Getting US education to China - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

A growing number of Chinese students flee to the US for decent education, including the daughter of upcoming president Xi Jinping. But large scale US initiatives might offer the same education soon at home, expects business analyst Shaun Rein in Forbes.

Shaun Rein:

But as attractive as studying abroad is for millions of Chinese students, more and more are returning to China after they graduate. Also, more don’t even want to leave China in the first place. They’d prefer to be closer to their families and not miss career opportunities in China. 

This creates opportunities for universities to bring American education directly to China. Both Duke and New York University are building campuses in the Shanghai area to offer full-time programs to students there, and executive education courses are already a proven success, Harvard’s Senior Executive Program in Shanghai among them. There are already many joint venture programs with American universities on the campuses of Chinese institutions, but the trend toward larger-scale initiatives seems clear.

But it might not be without challenges:

Getting the right people to teach in China is crucial. Among the top concerns potential students have mentioned in our research is the makeup of faculty. Often professors from the home institution don’t want to move to China for long stretches. Universities need to find the right mix of their own faculty, international faculty hired by them, and people from or based in China to fit a program’s needs and be attractive enough to appeal to students yet maintain academic strength and brand integrity.

More in Forbes

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Shaun Rein is the author of "The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends that Will Disrupt the World". More about his book at Storify. 

New, smarter trends in raising children - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Raising children in China has been cause for concern, because of tough parental and educational traditions, making kids' lives to a hell, especially when you are not outstanding. But China watcher and father Bill Dodson sees - here on his weblog - also some positieve trends.

Bill Dodson

Mimi’s ten year old son is – how to put it delicately – average. Of course, to his mother, he’s precious; but to his teachers at school his scores are abysmally second-rate – and therefore he is second-rate, too. Mimi is a very mature and dignified manager of a foreign firm with offices in China. She is in her mid-thirties. Mimi sees her ten year old son suffering within an education system that emphasizes rote learning and endless memorization over creativity and initiative. 

Her son developed a low opinion of himself, as a result. Mimi explained to me, “Chinese people at an individual level do not really know what they want. Their entire lives they are told what to think, what to say, what to desire.” Last year, though, Mimi decided to get to the bottom of herself., of her own values and desires. 

For several months Mimi has been attending an evening program led by a Chinese woman that helps parents re-evaluate their lives, learn what’s really important to them, and basically realize there’s more to their lives than meeting the expectations of others. About sixty adults participate in the program, she told me. During the late winter last year she took her son to a camp on the island of Hainan where mother and son could get to know each other better and he could explore parts of his personality and expression he never knew he had.

More on Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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China innovation fueled by US education - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

China's universities might be churning out millions of engineers, real innovative enterprises are led by US-educated returnees, writes business analyst Shaun Rein in CNBC. He disagrees with Washington Post columnist Vivek Wadhwa who fears China's education.

Over one million Chinese have studied abroad in the last 30 years, of whom only about 30 percent have returned to China, precisely because the country's higher education system is outdated and does not adequately prepare people to think analytically and creatively in a globalized business world. 

Large class sizes, curricula based on rote memorization, and practically no room for electives are some of the obstacles in the way of creating the intellectual climate needed to breed independent and innovative thinkers. Unless China significantly changes its higher education system, true innovation will be hampered in the country. Sure, there will be great entrepreneurs that can grow businesses globally, or adapt to the local domestic market, but few will be able to develop technologies that will change the world. 

Wadhwa also makes the mistake of overestimating the drive of many young Chinese. He argues that they, unlike older generations, are risk takers and no longer want to work in stodgy old state-owned enterprises or multinational firms. He concludes they want to work in start-ups. Research suggests otherwise. A decade ago, top Chinese graduates wanted to work for Western brands like P&G, Coca-Cola, and IBM. Today young graduates look for jobs in Chinese firms, but in only the big private enterprises like Netease, Shanda, and Ctrip that offer stability and hefty stock options as perks.

