THE VALUE OF EDUCATION IN CHINA

The first thing I learned about the Chinese Higher Educational system is the value the people here place on a college education. In the United States having a college degree sets you apart from the rest of the pack, especially if you go on to pursue a post-graduate degree.

The same holds true here but in a different way.

In China the degree(s) you obtain, and not the job’s they help you get, are accomplishments in and of themselves. While a person with only a high school diploma may make more money than a college grad, he or she son't be held in the same regard in society.

The Chinese place an extremely high value on education for knowledge's sake, not for the amount of money your education has enabled you to make.

With that being said it should also be mentioned that China’s youth are not ignoring monetary compensation entirely. This is especially true among the rural youth who are flocking into fields such as IT, engineering and finance.

They know that these fields will allow them to work in some of the larger cities like Beijing and Shanghai. It is there that they have the opportunity to earn a great deal of money as compared to what they would earn in their hometowns.

This then enables them to send money back home to their parents and families – a very common practice in this country.

WHY TEACHERS MAKE AS MUCH AS DOCTORS IN CHINA

For instance, my language partner is pursuing her doctorate in molecular biology at the Beijing Forestry University. That’s right; she’s studying the biology of trees!

To hear this in the United States would be considered strange, but to hear it in China is even stranger – if one didn’t understand the additional value the Chinese place on an education.

When I asked her why she decided to study the biology of tress she told me how she initially wanted to be a medical doctor but decided that this was much more interesting.

I found it intriguing that she would choose a career that requires almost the same amount of studying and training as a medical doctor would have, but pays much less.

Little did I know that unlike in the US, doctors in China make about as much money as a school teacher would. The pay scale certainly doesn’t provide much incentive for people to become doctors.

From what people have been telling me it boils down to a genuine desire to help people and the status that comes along with the position. But other than that, if people are looking to make real money in this country, they tend to stay away from medicine.

WHY CHINA MAY ONE DAY LOOK TO THE U.S. FOR CHEAP LABOR

My language partner’s boyfriend is a perfect example. He is a student at Beijing’s Qinghua University.

If Beijing University is China’s Harvard, Qinghua is MIT. Qinghua is known for turning out thousands of computer science students every year, many of them go on to great positions at local and foreign companies.

Her boyfriend’s original hope was to find a job with a large multi-national such as Microsoft and work in one of the larger cities.

Eventually hoping to move to the United States for a period of time where his compensation would increase dramatically as compared to his potential salary in China.

But now, with all of the recent M&A activity among China’s larger firms his hopes have shifted a bit. Now he can realistically see himself working for a Chinese company like Lenovo and earning a decent salary without having to leave home.

And even though a doctorate in Computer Science is unnecessary he is pursuing one anyway – mostly for the reputation and increased social status it will bring him.

This reflects a profound shift in the mindset of many people all over the world.

Chinese people are no longer looking outside of their country for opportunities to gain wealth, they are beginning to look within.

It is foreigners like me who are beginning to flood into China to figure out how to make money in this rapidly growing economy.

We are the ones who are changing our paths of education to accommodate the influence China will command in the near future. It is why I’m not simply majoring in Economics, but rather specifically focusing on Chinese Economics. It is also why the largest and most successful American companies are partnering with their Chinese counterparts.

With a population five times the size of the US, and with the mindset of getting an education for education’s sake, China will one day possess the largest and most highly skilled workforce on the planet.

It’s a scary thought that one day China may look to the US for cheap labor.