One of the major problems, said Richard Stagg, owner of information security consultancy Handshake Networking, is finding graduates with skills other than software development--particularly network administration.

Stagg said he has read over 300 technical staff CVs over the last year and said that local universities' curricula overemphasize programs development while neglecting areas like network administration.

"There's a belief among universities that network administration in an infrastructure job, like people digging holes and roads, so students never get instruction in this area," he said. "But it's actually a very advanced field and a fast-growing one within IT, because it's the most difficult to outsource."

Local universities are creating too many developers, who will have problems finding high-salaried jobs when they graduate. "You don't have to go all the way to India, there are some fine developers just across the border at Guangdong," he said, "and they will work for one tenth of the local wages."

According to City University's Student Development Services, only 35.5 percent of the 2004 graduates with a BEng IT found a job in the relevant industry. The percentages were even lower among graduates of BEng Comp Eng (25 percent) and Bachelor of Science in IT (14.3 percent), though the BSc CS graduates seems to have better luck: 79.7 percent got a job in the relevant industry.