More in CNBC

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Poor health care and education force rich to emigrate - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

China's super rich massively try to get foreign passports, but it is not because of fear for government interference, discovered business analyst Shaun Rein in 36 interviews. China's rich go abroad because of the poor health care and poor education, he writes in CNCB.

The two main reasons wealthy Chinese took foreign passports were for education and health care reasons. Having foreign passports made it easier to secure visas to seek medical care. 

Some families reported wanting to send children to international schools in China, an option off limits to Chinese passport holders. China’s weak education system made some families want to send kids abroad to study... 

Severe pollution and a stressful life were two other reasons why wealthy Chinese migrated or were thinking about it. One wealthy Beijing women named Mrs. Wang said, “I am so worried about my son’s health.  Rashes cover his face because of pollution.  We are considering moving to America or Canada while keeping our business in China.  Three million dollars only buys tiny apartments in Shanghai but mansions in North America.”

 More in CNBC Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Millionaires pick UK for their education - Rupert Hoogewerf

Eton College via Wikipedia

Paris might be the hot spot for luxury shopping by China's rich, when they have to pick an education they go for England's top universities, especially Eton and Harrow, says Hurun China's rich list founder Rupert Hoogewerf in The Telegraph.

"What I'm constantly hearing from Chinese millionaires is that they like England as a place to get their children educated," said Rupert Hoogewerf, the publisher of the Hurun Report magazine and the leading expert on China's new rich.

"You go to France for fine wine and luxury living, to Italy to see the ancient sights, but to a British boarding school to get a proper education." The scions of China's new rich already make up a considerable portion of foreign students, with nearly a third of the 10,030 non-British students coming from Hong Kong and China in 2010, according to the Independent School Council.

Some are the children of leading Communist Party figures – so-called 'Princelings' and others from the new breed of property-owning families that have capitalised on the Chinese economic miracle.

More in The Telegraph

Rupert Hoogewerf by Fantake via Flickr

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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No room for high-risk innovation - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber by Fantake via Flickr

Is China becoming an innovative force? Arthur Kroeber belongs to the bears in this debate, he tells Reuters, as the academic climate in the country is too much constrained. Not only lack of intellectual property protection and a failing educational system holds innovation back.

"There's a political constraint, too," said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of GaveKal-Dragonomics in Beijing. "In the long run, innovation arises in societies that are really open, where you can discuss anything. And China doesn't have that kind of political culture yet."..
"For most Chinese companies the aim is to provide 80 percent of global best quality but at 50 percent of the cost," said Kroeber. "If you can make money doing that - and many do - you really have no incentive to invest in high-risk innovation."

More in Reuters.

Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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The reversed gender gap at universities - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson          

Most are familiar with the gender gap in China, where men outnumber women in national statistics. But Bill Dodson noted recently during lectures at a business school in Ningbo, his class had a reversed gender gap: 70 percent female students.
In his weblog:

After the university talk, I asked my hosts why it was the audience was so tilted toward women. Was it that women who had found the poster advertising the talk found my photo sexy or was it the more urbane fact that there were overwhelmingly more women on campus than men? (Actually, I didn’t ask the first question; though I did entertain the thought).
My host, a young, portly and good-natured student who worked part-time at the library answered, “The curriculum at the school is in English,” he himself answered in accented English. “Women score better on the language portion of the university entrance examination than the men, so more women than men are admitted to the university; also, more women in the undergraduate school enroll in our business school.” He finished quickly, “When we open our engineering school, the campus should attract more men. We hope to have more balance at the school within a couple years.”

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Educational reform key for China - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Ahead of the opening of the annual meetings of the CPPCC and the National People's Congress, Shaun Rein gives in CNBC an overview of the current challenges for the country. The mismatch on the labor market, caused by a failing education is key. Other issues: inflation, Libya and the oil prices, jobs and sustainable growth.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

How good is China's education?

