Students educated overseas may struggle to find jobs on their return because they lack local knowledge and Cantonese skills, employment consultants and returning graduates say.
While multinational corporations tend to look favourably on overseas graduates, many local employers look for local expertise that students with foreign degrees might not have, they said.
'In a field like trading, you need a network of connections and an understanding of what the business is like from the ground,' Top Executive spokesman Shyle Gautama said. 'An overseas degree will not provide that much of an advantage there.'
Asian companies, Mr Gautama said, tended to look for more traditional qualities such as obedience - qualities they were more likely to find in local graduates.
Susanna Tsang, country manager at Adecco Personnel Ltd, stressed the importance of being bilingual in the job market, saying language competency and computer skills were more important to employers than educational qualifications.
But Louisa Yeung, of Michael Page International, suggested: 'In commerce, sales and marketing, employers feel that candidates who studied abroad are more open-minded and lateral thinking. It's about how you present yourself.'