batch of DBA candidates. Lingnan University started a similar programme last year.