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I got a surprise phone call from a Dutch journalist who wanted my comment on a report stating that a survey said China's education belonged to the best in the world. I had not seen such a report yet and the journalist had only 60 seconds time for a thorough interview on this rather complicated subject, I summarized it as "a load of bullshit".
Even after she explained the survey was done by the OECD, I could not change my verdict. Together with health care, education is one of the most problematic areas in China - as also Shaun Rein explained earlier in the week. Any survey saying differently must be a load of bullshit.
But my interest was triggered on how such a misunderstanding could emerged and during the day the OECD report popped up on my radar screen, as reported here by the New York Times.
For the defense of the OECD: the journalist made a classic mistake by assuming that the report - which was actually about Shanghai students - would easily apply on the whole of China. That is an unfortunate lack of logic.
But then, how come Shanghai students score better than countries in Europe and the US where they love to received their education. Are Chinese students wrong by leaving their own country for a better education and should they move to Shanghai in stead?
The tested subjects in the survey were reading, math and science. I'm still not sure what that really means, some of the assessments of the OECD test were rather critical. Shanghai will be ahead of the curve, at least in their own country.

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A superpower needs better education - Shaun Rein

No Chinese Eton yet via Wikipedia

Whether China is going to be a superpower has less to do with its military might, but more with its ability to reform its archaic education system, argues Shaun Rein in Forbes. Chinese parents often worry their children do not get the best possible education and send them abroad.
Shaun Rein:

To cement its superpower status, China needs to improve its educational system so it doesn't just produce great academic research and innovation but also attracts the world's top students. All great powers draw in the world's best and train the future leaders of their allies and vassal states. That is soft power at its finest. The British have had Eton and Oxford, the U.S. St. Paul's and Harvard. China needs its own global centers of learning. 

China's educational system at present causes its best and brightest to move abroad for their studies. Several hundred thousand Chinese study abroad every year, 128,000 in the U.S. alone this year. Nearly 20% of the non-European Union international students in the United Kingdom are Chinese. When I was a graduate student at Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences a decade ago I had more classmates from China than from any other nation except the U.S.

Onlye when the best and the brightest come to China to study, the country is ready for a great future, Rein argues.

Young foreigners often fall in love with the country and want to stay there or bring positive experiences home with them. They should be allowed to work in China, if only to build soft power. Their presence in offices also helps local workers. They do not take jobs away from Chinese. Under the current system, I wouldn't have been allowed to stay in China and work after I completed my education.

More in Forbes.

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Unemployed students at an overheated labor market - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Higher education in China is lagging behind, forcing 25 percent of its graduates to stay unemployed, while companies have a hard time to find qualified employees to deal with its economic growth, writes Shaun Rein today in Forbes. One of the country's more serious conundrums as unrest among its students is growing, traditionally one of China's sources of social unrest - not the farmers,

Shaun Rein:

Class sizes are too big, teachers teach by rote, and students are not given the interdisciplinary liberal arts education they need... Rather, students typically focus on a single discipline, like accounting, for their entire four years of college, leaving them unable to adjust to a global business environment that demands flexible thinking. They are bright and eager, but unprepared to work effectively for a global corporation..

My own firm, the China Market Research Group, is actively hiring but simply can't grow as fast as we want and as the market is demanding. For every thousand résumés we receive, we find perhaps two candidates who are qualified. Our standards are extremely high, but many multinationals are facing the same problem.

China's education system needs to change and change fast if China is going to prevent social instability and ensure a steady transition from low-cost manufacturing to a more service-oriented economy.

More in Forbes

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch. Are you looking for other speakers on labor issues? Do click here.

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After hitting a teacher

He apologized

Remember the uproar after a video of a student hitting his teacher hit the internet? The Chinese media picked up the incident and ESWN has translated some of the detailed reports on what happened that day and afterwards.

It gives many comments from all participants and puts the situation in the class room a bit in perspective. (Although it would never justify hitting a teacher.)

