The pros and cons of studying overseas

High school students across China are taking gaokao, the annual national college entrance examination, which normally lasts three days. This time every year, students and their parents face intense pressure, while teachers, neighbors - in fact, the entire nation - lend them support. The intense competition has a critical outcome.

This year the number of students taking gaokao is about 9.33 million. It was 9.46 million last year and 10.2 million in 2009. The reasons for the decline are the decreasing birth rate and the rising popularity of overseas undergraduate studies.

The decreasing birth rate is a cold demographic fact, given China's strict family planning policy. Overseas studies, however, is a hotly debated phenomenon. In 2010, about 200,000 high school graduates skipped gaokao in favor of studying overseas. The meaning of this youthful migration is not yet clear.