Austrian high school students learn how to make Chinese handicrafts during a summer camp in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, last July. Zi Mo / For China Daily

Education in China helps overseas students gain knowledge and find better jobs

Talking to a packed house in the Stanford Center Auditorium at Peking University during her recent visit, Michelle Obama postulated on the power of students seeking education overseas, emphasizing the benefits not only to the individual but to their country as well.

"Study abroad is about shaping the future of your countries and the world we all share," the US first lady said.

That is a lesson the Chinese know all too well.

As the country continues to captivate economies worldwide, they have opened its university doors - calling on students from across the world to come and learn about the newest player in the global arena.

Offering tens of thousands of scholarships, the efforts rely precisely on the concepts Obama outlined - foreign students taking back to their home countries a better, if not more sympathetic, understanding of China and shaping the future of how the next generation will do business with the East.

So far the endeavor has paid off.

Last year, China hosted more than 300,000 international students, helping the country climb the ranks of global study destinations. The Institute of International Education in New York said in a report titled Open Doors that China hosted the third - largest foreign student population last year, pushing former slot-holder France to fourth place.

The US and the UK accounted for the top two positions with 820,000 and 425,265 international students. However, with tightened regulations on student visas in the UK, international student numbers dropped by almost a third last year, making China's eventual rise to the No 2 rank a strong possibility in the future.

China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) had chalked out a strategy to increase the number of foreign students at higher education institutions to 500,000.

For China, the No 3 ranking is a big achievement as it marks yet another milestone in the country's modernization process.

South Korean students make up the largest portion of international students in China, with 62,442 pursuing higher education in various Chinese universities. Europe as a whole came in second with more than 50,000 students, followed by the US with 23,292, says the Ministry of Education.

Affordable choice

Propelling a new wave of international students to China is the promise of a cheaper education in a thriving job market.

It was sheer curiosity and the promise of being part of the fastest - growing economy that brought Matthew Baum, 26, from the United Kingdom to China.

Baum, who left the UK after graduating with a bachelor's degree in Japanese, says he came to China to learn Chinese. He decided to stay on as he saw an opportunity to pursue his master's degree on a full scholarship.

"I was studying Chinese in Tianjin and met a lot of people who had received scholarships to Chinese universities," Baum says.

"I figured I wanted to stay in China and I would try to get a scholarship, because it didn't seem that difficult and it wasn't."

Applying to two of China's top-tier schools, Nankai University in Tianjin and Tsinghua University in Beijing, Baum was accepted by both programs.

Now in his second semester studying Mandarin-led courses in sociology at Tsinghua University, Baum is one of thousands of overseas students to receive a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council.

Last year the CSC awarded more than 50,000 scholarships to international students, paying out more than $1.5 billion toward helping foreign students earn degrees at Chinese schools.

Providing a generous package, they fully cover tuition, housing, and even health insurance. Students also receive a stipend depending on their program ranging from 1,500 yuan ($240; 175 euros) to 2,000 yuan - with most campus-meals costing about 10 yuan that is enough to cover the average cost of living for a student.

The cost of each scholarship to the Chinese government is about 50,000-60,000 yuan per student, per year. "They basically pay for everything," Baum says.

As the country pushes to heightened global awareness of Chinese language and culture, its efforts are also seen as a soft power push to expand understanding of the nation overseas, says Yang Rui, professor of education at Hong Kong University and a researcher on China's higher education system.

"While it's almost a cliche to say that having international students aims to international understanding, it is still a fact in China," he says.

"This is partially due to the fact that for too long China has not been understood by others. China is keen to be understood better. This is also in line with the current international situation. China needs a peaceful and even friendly environment to develop."

It is the focus on understanding rather than profits that separates China from the other top - ranked destinations for international students, he says.

"It is important to notice that China's efforts to attract more overseas students have been quite different from the others who often look at student dollars first. China has paid more attention to the cultural benefits. This contributes to China's soft power projection," Rui says.

Hearing about the scholarships offered, Igor Fernandez, 24, left his university in Brazil where he was studying for his master's in biotechnology to travel to China and study chemical engineering at Tsinghua University.

After seeing an advertisement for Chinese lessons in a pamphlet picked up at a university recruitment fair, he headed to China initially for a short course in Chinese. After arriving, he looked at the top Chinese universities and found there were several higher education programs that suited his interests.

Shortly after applying, he was accepted at Tsinghua, his education being funded by the Ministry of Education. He then canceled his admission to the master's program in Brazil, he says.

Fernandez says that after graduating in 2016, he hopes to find a job that will play on the close ties between Brazil and China.

"We all know about the Chinese economy, and the opportunities currently here. With Brazil's close relations with China, I thought in the future it would be great to be an engineer in Brazil while speaking Chinese," he says.

"It would be interesting to have a job related to China and Brazil."

