Winton Au Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

In order to get ahead and to stand tall among others, a second degree -- beyond the bachelor level -- is essential. Although Li Ka Shing emphasizes the importance of the 3Qs--Intelligence Quotient, Emotional Quotient, and Spiritual Quotient -- it is difficult for an employer to be sure that a person has these qualities if there is nothing on paper to verify his claim.

Without doubt, higher education enables one person to be ranked above another, in the same way that years of experience, letters of references can.

Continuing education is important for people in all disciplines. Broadly speaking, knowledge can be divided into two categories: "hard" sciences (these include the physical sciences like biology, physics and applied sciences such as engineering and computing), and the "soft" sciences (social sciences like psychology, sociology, arts and humanities like history, and language).

On the one hand, with their quantitative foundation that allows knowledge to accumulate effectively, the hard sciences have been advancing at an exponential rate. But knowledge gained during one's college days can no longer meet today's demands. Not that Newton's Laws of Motion are no longer valid. Take, for example, computer sciences where the programming languages have been changing from procedural-based to object-oriented based, and from those designed to work on stand-alone computers to networked computers.

People in this trade will point out that these are old "new developments," and they are right--that's all that I learnt back in college, and I have not kept up with what's been happening since then. Surely, I cannot survive today with such dated knowledge. On the other hand, new topics are "discovered" every day in the soft sciences as a result of the rapid changes taking place in modern society. For example, we have never heard of downsizing (aka right-sizing), or competence-based assessment, or concepts like equal opportunities that gained importance in the U.S. in the 1970s. These became known in Hong Kong only five years ago.

We have to continuously update ourselves to keep breast of new developments.

For people trained in the social sciences, attainment of higher education beyond their first degree is even more essential. One unfortunate prejudice against graduates in most social science disciplines is that they are being seen as "generalists" without the special skills that distinguishes a graduate in engineering, accounting, or computer sciences.

These allegations are not unfounded. The lack of technical training has made it difficult for a graduate to tread a clear career path.

Nevertheless, the pursuit of further education beyond a first degree does provide these people with professional qualifications. Consider the prospect of graduates in psychology. Although they have undergone strict training in research methodology, statistical analysis, and have a broad understanding of psychology, which makes them perfect candidates for the human resources or market research work, they are not "professionals" in the true sense of the word.

As tertiary education becomes more common, continuing education beyond the first-degree level is vital to a person's advancement.

In some disciplines, continuing education also provides an opportunity for the "generalists" to become specialists and professionals.

Opportunity for Graduate Training

The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong offer Master Degree programs in Clinical Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Industrial-Organizational Psychology that can help psychology graduates to become professionals. Completion of these two-year full-time Master degree courses will qualify them as registered clinical psychologists, registered educational psychologists, and registered Industrial-Organizational psychologists. They can get registered at the Hong Kong Psychological Society (HKPS). This is voluntary at present. But the HKPS is pushing for statutory registration to make sure practitioners are up to standard.

Taken from Career Times 2002/01/11