CUHK
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CUHK announces that a 4-year double degree programme in Engineering and Business Administration will be launched in September 2007. The programme is jointly offered by the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Business Administration and is the first one of its kind that has no quota limit in admission.

Programme for gifted students
Students will spend the first 3 years majoring in Engineering and taking additional business courses. At the forth year, students would proceed to continue their studies in the Business school to complete the second degree in Business Administration in one year. Professor Peter Yum, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, said “This programme offers great flexibility and is extremely challenging; it is especially designed for science students who are strong in languages and analytical skills, at the same time, they are interested in the business and financial world. Students from Early Admission Scheme (EAS) or mainland are particularly welcome to join this programme.”

Strong Demand of Engineers in Service Industries such as Banking and Finance
Professor Chan Lai Wan, Associate Dean (Education) of Faculty of Engineering, said “The stereotype that engineering graduates work mainly in factories is outdated. According to the latest employment survey, over 80% of the CUHK graduates from the Engineering Faculty are working in the Commercial & Service sector in which more than 26% have joined the banking and finance industry, with their job nature usually involving IT and technical knowledge.”

“Hong Kong is transforming into a technology-enabled service economy, and the demand of the engineers has changed. Not only in large corporate like banking and finance, most SME companies and business now need to hire employees with IT and related knowledge. Students graduated from this double degree programme will be equipped with both strong technical and business knowledge, making them extremely competitive in the human resource market.”

Besides taking up IT-related jobs, engineers can easily take up jobs in other fields like finance and marketing. Mr. Vincent Chan is an example that has successfully climbed up the corporate ladder in the finance industry. Mr. Chan joined HSBC as a software engineer after graduation from CUHK’s Information Engineering in 2000. Having discovered his interest in finance when designing a financial modeling system in HSBC, he has now become a senior staff at Merrill Lynch focusing on Arbitrage Trading.

“Engineering is about problem solving and analytic thinking, and many concepts in business and finance are actually covered in engineering, making my transition from engineering to finance almost natural and seamless.” said Mr. Chan.

Promising Career Prospect
It is expected that graduates of the double degree programme would find themselves highly sought after in every fields of business. The combined engineering and business education will prepare our graduates the best versatility and flexibility to achieve successful careers in the emerging knowledge-based economy.

For admissions information, please visit www.erg.cuhk.edu.hk/ergbba
For press information, please visit www.cintec.cuhk.edu.hk/Press
For more photos, please visit http://www.cintec.cuhk.edu.hk/Press/general/double_degree/album/index.html