Fastest Growing US Export To China: Education 147
hackingbear writes "While we are importing billions of 'cheap' products labeled 'Made in China,' the fastest growing export from U.S. to China does not even need a label. Chinese parents are acutely aware that the Chinese educational system focuses too much on rote memorization, so Chinese students have flocked to overseas universities and now even secondary schools, despite the high cost of attending programs in America. Chinese enrollment in U.S. universities rose 23% to 157,558 students during the 2010-2011 academic year, making China by far the biggest foreign presence. Even the daughter of Xi Jinping, the presumed next president of China, studies as an undergraduate at Harvard. 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."
not because of "note memorization" (Score:5, Interesting)
Disclaimer: I am from China.
From where I stand and what I observed from my friends and relatives, one important reason of sending their kids abroad is because they want to evade some of the selection process in the Chinese education system, like the national entrance exam for colleges, which is extremely competitive. Do they really care about the quality of the education? I am not so sure. It is a strategic and trendy thing to do, at least for many families I know.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
No, not really, it is more of a status mark than anything else. High-ranking Chinese Communist party members (because most of the kids who end up in the US universities will be from rich families, and in China the rich families are connected to a certain political party) have, as all Communist Party leaders everywhere, a penchant for all things Western, especially American.
If you make a list of all the kids of ex-communist leaders from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (especially the parts of Eastern Europe where the influence of the Communist parties is still strong, whatever their current name is), and you'll see it is a definite trend.
It isn't about education, it is about image.
Re:Econ 101 (Score:4, Interesting)
Nope. American culture is like crack. Dipped in chocolate. Wrapped in bacon. With hookers.
Re:The US's is better? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's also trendy to bash anything U.S. on Slashdot.
Fuck that butthurt noise.
I'm a US citizen. I can handle seeing statistics that show that my country is lagging others in some ways. To me, that's a call that we should be looking for ways to improve -- not that we should rationalize why the statistics aren't valid.
As a whole, US citizens seem to be *extremely* sensitive to criticism. We've been told all our lives that we're special, we're #1, we can't be beat. Then when we see data that suggesting, hey, maybe someone else is #1, instead of looking to better ourselves we go sit in a corner and cry and attack whoever provided the data and staunchly refuse to acknowledge that we could *possibly* be doing anything wrong.
It's really sad, and you can see it all the time. I'm a US citizen, and I apologize for all the butthurt whining from people like CubicleZombie here.
--Jeremy
Re:The US's is better? (Score:3, Interesting)
The grade school system is terrible and needs improvement. Luckily they do not run the university system. The US consistently has more top universities than any other country.
US News and World Report: http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities-rankings/top-400-universities-in-the-world [usnews.com]
ARWU (compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University): http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp [arwu.org]
QS World Rankings (compiled by a London corp): http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2011 [topuniversities.com]
Re:Econ 101 (Score:4, Interesting)
Basically, Chinese gov. is trying to sink the west economically, and they are winning because of idiots that keep saying that this is China just building themselves up.
The last time the US had a
positive balance of trade [wikipedia.org] was in 1975, when Mao was still alive and ruling China as a totally isolated Communist economy.
Basically, the US committed economic suicide in 1973, when OPEC first raised oil prices. Instead of raising prices an letting the economy adjust to the new reality, the US federal government imposed price controls and rationing [wikipedia.org]. The result is that the US never abandoned the pick-up truck as a personal transportation vehicle.
People in Europe drive subcompact cars with diesel engines that get 70 mpg, while in the US they drive to work in F-150s.
Blame not China if the US economy is fucked up.