Hong Kong's development as a learning society is advancing rapidly. The government is supporting the process and many people are eager to gain additional qualifications, whether for career advancement or personal interest.
Education is one of the six new pillars of the economy announced last year by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen as the focus for Hong Kong's long-term development. The other five - all knowledge-based - will rely on it to provide the required professional expertise.
Extra government funding for research - the backbone of any education system - is supporting hundreds of extra places for young researchers and will result in new research projects in the strategic areas of health, the environment and business.
Universities are also making breakthroughs in cutting-edge fields, such as space science, after securing recognition or partnership deals from central government agencies.
Students are the key to Tsang's other goal of turning Hong Kong into an education hub. This will rely both on attracting top students from around the world and retaining the best home-grown talent. Once it was the norm for bright graduates planning research careers to go to the United States or Britain for postgraduate study. But today more than 75 per cent of Hong Kong graduates who go on to higher degrees opt to study at the city's own universities.
While local and mainland students dominate city campuses, there are early signs that graduate business education is becoming truly international: one MBA programme is drawing 48 per cent of its students from abroad, on top of 34 per cent from the mainland.
