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    EU-China educational co-op enhanced

2005-09-05 08:56

If ever there was a poster child for the potential of China-EU educational exchanges, it is surely Shen Wei.

The Shanghai native has spent nearly five years studying in many EU countries before becoming a PhD student at the Department of Geography in Britain's Loughborough University.

The choice of subject for his PhD dissertation seems fitting: Shen is studying Chinese student migration in Europe and the return of students to Chinese cities.

The 23-year-old began his studies abroad in the Netherlands in 2000. In the following years, he completed a bachelor and two masters degrees in various majors at different schools of European cities.

Shen was also an exchange student at universities in Milan in Italy, Hamburg in Germany and Linking in Sweden.

"I came to Europe with a lot of curiosity," he says. "Europe for me is small in size but big in cultural diversity."

Shen's research so far has shown a "rapid increase" in the numbers of Chinese students in most European countries.

"Student migration is vital for securing the sustainable economic prosperity of China in the long run. It also links China and Europe in a network of knowledge and human and capital exchange," he explains.

Source of income

Several countries, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, have looked to fee-paying Chinese students as a source of income for local universities.

For example, Ireland's education minister Mary Hanafin took the heads of most of Ireland's universities on a trade mission to China in January.

With 16,000 pounds (US$28,800) the estimated cost of a one-year course per student in the United Kingdom, Chinese students are spending around 928 million pounds (US$1.67 billion) each year in the country.

In March 2002, non-EU students' fees accounted for seven per cent of the UK higher education sector budget, according to British government figures, which put the number of Chinese students studying in the country in 2004 at 57,000.

Britain by the end of 2004 overtook the United States as the single most popular destination for Chinese students.

But there has also been a decline in the number of Chinese students going overseas to study.

More options

"There are now many more options for obtaining both local and overseas qualifications in China," says Andrew Dinsbury, director of education at the British Council in Beijing.

"There is increased sophistication in the decision-making process as to whether and where to study abroad and how this adds value on the student's return to the workplace in China."

Numbers are down but interest in studying overseas is still high: a record 55,000 visitors showed up for the Spring 2005 China International Education Exhibition Tour held in Beijing on February 26 and 27.

A research report conducted by the British Council and IDP Education Australia - a representative body of Australian universities - predicts there will be 64,000 students leaving China for study abroad each year by 2010, with the number climbing to 225,000 by 2020.

Britain alone issued over 19,000 student visas to Chinese students in 2004.

The United Kingdom is the leading European destination but increasing tuition fees and visa processing are putting many off, says Shen Wei.

Low tuition fees in Germany, France and the Scandinavian countries are attracting large numbers of Chinese.

"Even Greece, Spain and Central-and Eastern-European countries are now catching up in getting a share of China's education market," says Shen.

Germany, however, is not looking to Chinese students as a source of income, even though China has surpassed neighbouring Poland as the source of the largest foreign student community.

There are 25,000 Chinese students studying for degree and masters programmes in Germany, according to Thomas Schmidt-Doerr, China director of the German Academic Exchange Service, a non-profit body representing German universities.

"We do not have tuition fees for German or foreign students. Germany is not recruiting foreign students to make money. We welcome talented students who know what they want to do," said Schmidt-Doerr.

Three main groups of students head to German universities, according to Schmidt-Doerr: social sciences and economics make up 30 per cent of the arrivals, with engineering, including computer engineering, making up 25 per cent and natural sciences and maths another 20 per cent.

Most courses are taught in German but there is a "rapidly developing" English-language master's sector, said Schmidt-Doerr.

Europe wants students like Shen Wei but there is plenty of competition from Australia and New Zealand, which have both trained their sights on co-operation and recruitment programmes with Chinese universities.

And even though visas for a post-September 11, 2001 United States are harder to come by, American universities are increasingly teaching their programmes on the ground in China.

In response, many new programmes at European universities are targeted specifically at Chinese students.

The University of Hamburg is offering a joint MBA with Fudan University in Shanghai.

Britain's Westminster University has opened a Centre for Chinese Media Studies while Nottingham University has gone one further and opened a campus in the East Chinese city of Ningbo.

But even as Chinese students fan out across the EU, the allure of a European education is fading.

"Demand... was down 20 per cent last year," says Thomas Schmidt-Doerr.

"Ten years ago there were 800,000 freshmen in China, now there are 3.5 million. When you have an equivalent number leaving university you can imagine what that will mean for the job market."

Chinese students returning home face fierce competition with locally-educated peers for scarce jobs.

"Going abroad is no longer seen as the golden way to study," said Schmidt-Doerr.

China's student traffic, however, is increasingly two-way. More than 80,000 foreign students studied in China in 2004.

(China Daily 09/05/2005 page1)

 
                 

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