Student exchanges

Collaboration between China and Western governments has also contributed to the flood of foreign students. China's agreements with the US and the EU have seen both sides facilitating more study abroad programs.

The 100,000 Strong Initiative, launched by former US secretary of state Hilary Clinton in May 2010, aims at cooperation between the US and Chinese government to send 100,000 students to China to study.

About 20,000 US students enroll in Chinese schools annually. On the reverse side, Chinese students going to America number around 200,000.

Among US students, science-related degrees are the most often pursued, with 418 enrolled in undergraduate programs, according to data from the International Institute of Education.

During her presentation at Peking University, Obama said the 100,000 Strong Initiative aims at offering students with varying economic backgrounds, some who may be unable to afford it without assistance, the opportunity to study abroad.

Peggy Blumenthal, senior adviser to IIE's president, says that they should be able to meet their target by next year.

"The Chinese scholarships certainly help attract students though they haven't been as widely publicized in places like the US as maybe they should be," Blumenthal says.

Supplementing the government scholarships, organizations such as the Fulbright Scholarship program also sponsor students who seek to study in China, she says.

In Europe, China has pledged to offer 30,000 academic exchange scholarships, 10,000 of which will be reserved for EU students studying in China for five years.

Helping support the fresh wave of foreign students, Chinese universities have started putting more efforts to attract students, especially by offering more courses in English to eliminate the language barrier.

More than 40 higher education institutions are now offering a broad range of English courses in an attempt to attract international students.

Scrolling through the offerings on the Chinese University and College Admission System website reveals hundreds of courses taught in English, with topics ranging from e-commerce law to full medical degrees.

Provincial universities that would be otherwise unknown to those outside China have also been pushing hard to attract international students, Rui says.

In the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, the local government has donated its own funds, in addition to the central government scholarships, to attract more foreign students to its schools.

Improving education standards have also been at the heart of China's efforts to become a global educator.

The "State Guidelines for Medium-to-Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan between 2010 and 2020", published in 2010, outlines plans to decentralize and modernize the university system by overhauling it, putting more emphasis on individuals.

China now has two universities ranked in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013-14, the leading global publication for university rankings. They are the Peking University (45th) and Tsinghua University (50th), both based in Beijing.

Beyond the top 200, Chinese universities are slowly climbing up the list as efforts to improve educational standards take effect.

Outside of China, universities have been hard at work on recruitment efforts, showing up at education fairs by the dozen.

"It used to be that the Chinese used to send one official from the Ministry of Education, or maybe even just someone from the cultural department of the embassy (to recruitment fairs)," Blumenthal says.

"Now you see whole booths with many different universities from China present."

Bringing more international students into Chinese university classrooms is also a huge benefit for the country's education system.

"There's tremendous value as the host country. This is why the US continues to enthusiastically encourage students to study here - it really changes and improves and enriches the quality of academic discussions in the classrooms," Blumenthal says.

"Even at the undergraduate level, the discussions on almost any topic get a positive influence through the various perspectives offered by overseas students.

While for some, China may be a chance to head to a more exciting environment to study, the price tag on degrees from Chinese universities is considerably cheaper compared with EU and US institutions.

Baum from the UK says even without the scholarship, the cost of being educated in China would be significantly cheaper than if he had chose to stay in the UK to pursue his Master's course.

"For my degree at Tsinghua, without a scholarship, it would cost around 3,000 pounds per year," Baum says. "Last time I checked in the UK, the price would be closer to 10,000 pounds for a similar course. It's essentially a third of the cost to study here."

The average cost of attending a US university ranges from $12,000 to $32,000 per year, according to estimates from the US College Board Annual Survey.

Students staying in on-campus residences in the US can pay up to $1,200 a month for food and housing, compared with on-campus arrangements in Beijing running around $15 a day, according to prices quoted by CUCAS.

As to the question of whether or not students educated in China will find the promise of better job prospects, Blumenthal says it depends.

For entry level students returning to the West with a Chinese degree, despite international experience, the limited scope of recruiters may hinder their chances at a first job.

"In general most US employers who are looking to hire students right out of college are not particularly impressed by foreign degrees - partly it's because the people who are doing the recruiting at the college level are American recruiters who are perhaps not so internationally minded themselves," Blumenthal says.

But for mid-level job hunters, Chinese degrees provide a perfect step up.

"When you get higher up the corporate ladder and you ask the corporate presidents and CEOs whether they value an international education you get very a different answer."

"They're looking for people who in 5-10 years could be running the operations in China. For them the value of someone who has studied and lived in China is much higher."

But for the students - it's not only about jobs, it's about getting the experience to travel abroad, learning a foreign language and culture, while developing personally.

"We're living our lives just once," Fernandez says.

"Before becoming a professional, I think having this experience, on a personal level, is something that is priceless."

toddbalazovic@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 04/04/2014 page1)