They spoke as education officials from more than 40 countries in Europe prepared to meet in London to discuss progress establishing a pan-European higher education area.

Started in 1999, the Bologna process proposes credit transfers among European universities and the standardisation of undergraduate degrees to three years, masters to two and PhD to three. It is not limited to the European Union and has so far attracted 47 signatory countries.

Gerald Postiglione, a professor of education at the University of Hong Kong, said: 'Bologna is for Europe. Hong Kong's main trading partners are China and the United States. The world can't be totally standardised and that's a good thing.'

Cheung Kwok-wah, an assistant professor of education at HKU, said Hong Kong would be unlikely to revert to three-year undergraduate degrees regardless of what was decided in London because the decision to steer away from the British system was 'historical'.

And Mok Ka-ho, a professor of East Asian Studies at the University of Bristol, said that despite Europe's move to three-year degrees, Hong Kong was not on the wrong track in going for four-year programmes.

'In order for Hong Kong to become an international city, students will need more international exposure,' he said. 'They won't be able to do that in three years.'

Professor Mok, who once taught at City University of Hong Kong, said it was unlikely European students would choose not to go to Hong Kong on exchanges due to increased mobility in Europe.

He said the call for three-year degrees partly stemmed from the need to avoid financing an extra year of education in welfare economies.

But Susan Robertson, head of the Centre for Globalisation, Education and Societies at Bristol, said Hong Kong had not had its antenna on what was happening globally.

'Europe in the imagination of Hong Kong is still the UK, so Hong Kong will not want to culturally look towards Europe for a model because it smacks of a colonial past,' she said. Hong Kong might be forced to react. 'It is not about modelling education on the US and four year degrees.'

Professor Robertson said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations might adopt the Bologna model for Asian purposes, adding Australia was more alert to the significance of Bologna than Hong Kong.

To say Bologna was only for Europe 'is to miss the point', she said.

Edward Vickers, a senior lecturer at the Institute of Education of the University of London, said the Bologna process had been attracting a lot of interest outside Europe including from China. 'If China were to decide to move to three-year degrees, it would render Hong Kong's move in the opposite direction utterly futile.'

Ruth Keeling, co-ordinator of the European Education Policy Network, said that while world-renowned universities and leading countries such as the US would not be affected, places such as Hong Kong might be. People may be unable to interpret degrees in Hong Kong.

Mark Bray, former head of education at the University of Hong Kong said Hong Kong's move to four-year degrees was designed to align with the mainland and North America.