In response to a groundswell in demand for advanced training in the sector, CityU launched two masters programmes at the beginning of the academic year now ending: a Master of Arts (MA) in e-business, and a Master of Science (MSc) in e-commerce.

Both are part-time programmes that can be completed in two years, with classes meeting nine hours a week - several hours on Saturday afternoon, plus one evening during the week.

'Last year, there was so much hype about e- commerce. Everybody thought they needed to know something about it,' Dr Lee said. 'Now it's different. They know they'll have to get it right, and not repeat the mistakes of the dotcommers early last year.'

The two programmes are somewhat complementary, with some overlap of elective classes in the second year. But each has a clearly different focus, and attracts students of different backgrounds.

The e-business course is offered by the Information Systems Department of CityU's Business School, while the e-commerce course is a joint offering of the same department and the Computer Science Department of the university's Science and Engineering School.

The e-business course is targeted at those who are not IT professionals - accountants, operations managers and general managers, for example.

A first degree in a business or management-related subject and two years of professional experience is required. In fact, last year's intake had an average of 11 years' work experience, and more than 80 per cent of the applicants already had MBAs.

The e-commerce course has a more technical orientation, and is targeted at those with a technical background. A first degree in a technical subject - such as information systems or computer science - and one year's work experience are required.

'It is more focused on systems development or systems building to support electronic business, while e-business looks at the subject matter from a more business-oriented standpoint,' Dr Lee said.

Enrolment in the e-business programme is exactly double that of the e-commerce programme.

'Students in the e-commerce programme tend to be about 26 years old, with four to five years of experience,' Dr Lee said. 'About 90 per cent have a first class honour's degree. Academically, they are more accomplished, but have less professional experience.'

Dr Lee cautioned that because of the nature of the sector, IT training had a relatively 'short shelf life'. Much of the knowledge learned could become out-of- date by the time a student completed a course. For this reason, skills were more important than knowledge, which Dr Lee described as 'almost a by- product' of such courses.

'The structure of the industry is changing fast. People will need to continuously update their knowledge in this area. In six months, 60 to 70 per cent of knowledge would be outdated.'