In an increasingly knowledge-based society there is a thirst for information. So it is not surprising that postgraduate studies are reporting a huge pick-up in enrolment figures.
A senior executive, who did a part-time postgraduate degree at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and works for an oil major, said having one degree was not enough to carry out his management duties effectively. So he studied for a second degree to keep abreast of developments in the fast-changing world oil industry.
'In a knowledge-based society, the continuous thirst for knowledge is a natural progression as the factors surrounding business and the skills required keep changing,' he said.
The University of Leicester, in collaboration with the Hartford Institute Hong Kong, recently presented academic degrees to 134 graduates who had successfully completed the university's postgraduate programme by distance learning in Hong Kong.
Leicester University, hailed by the Financial Times as being in a league of its own for postgraduate education, offers four popular programmes in Hong Kong, where it has been in operation for 15 years.
The programmes are the Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Science in Marketing (MScM), Master of Science in Finance (MScF) and Master of Arts in Mass Communications.