'The talks change from year to year, depending on what they want to highlight. They normally go for about an hour, followed by informal discussions.

'They normally have quite large teams of speakers, managers and also their fresh hires - teams of up to 15 of their staff. They obviously want to maximise their exposure with the students and the students are keen to quiz them on career tracks within their firms.'

Mr Chan said there was huge interest in the recruitment talks on campus, with many students from non-related study streams also attending.

'There is a big interest - normally 300 to 400 students will show up for the talks and 100-150 will stay behind to ask questions - they are very keen. From September 2006 to May 2007, we had 155-160 firms visiting the campus.

'The drives are co-ordinated for three sessions a day and on five days a week. The time slots are fully booked, almost to capacity,' said Mr Chan.

Victor Ng Chi-keung, head of audit, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Hong Kong), said there was intense competition for talent, given the increasing demand for accountancy and professional services that are driven by China's strong and rapid economic growth, as well as regulatory changes such as a revision of accounting standards.

'Our graduate recruitment programme is a national drive covering all different offices of our China firm,' he said.

'In Hong Kong, it normally starts every September. This includes career forums at the university campuses, online applications through our website, a series of assessment activities and finally, briefing sessions for career orientation to facilitate students' career decisions in January and February. This year we kicked off our first career forum on September 12.'

Mr Ng said the number of graduate intakes had been increasing in recent years. 'This year we want to recruit around 300 graduates in Hong Kong for various service lines including audit, tax, enterprise risk services, reorganisation services and consulting. The majority of openings will be for audit, followed by tax.

'Our campus recruitment drive is effective for us to reach out to undergraduate students to attract talent to join our companies. Despite intense talent competition in recent years, we have met our recruitment targets.

'For the recent summer intake in Hong Kong, we had around 250 graduates joining us, selected from around 2,400 applicants.'

Nick Deal, a partner with Ernst and Young's China people team, said the level of sophistication of Hong Kong students mandated a sophisticated response from recruiting firms.

'As part of the Big Four, we've been doing this for quite a long time, and we have quite a sophisticated audience,' he said. 'Students in Hong Kong know a lot about the profession. Many have done internships and have a high level of knowledge about their intended career.'

Mr Deal said the main purpose of the recruitment drives was to get students to interact with the firm's own people, who could speak first hand about careers.

'I think that's the way a lot of companies are going now - less structured and more interactive. You can't get that through a brochure or on a website,' he said. 'What I find is that a lot of Hong Kong university students want to understand the culture of the Big Four, they struggle a bit to differentiate between the offerings of the different organisations.

'For a lot of the top students, the ones who are holding several offers, they really want the chance to figure out what's going to work for them.'

Mr Deal agreed that the recruitment drives are becoming ever more popular.

'My sense is there's a lot of transparency now. It makes little sense to come up with a nice brochure or a nice website and think that will make the difference,' he said.

Connie Leung Wing-man, marketing manager of Horwath Hong Kong, said recruitment drives like the one at Hong Kong University and other Hong Kong universities 'promote our name and also help to recruit the right qualified candidates to join our firm'.

'We have openings in different departments, namely audit and assurance, business services, corporate services as well as taxation, so all four entry-level assistant positions have pretty good prospects for recruits if they work hard,' she said.

'Because of our strength in China, we do have a lot of China appointments, so recruits will have a lot of opportunities to travel around.'

Ms Leung said Horwath had been attending the recruitment drives 'for many years and each year the response is a little different, but this year so far the students are very keen and looking forward to gaining experience'.

'In the accounting profession there is always a hunt on for talent, and recruitment talks are the way to go,' she said.

'We are also sponsoring non-accounting students to join our conversion programme so now we're attracting applicants from non-accounting areas. Recruitments are on the increase, and we have seen a positive response from other students.'