In addition to a professional boost, a quality education for his children was a paramount concern and, thanks to the SARS scare, he had no problem finding room for them at a private school.

"At that time it wasn't too hard to get kids in," Masnick said. "And once you're in it makes it easy for the others because the schools give siblings priority in private schools."

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam- kuen wants Hong Kong to become an international education hub, among other aspirations for "Asia's World City" and seemingly the time is right.

The economy is booming and more talented foreigners, as well as mainlanders and overseas Chinese - and their families - are knocking at Hong Kong's door.

But in September Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok- cheung said the SAR needs to overcome key obstacles, including lack of space, that prevent it from reaching that goal.

"Insufficient accommodation facilities are the biggest obstacle universities are currently facing in recruiting non- local students," Li said.

"If this problem cannot be resolved, it will greatly reduce the attractiveness of Hong Kong institutions."

The space problem also applies to international schools.

"There is far too much demand for international schools," Masnick said. "The demand exceeds supply and it doesn't look like it will change anytime soon."

At Hong Kong International School - one of only two in the territory offering an American curriculum - 373 primary and secondary students were on its waiting list, said communications manager James Manning.

"Waiting lists are beginning to grow in line with economic revival ... it's very much tied to Hong Kong's economic growth," Manning said.

"We had some American families - people coming to Hong Kong to work - saying they are deferring their plans or looking elsewhere in Asia," he added.

The waiting list is also high at German Swiss International School with 529 primary students and 225 secondary pupils hoping to enroll for the next school year, said Eva Ubowsky, admissions officer for the German and international secondary stream.

And at the 19-school English Schools Foundation, "waiting lists are long, over a thousand in some of our primary schools in Kowloon and New Territories," said Chris Forse, head of ESF parent and student services. "But these figures also need to be dealt with with some caution." What he meant is the demand is not limited to expats and, in the ESF's case, the wait lists mostly comprise children living in Hong Kong, nearly all of whom are attending other schools and many of whom are on wait lists for other schools.

"The necessary art for ESF is to calibrate the vacancies with the requirements of incoming expats," Forse said. "As a subvented school system ... we are not permitted to offer places to children who are not yet resident in Hong Kong."

While Masnick and Manning both described the shortage of space for private schools as a potential "deal breaker" for some Hong Kong career seekers, Mark Michelson, associate director general of Invest Hong Kong put a positive spin on the situation.

"As the economy grows, demand has grown and now we have more international schools than any place in Asia, 57, I think, including ESF," Michelson said.

"That's the great news. We don't know how many executives look at this situation and decide not to come. [Finding schools] is a priority for us and we've been pretty successful at getting places."

At Hong Kong International School, Manning said the school has pinned its hopes on expanding on two small parcels of land adjacent to the Tai Tam campus.

"If the government grants our request we will be able to increase our enrollment," he said.

ESF on the other hand is counting on changes that do not involve a measure of government mercy.

"We know that several of the international schools that we measure ourselves against have asked for additional land and either been denied or discouraged," Forse said.

"ESF was, in the absence of any possibility of opening new subvented schools, invited to invest in the new Private Independent School system. This is an exciting project because the two schools that ESF have invested in will offer a more international education for mainly local people.

" It is possible that when these two schools are full, we could see some effect on demand for places in `mainstream' ESF schools.

"Also the move among some DSS [direct subsidy school system, wherein designated government/aided schools can raise income from fees but lose subvention on a sliding scale] schools, like St Paul's Coed, to offer a more international curriculum, the IB, is also encouraging. But whether or not it is of the scale to meet demand I do not know."

Most of the government's focus, however, has been on universities where the dream of an education hub seems to boil down to more dormitory beds and allowing non-resident students to work part time.

Richard Ho Yan-ki, City University's dean of undergraduate education, has warned that local students would suffer if no extra land was provided for dormitories to accommodate an increasing number of students from outside Hong Kong.

"Right now, not all undergraduates are guaranteed accommodation in a dormitory, though the official policy for all institutions is that each student should have at least one year of dormitory experience," Ho said. "If we take in more non-local students, some local students will be displaced. That will be unfair to them."

Universities have called for an increase in the quota on non-local students from 10 percent to 20 percent, after the Legislative Council in June gave rare cross-party support to a motion by DAB legislator Jasper Tsang Yok-sing to develop the city into a regional education hub.

Ho said a condition for expanding student recruitment should be the provision of more land to build extra student residences. The government has moved to address some of the concerns.

This summer Chief Secretary for Administration Rafael Hui Si-yan announced the formation of a steering committee to study how the government can develop policies in such areas as immigration and employment.

For example, Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung said the government will likely allow non-local students to have part-time jobs on the condition that local employment will not be affected.

As promised in February, the government will also provide an additional 1,840 hostel places for non-local students, Li said. Tsang's motion also suggested the government relax immigration requirements for mainland students as it would benefit both education as well as economic and political development. But the emphasis on mainland students also concerned some.

Education lawmaker and Democratic Party member Cheung Man-kwong said universities were already accepting too many mainland students (who make up 94 percent of non-local students) while only 4 percent came from other Asian countries and fewer than 2 percent from Western countries.

Civic Party vice chairman Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung said he was worried whether non-local students would contribute to Hong Kong society. "Now, when they say `international' they really mean `mainland."'