Brain Drain Fears Arise over Foreign Study AllureDebate over the enthusiasm of Chinese youngsters to study abroad and the brain drain on the nation is set to be stirred once again with the opening of a series of foreign education exhibitions.The ongoing China International Higher Education Exhibition Tour, which will last until early March, will visit the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao in Shandong Province, Xi'an in Shaanxi Province and Chengdu in Sichuan Province. More than 160 universities and educational institutions from 22 countries and regions are joining in the event, according to Shao Wei, deputy director of the China Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange under the Ministry of Education. The Culture and Education Section of the British Embassy will this year hold exhibitions on British education in seven cities from February 25 to March 5, said Wang Xiaomei, an official with the section. Reports about overseas study have been filling newspapers and Internet homepages for months, along with advertisements in classified columns. More than 100,000 people, including up to 30,000 Beijingers, attended last year's exhibitions, said Shao. Rapid economic growth and eagerness to learn have meant more Chinese are longing to study at universities and colleges abroad. Some of them have turned to European countries for their destinations as well as the United States, the most popular place, according to Feng Xu, secretary-general of the Shanghai Education Association for International Exchange. Latest statistics indicate that more than 320,000 people - including more than 100,000 self-funded students - have gone abroad for higher study since China began to adopt its reform and opening-up policies in 1978. But the boom in overseas study has sounded some alarm bells among educational experts and educators, who fear the brain drain of outstanding students could scupper China's efforts to complete its modernization drive. Concerns have also been raised about the loss of money that would be spent in China by self-funded students if they remained at home, up to 4 billion yuan (US$482 million), some estimates claim. Since the mid-1980s, the Chinese Government has paid close attention to the brain drain and adopted various preferential policies to attract overseas students back. This number has increased by an average of 13 per cent a year over the last few years, according to statistics from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Most returning students bring with them higher technology and more advanced ideas of management, and as a result are playing more and more important roles in social and economic life. To date, roughly a third of the Chinese who have studied abroad have returned, the statistics indicate. Source: China Daily |
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