The Christian Science Monitor has a fascinating story about the mind-boggling rate of growth in the Chinese higher education system. Although, as an academic, I’ve been aware of this trend, I was truly amazed by some of the numbers in the Monitor’s story, including
- 1,300 new private universities started in recent years
- College enrollment has tripled since 1998
- Chinese officials expect at least 20 percent of high school grads to be enrolled in some form of higher education by 2010 – rising to 50 percent by 2050.
- The number of science and engineering Ph.D.s nearly doubled between 1996 and 2001
These numbers are truly impressive, and represent an immense challenge for the United States. The number of American high school graduates pursuing science and engineering degrees (never mind Ph.D.s) is certainly not growing in a similar way. At the same time, the level of scientific and technical knowledge desirable for the workforce of the 21st Century is continuing to increase. Significant advances are coming daily in fields like computing, nanotechnology, biomedical science, robotics, engineering and pharmaceutical research, to name but a handful. Much of this progress is being made through university research programs, sometimes using federal funds. Major progress is also being made in the private sector, through companies who are desperate for technologically and scientifically trained employees. These aren’t your average jobs either – pay in the private sector in technical jobs is pretty good by almost any standard. Anyone in high school today who pursues a technical career path is basically guaranteed to lead a comfortable life.
The potential for an economic boom, centered on science and technology, and kept sharp through healthy competition with countries like China and India, seems to be waiting to be exploited. However, unless we can convince more high schoolers to follow this path, the U.S. is going to be competing from quite a way behind the pack. Just look at the scope of the changes in the Chinese system
At Tsinghua, this year’s seniors have been among the first to feel the impact of attending one of the seven institutions tapped to compete with the Harvards and Sorbonnes of the West. The school has boosted exchanges with foreign scholars and recruited them to teach, and is offering some classes in both Chinese and English. Known for several decades as the MIT of China, it is requiring more general education and allowing undergraduates to enroll in a dozen schools, from management to architecture. Most faculty have studied abroad. Extracurriculars are popular, from the venerable chorus to a recently added crew team. Virtually all students are familiar with English, and many speak it with an almost easy familiarity.
As William Kirby, dean of faculty at Harvard, and a China scholar, remarks in the article
“It’s stunning the degree to which China has reemerged as one of the leaders in the developing world, and a leader in the global development of technical talent, …”
“China has an enormous market of well-educated people who are primed to go to college,” says Kirby. Now, he says, it is making an enormous investment in that talent.”
In a couple of weeks I’m headed to China. For the first week there, I’ll be lecturing at a summer school on cosmology at Zhejiang University, in Hangzhou, near Shanghai. The Christian Science Monitor article describes this university as “newly reorganized” and reports that “for example, has grown from about 10,000 students in the mid-1990s to about 45,000, in part through consolidation with other universities.”
In the second week I will be in Beijing, speaking at a Symposium on Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. This symposium is another example of China’s explosive growth in science. As my invitation letter put it
The symposium, hosted by the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, will be held in Beijing August 22-26, 2005. It is a part of an explorative effort for the Chinese scientific community to enter the exciting field of cosmology in both theory and
observation/experiment.
More informally, one of the people who invited me told me “China wants to get into cosmology and so is inviting some people to tell them about it.” Of course, there is already some cosmology going on in China, but this is a bold step, and it will be interesting to see the scale of China’s planned involvement in the field and how rapidly it occurs.
I’ll certainly be reporting here about my China trip, hopefully while I’m there, but certainly when I return. I’m very excited about it, since although I’ve traveled to Asia a couple of times before, I have never been to China. It’s going to be a busy trip (I’m giving two or three long lectures at the summer school and a presentation at the symposium), but I’m hoping to get something of a feel for the country outside of my hotels and the universities. Our hosts are even taking us to the Beijing Opera!
July 29th, 2005 at 7:52 am
Nice article Mark. For much of the past 3000 years China has been the most advanced and powerful nation in the world – it looks like it’s making a comeback.
July 29th, 2005 at 8:41 am
Yes, I would be very interested in hearing your experiences.
There is a subconcious tendency in the west to greatly underestimate capability of Asians, especially Chinese and Indians. Unlike here, doing well in academics (math and physics) is prized and revered; being called a nerd is not a epithet. Also, the school system does a much better job of training the average pupil (even with diqalpidated infrastructure) than the average school here.
Plus, there is less of a religious baggage over issues like evolution or stem cell research.