"Attending class is definitely meaningless for me. I made the wrong decision to major in performance arts. Those who not know the inside story will certainly be impressed my major, but how many people really understand this profession? After graduating, the only options are to apply to schools like the Beijing Film Academy or the Central Academy of Drama. If we don't get accepted, we will have just wasted our time at school and the 18,000 yuan has gone down the drain. I am really unsure that I will get accepted by those universities."

What makes the story more than an individual one is the feeling that many schools in the big cities are in a similar situation, educating students for jobs that do not exist.

64 foreign schools "apply" to close down in Shanghai

A rather mysterious article in the Shanghai Daily, that quotes an official of the Shanghai Educational Commission who says that 64 educational program between foreign schools and local partners have "applied" to close down because they do not meet the quality standards.
Foreign schools, especially business schools, have entered the market, believing that it was a very lucrative one. Competition might have killed that market.

Most of the closed schools were facing financial difficulties before failing an annual assessment and being told to make changes of shut down, according to the commission.

Hitting student causes new uproar

Ever thought of becoming a teacher of some of those cute, well-behaved Chinese students? Think again. A Chinese class room can be hell, just as anywhere else. Global Voices points at a movie made in such an educational hell in Beijing.
For those who cannot understand the profanities, Global Voices has some translations and also those of some very shocked comments at the internet. Yet another cliche about Chinese students gone.

Update: The orginal story was by ESWN, more at Danwei.

Criticize your teacher

during the Cultural Revolution

Not all university teachers reacted enthusiastically when they learned about a website rating their performances, reported the Shanghai Daily on April 14.

a few strongly worded opinions on the site have left some Shanghai teachers upset, while a lawyer yesterday warned that malicious comments could get the Website into trouble.

The site Ping Laoshi, or "Criticize the teacher". Teachers are allowed to comment on the entries, if they register under their real name.
Already 30,000 university professors have been rated here, so whether those professors like it or not, there is certainly a demand for this website. It certainly fits into a long-standing Chinese tradition of attacking teachers.

Question: Where to learn Chinese in China?

Last night a reader from Paris asked me advice on where in Shanghai or Beijing to jumpstart his study of Chinese with a few months of intensive study to start with. Ten years ago I would have known the answer: neither Beijing or Shanghai, but Taiwan, if you really want to learn the language.

In greatly enjoyed my time studying Chinese in Shanghai at the East China Normal University (ECNU), it proved to be mostly useful in discovering how this Chinese entity was operating and for making friends. I developed a network that is still partly working up to today.

But in terms of learning the language, I was often impressed by the skills of those who started off in Taiwan. The teaching methods in Taiwan were much more modern than in China, where the books were still dominated by the remnants of the Cultural Revolution (Tongzimen!), even to the embarrassment of our teachers. Traditionally teaching in China means a sophisticated way of physical and mental torture and since the language itself is already tough enough, it was all to attractive to find alternative activities that were more fun.

Now this all might have changed over the past ten years. Maybe some of the readers have a fresher experience and would like to share that: what is the best place to study Chinese.

Chinese universities: no competition

None of the Chinese universities reaches into the top-100 ranking of research competitiveness in the world, reports China in Transition, based on research done by researchers at the Research Center for Chinese Science Evaluation of Wuhan University.
Beijing University ranks 192, followed by Tsinghua at 196.
There is also good news:

Nevertheless, research competence of mainland China institutions moved up to No.16 in the world from last year’s position of No.22, according to the study.

Good news on China's education

Positive news and China's educational system mostly do not mix that well, but here we have an amazing exception. The magazine of the New York Times gives an in depth overview of efforts to reform the educational system.
Kaiser Kuo pointed at this possible revolution in Chinese education and just like him, I'm not even going to try and summarize it. You have to read it yourself.

Update: The magazine has hidden itself meanwhile behind a firewall. You can get the same article for free here at the International Herald Tribune.