Amid concerns that the most talented high school students are
choosing to study outside the Chinese mainland the country's
universities are looking for sound educational reforms to ensure
they remain at home.?
This summer more than 30,000 students applied to study in six
Hong Kong-based universities, which could take only 1,000 freshmen
from the mainland.
Mainland newspapers cried out that the country's top two
universities, Peking and Tsinghua, once considered by the top
students as their No.1 choices, would soon go into decline.
Universities outside the mainland are gradually being allowed to
enroll more undergraduate students from the mainland. This sector
was once off-limits.
A couple of the best students in China have turned down offers
from prestigious mainland universities to go and study in Hong
Kong. The lure of high quality teaching, generous scholarships and
bright job prospects is often too great.
And an online survey conducted by one of China's largest
Internet news websites found that 66.5 percent of the respondents
preferred Hong Kong universities to mainland institutions.
"For our mainland students at undergraduate level, two-thirds
will seek employment in Hong Kong or pursue graduate courses
overseas, with only one-third choosing to return home," said
Lap-Chee Tsui, chancellor of the University of Hong Kong.
Tsui said his school, this year alone, received more than 10,000
applications from the mainland for only 300 places.
Speaking globally the mainland's universities lag behind on such
things as school facilities, faculty quality, campus culture and
school structure, said Cai Dafeng, vice president of Shanghai-based
Fudan University. "As education globalization accelerates talents
will continue to leave the mainland to seek a better
education,"?Cai added.
Liu Zeting, a 19-year-old high school student, turned down
Tsinghua University for a place at the Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology (HKUST) after interviews with both.
"There was no interaction between the teachers and me in the
Tsinghua interview," Liu said. "The staff at Tsinghua kept asking
me academic questions while those at HKUST asked me to talk about
myself and allowed me time to raise questions," Liu said.
"The exodus to Hong Kong might be just the first step.?As
China's education system further opens up to the world, the
competition will be much more fierce," Cai said.
At the seven-day Third Chinese-Foreign University Presidents
Forum that closed yesterday in Shanghai,?143 university heads
criticized the shortcomings of the country's current higher
education system and exchanged views on ways to save China's higher
learning institutions amid global competition.
China has the largest number of college and university students
in the world at 23 million. Despite continuous reform efforts
experts in education said the current system still had many
defects.
University presidents blasted rampant academic fraud, criticized
teaching approaches and an inappropriate evaluation system, and
called for stronger government funding for higher education and
scientific research.
"Problems in university education have severely stifled great
talents," said Zhu Qingshi, president of the University of Science
and Technology of China. "Fortunately, Chinese educational circles
have come to realize it and are making efforts to bring about
change."
"Nurturing innovative talents and reforming universities are
expected to be painstaking and time-consuming, but we have the
determination and courage to take up the challenge and strive for a
better future for our universities," said Vice Education Minister
Zhang Xinsheng.
"We will first enhance liberal arts education at undergraduate
level to train our students as problem-solvers and innovative
thinkers who also possess high ethical standards and leadership
qualities," Zhang said. "This will be a historic move in our higher
education reform."
(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2006)