What Is a College Degree Worth in China?
Why many Chinese graduates are unable to capitalize on their education, while wages for low-skill workers rise.
A Stratified Education System
Updated December 4, 2010, 12:53 AM
Qiang Zha is an assistant professor of education at York University in Toronto, and a co-author, most recently of, “Portraits of 21st Century Chinese Universities: In the Move to Mass Higher Education.”
It is ironic that as China’s economy keeps growing, the degrees produced by its colleges seem to be rapidly losing their value. Investment in education and training are not paying off for many college graduates. Why? Does China not need knowledge workers?
The elite universities enjoy strong state patronage while the rest are largely left on their own.
In the past decade, Chinese higher education enrollment soared more than sevenfold, and the system now produces close to six million graduates a year. Shouldn’t these graduates be rewarded for their education credentials and qualifications and not be treated “as cheap as cabbages”?
The problem is due largely to a structural disorder in Chinese higher education.
With the quick expansion of higher education came stratification of the system. Chinese higher education has grown to be steeply hierarchical, with a small number of elite national universities (around 100 in total) sitting on top of the hierarchy and protected from overexpansion. Meanwhile, the majority (95 percent or so) of local universities and colleges have to accommodate most of the increased enrollment.
The elite universities enjoy strong state patronage in terms of higher concentration of public resources while the local ones are largely left to rely on market forces, which means that they have to take in more students in order to secure their revenue.
This widening gap inevitably led to deterioration of the quality of higher education in many colleges, especially the newly created ones but also the private ones, which suffer from a severe shortage of qualified and experienced teaching staff.
Worse still, many of these colleges favored adding “soft” programs, e.g., accounting, business/public administration, international commerce, foreign languages, etc. These popular programs require modest resources, thus providing an effective means for fast expansion. Graduates of these programs used to be welcomed into the job market. However, the proliferation of these programs has created a huge discrepancy between the supply and demand side.
With the market economy developing, divisions in China’s job market naturally emerged. The elite university graduates and those who studied “hard” programs, i.e., the sciences and technology, found better opportunities in the primary job market where there’s great demand for their knowledge and skills.
The local college graduates and particularly those who studied “soft” programs are more likely to be pushed to the secondary job market, which is characterized by low wages and high levels of labor turnover.
However, as more opportunities become available in a maturing Chinese economy, those who have college degrees — regardless of their field of discipline — will benefit. In the long run, it is likely that the wages of most college graduates will improve.
Recent years, universitiws allowed more students to enroll in China. There are many reasons, the most important reason is to raise the cultural level of the whole people. China has largest population in the world. if the universities does not enlarge Enrollment, then many people can not get high education,the cultural quality of the Chinese people will very low. This is very unfavorable for economic development. However, enlarging enrollment has also brought many problems, such as reduce the level of university education, lower quality of students, and reduce the value of the students who have universities’ degrees and so on.However, I personally feel that the measure will bring more advantages than disadvantages. Although the quality of students will likely to drop, more people can entra into the colleges, the cultural level of the entire nation will increase.What ‘s more.I think the value of students can not only valued by their education background.
Many universities only focus on quantity of the degree rather than its quality now, resulting in many of students do not go into their own profession after graduation , but the wages in other industries are very low. I think China needs to improve the level of education.
In my opinions,education is not only important for us but also our country.As we all known,China has a largest population all over the word,population is a big issue in China.The government has to burden a large task,such as education. A lot of universities have built in recent years,But the quality of the universities is not higher than other countries’,the level of the education is dropping .The government must take more time in education and improve the quality of the universites and students.
If this topic is displayed in Chinese,most of us will have so many to say,for it’s a topic which has close connection with us.
In my opinion,the education in China really sucks!And I really disappoint with the education here,sometimes I doubt whether is worthy for me to spend so many time studying here.But at same time,I have to accept the education here.We now have so many pressure to live in China,we hope to get some benefits from our education investment.
