Master’s expansion may worsen Hong Kong credential inflation
HK01 · 1 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago5 MIN
Summary
Professor Fung Chi-ho (馮志豪) says Hong Kong’s fast growth in full-time taught master’s programmes, especially one-year courses, risks changing the quality, function and positioning of postgraduate education as universities expand enrolment under financial pressure. He argues the debate should go beyond revenue and admissions totals to examine whether academic depth, assessment standards and labour-market fit are being eroded
Key Points
- Fung wrote that full-time taught master’s programmes have expanded continuously in recent years, with one-year courses growing particularly quickly as the pool of local university-age students declines
- He said some universities face pressure in undergraduate recruitment, while taught master’s programmes are more flexible to launch, often run on a self-financing basis, and mainly recruit non-local students
- According to the commentary, some popular programmes have grown from several dozen students to several hundred, pushing teaching away from seminars and intensive discussion towards large lectures
- Fung warned that if enrolment rises much faster than full-time faculty, teaching support and assessment capacity, overall teaching quality will come under strain even if frontline teachers remain committed
- He also argued that many fast-expanding programmes are concentrated in business, management, marketing, humanities and social sciences, which may not match Hong Kong’s labour shortages in technical trades, engineering, primary healthcare and some innovation sectors
Why It Matters
If one-year taught master’s degrees come to be seen as short, high-return credentials with relatively loose entry or academic thresholds, the credibility of Hong Kong’s postgraduate education could suffer beyond any single programme. Fung’s argument also points to a practical risk for students and employers: more master’s graduates do not automatically translate into better job matching if course supply is driven mainly by market demand rather than local economic needs