July 29th, 2005 at 8:42 am
Nice article. It brings up a point I’ve heard mentioned in the past, and was curious about: Are American universities, and various science departments in particular, getting better at judging the quality of the institutions from which Chinese (and Indian) grad applicants are applying? I’ve been told before that it can be incredibly difficult, since a large number of applicants have similarly good grades and recommendations, but their instituions are unfamiliar to those evaluating them. In some cases, I would imagine this can penalize the applicant somewhat unfairly, since in a competitve world American universities aren’t going to participate in what would seem to be a crapshoot. Also, are the Chinese universities going to start taking in any influx of foreign students (foreign to China), especially with America tightening down visa rules and making life miserable for foreign students to enter?
July 29th, 2005 at 10:42 am
The competition within India for kids to get into decent technology/science streams in universities is brutal. The primary criteria now entrance examinations. This has some advantages and disadvantages as well.
http://www.iitk.ac.in/infocell/Archive/dirjuly3/cover_story.html
I say it is brutal, because I know of children, working 7 days a week, all their waking hours, either in school work or studying for these examinations, with perhaps 3 days off in the year.
I think most Indian children would be very happy to have the opportunities available to American children, and would be very puzzled as to why Americans don’t realize how lucky they are.
You may want to read Somini Sengupta’s NYT article, available here, also:
http://lair.xent.com/pipermail/fork/Week-of-Mon-20050627/035665.html
July 29th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
I am always a bit dubious about articles that say “we’d better be careful, or [INSERT COUNTRY HERE] will overtake us”. After all, we heard the same thing about the Soviet Union in the 1950s, and Japan in the 1980s. China’s Achilles heal may be the nature of its political system. You can hand out all the Ph.Ds you like, but are your Ph.Ds capable of doing real science? The bottom line is that, in a non-free society, people will never be as innovative and creative as they are in a free one. And since scientific and technological advancements are all about innovation, this is going to adversely affect Chinese output.
Zero
July 29th, 2005 at 12:54 pm
I don’t think you understand the principle of comparative advantage. It does not make sense for American kids to go into science and engineering to compete with Chinese students. China simply has alot more smart kids than we do, there’s no getting around it. America’s strength is in its more highly developed capital infrastructure. American kids are better off studying business and law, so they can manage and sue their chinese couterparts.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
Once Mark goes to China and teaches them cosmology, it’s all over.
July 29th, 2005 at 2:48 pm
As an Indian, who was raised in China (Hong Kong actually), and educated in the British educational system… i have the following tuppence worth to throw in here… sheer numbers, although they might seem impressive at first, can be the very downfall of an educational system. Judging from the experiences of my relatives, I very much doubt I’d be studying for my phd in physics were I raised in India… (see also arun’s post) The almost epic competition that one has to endure throughout ones student career is enough to extinguish any sense of wonder, creativity, and curiosity in all but the most battle hardened souls. Its probably the same in China, though I hope I’m mistaken. Its one thing to churn out a nation of tech-savvy programmers and lab rats, and another thing to churn out the leading thinkers of the future. I think the USA, Canada, and Europe will remain the center of gravity for a while, that is, until China and India get out of the rat race mentality that is bound to stick around for as long as they’re concerned with bettering their lot.
July 29th, 2005 at 9:12 pm
Welcome and enjoy your time in China, Mark!
July 29th, 2005 at 11:17 pm
Wow, the Indians have cram school too? Looks like the Japanese will have competition for highest high school suicide rate…
July 30th, 2005 at 6:18 am
I would agree with Subohd entirely. A science education should be thorough and demanding but not so brutally competitive and overwhelming that it kills all sense of wonder, excitement and creativity and takes students to burnout, mental breakdown or suicide. The education system should (ideally) produce creative individuals with powerful analytical and technical abilities whose whose abilities are valued and respected; not a mass of cheap scientific slave labour, lab rats and programming fodder who can be hired and fired easily and paid very little.
July 30th, 2005 at 10:26 am
Cram schools in India are not happening because anyone thinks they are desirable. It is because opportunity is limited. Perhaps if India can learn the Chinese trick of near double-digit economic growth, then the aspirations of the young people can be met. Till then,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/28/wsuic28.xml
July 30th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
Great comments guys – this is really interesting. You’ve raised a number of things I haven’t thought about in depth.
One thing that I found intriguing about the description of the changes taking place in the Chinese system was that they seemed to be moving towards giving the students a broader education, while demanding rigorous science and technology standards, and putting those first and foremost. I don’t know if that will help produce the next generation of, say, physics professors, but it does seem like it might help produce a technologically trained and versatile workforce.
I don’t personally know how much this differs from the Indian system, but it sounds from the comments here that there are significant differences.
August 12th, 2005 at 10:14 pm
[...] As I’ve mentioned already, for the first week there, I’ll be lecturing at a summer school on cosmology at Zhejiang University, in Hangzhou, near Shanghai. In the second week I will be in Beijing, speaking at a Symposium on Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology. [...]