Alhough university enrollment brings many disadvantages such as the declining of teaching quality, serious situation of employment, and so on. It also brings many advantages. As far as I know, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The critical part is that the university enrollment gives hopes and opportunities to more people to get higher education. Especially to the students who come from the countryside. The teaching equipment and quality is lower to the city’s. So, to be a college student is so hard for them.
In today’s society, fingding a good job is really hard to the college students. But it can not blame the education policy of university enrollment. Because there are also many college students get a fine job after graduate. What determines you is yourself. Your future truly up to you. Fate is under the control of yourself.
The enrollment extension of universities began in 1999, several years later the supply of university graduates largely beyond social demand.it’s hard for the graduates find a good job ,on the one hand the number of the graduates exceeds the damand,on the other hand the university student has grand plans but little skill.I can feel the pressure now,I often to think whether it is worthy to spend time in college.
Maybe for most of us, it is a good new when we hear that the universities have admitted to enroll more students.With the college degree,we may have a bright future. However,this year when I into the job market, I find there exist education discrimination in many jobs.You may be accepted only if you have the evidences to prove that you really a very excellent graduate students. Otherwise no chance will be left for you.So I think the students who graduate from elite universities have more chances than that of local colleges. Compare with the elite national universities,local colleges have many disadvantages such as low hierarchy, overexpansion,uninadequate teaching resources.That why so today’s parents would more like to let their children go to elit universities at a high cost.Besides, the enlarge enrollment will only make the job market much intense especially for local colleges students.Futhermore,when it increases the quality of the whole race, it also decrease the quality of education quality. So I do not think there has advantages overweight disadvantages. The personality quality have many influence factors.Maybe our government should take other measures to creat good social atmosphere rather than increase the number of university students only.
I do have a question,how to deal with the huge number of young people in China,if it become more difficult for them to get further education,they will go to society too early with little knowledge.Somehow they will be encouraged easily to do something bad,it will be bad to the harmonious of our society!At the same time,there are no enough work for them,so maybe it is better to let them in campus and go to the society later!
College Degree,in my standpoint,is just like a ladder to get in a tall building.It can help you to get in it easily,but it is no use in the working place.It is the ability that can prove you are useful to the company or socity.
We maybe don’t know why should receive education in sometime. We just drift one person who had acquried too much glory and wealth through receiving a good education. So there are a lot of students who don’t what will to do. In my opinion, universitiws allowed more students to enroll so that occur for greater problem in China.
Why many Chinese graduates are unable to capitalize on their education,
while wages for low-skill workers rise.
In my opinion，the government was not responsible for controlling the amount of the university or college. They don’t effective guide the school’s curriculum, so the school training a group of student just understand the theory, not the action, while low-skill workers have accumulated experience through the long-working.
In my opinion,the degrees produced by Chinese colleges are rapidly losing their value. With the rapid development of Chian’s economy,more and more students enter unniversities and colleges, I do think that not all of them can be rewarded for their education credentials and qualifications when they graduate.
China certainly need elite education for the country’s furture;on the other hand,China also need civilian education to improve the people’s quality.Our counry need a balance between the two
The reason is complex,I think!Chinese university have a low efficiency on education.A lot of money are wast,because they build many buildings and recruit lots of students with no responsible.Any way,students are not worry about their study and they often wast time and money.
With the quick expansion of higher education in China, the quality of many colleges’ students has decreased a lot. Many companies and enterprises have a low evaluation on the comprehensive quality of college students. Maybe this has a relationship with the school, but I think the most important thing is that we haven’t learn enough. As a college student, if you really learned and have the ability and skills, sure be able to find a good job and have a good income.
With increasing tuition it is unfair to many children who growed in a poor family and this is a tendecy to advantage the advantaged because of the legacies easy to get opportunity to improve!
