Overseas study bubbles on brink of bursting

• Source: Global Times
• [01:42 November 12 2009]
• Comments

"Education is the best form of investment," the traditional Chinese and Western wisdom goes.

But just like investing in the stock market, irrational speculation can create bubbles, and turn a potentially good investment into a nightmare.

What recently happened to more than 1,000 Chinese students in Australia indicates how easily such bubbles can reach the brink of bursting. The students are having a hard time after the private schools they attended went bankrupt.

The incident is just the tip of the iceberg.

With a skyrocketing number of Chinese students studying abroad at their own expense, totaling 160,000 students in 2008, China has become one of the leading exporters of students to overseas educational institutions.

Fueled by the long-cherished Chinese tradition of attaching great importance to education and the rise of China’s middle class in the past decade, studying abroad has grown into such a lucrative industry that many institutions from all over the world are eager to grab a share.

A high return on their investment is certainly what these students and parents are aiming for. An overseas diploma, though not necessarily a guarantee of a high salary, can at least sharpen students’ competitive edge in the increasingly intense job market against homegrown graduates.

But as the study abroad industry grows overheated, the investment is becoming more and more jeopardized by high risk. With the supply far exceeding the demand, students who return to China after studying abroad are confronted with a higher risk of "depreciated market value."

Worse, some students have been cheated by overseas institutions with no educational accreditation or financial credibility, as shown in the recent Australian case. By going to these schools, students learn nothing and just put their money at risk.

There is no single cure for all of the problems in the study abroad market, but the Chinese government does have a crucial role to play in weeding out representative agencies of unqualified overseas educational institutions. The establishment of a regulatory commission could be an effective move.

In a progressing Chinese society where nothing is easy but everything is possible, the social roots of problems need to be dug up, and the halo around studying abroad must be broken.

Students and parents need to realize that in an era when everyone is competing on an equal footing, the experience of studying abroad is not what matters most. And schools should be cautiously researched and selected before any decision is made.

Like in the stock market, bubble-bursting could bring about the collapse of public confidence in the whole overseas educational industry. The impact would be disastrous.

For the market to gradually return to rationality, a lot of work must be done by Chinese society. After all, education is an investment vital to the future of our nation.