In China,it is seems that gain a college degree is becoming more and more important,the reason is may be because there is a potential market which is acknownlegement it.nearly every family wants their’s children can get the best education,so when their’s children set their’s steps into the society they can adopt it better than themseves.thus,it is hot to achieve a college degree.in any case,it is helpful to our country I think.
I would like to see the image that the wages of most college graduates will improve and many job will be supplied for graduates.In other word,we will hunt for good jobs and higher wages if we could get more knowledge in college,so we must improve our ability first.
We can not deny that there many promble in the china college education.Many graduaters can not find a well job.There are so many people come to the college,and the quality of the college education is not so satisfy.
Sometimes many universities want to culture some persons who are proficiency in english, but they can’t find the most appropriate ways. At the same time, chinese unvisity don’t have right to decide the direction which the education can go through.
In recent years, universities in China enlarge their recruit.It is said that what the universities do are for promoting the development of education project.But in my opinion,the universities focus on quantity more than quality which is useless to develop the education project.The school teaching scale can not be fit with the need of large number of students. As we can not change this situation recently, we have to adapt to it. We must improve our ability in the university in order to gain a success in the society.
I really want to say that I am not satisfied with my own situation at university. as far as I konw,most university studengts have a low knowledge level and can not adapt to our modern society well. I am sorry to say this,but this is true Phenomenon.
College Degree just is a ticket for the bus of society,you got it,you can enter community.Of course,if you hard work in college,you can study lots of knowledge.
Everything is individual choose.
Because Chinese education change from the Elite education to Public education, it means that colleges have reduce the standard of students’ abilities. The colleges just give the students degree certification but not give them ability to acquire the advanced technology, skill, knowledge an so on. So the students just bring the certification to find the job and found that they couldn’t be qualified to the job they engaged in. As a result, they get fired and have to do the low income jobs. This is not the college education structure problem but the direction of education, I strongly hope the days of education based on the ability should come earlier.
Well,I really wondering that the wages of most college graduates will improve,so many graduates in the job market every years,just become so cheap for the companies,just like a worker,it’s really a hard time for the graduates,just hope about the education reform will soon come and change the situation.
Actually, as a college student, I must talk something about university education in china .coupled with the growing of GTP and quantity of college, we have be the luck generation who gained more opportunity to present college. Nevertheless, while we are delighting in success of college entrance examination , the way before us turn to cragged . Undoubtedly, obtaining employment is a critical factor troubled us throughout the whole college life. Certainly, I am not complaining the situation of us ,just reflecting authentic society.
Today, I would like to talk about the ideal university education in my mind . What is the ideal university life? As put it in Stanford motto “the wind of freedom blows.” The atmospheric of a university should be freedom, bright and wisdom. I remember in the movie the great debaters Doctor Farmer asked his son “what do we do.”, the answer is “do what we must do and do what we want to do.”
To my point of view, the duty of teachers in college is not to pump some facts into our head but to induce us enter the kingdom of wisdom. However, it is rare college allows student to concentrate on those thing they do well. By for the worst form of competition in university is the disproportionate emphasis on examination .Recalling my college life, I realized I always troubled by something small ,trivial or inconsequential. In addition to this , the education department need searched for ways to make the school curriculum more relevant. The contents of some required courses are really prolix and wearisome. Tell the truth , I think the politic course is just waste time.
The lecture is not only amusing but also efficient. Only in this way can we both widen our sight and richen our knowledge. What’s more ,the teaching method needs to make better. To a college student , especially to graduates ,the task of learning is not deriving pre-existing knowledge but to conform and create new knowledge . Therefore, in the course student should have more opportunity to raise problem or explain their own idea.
Education in any society is a mirror of that society. In this mirror we can see the weakness, hope and even the central value of society. In one word, university education still has a long way to go to be better.
Yes,the authentic society is that China is producing more and more college students who cannot get a high pay job,however ,there are also many bosses looking for ideal talents and very hard to find competent employees,sso what is the reason behind this odd fact,many reasons,think about it.