The Chinese Ministry of Education recently published its Blue Book of Overseas Student Returnee Employment 2015. Based on a survey of over 25,000 new returnees, around 36 per cent of all returning alumni had studied in the UK, more than any other country. After the UK the next largest groups of returnees had studied in the USA, followed by Australia, South Korea and France.

Breaking down the data by level of degree, the UK was the leading study destination among returnees with master's degrees by a large margin, but only accounted for around 10 per cent of returnees who had received doctorates and those coming back to China with bachelor's degrees or lower HE qualifications. A substantial majority of all returnees had Master's degrees, which was a key factor contributing to the UK's overall lead.

The report also discusses trends in returnees' destinations. For the first time, less than half of new returnees came back to first-tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen), with 51 per cent of returnees moving to smaller cities - mainly in coastal provinces in East China. According to the survey results, almost a third of returnees were looking to find jobs in the finance sector, followed by education, cultural industries and software / IT. The largest group of respondents said that they were looking to work in multinational companies, but this proportion too has declined compared to previous years and now stands at only 29 per cent of all returning students.

Analysis by Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst Analysis

The UK's leading position in returning Chinese alumni is due to two factors. The first is the one-year duration of UK Master's programmes - even though there are more Chinese postgraduates studying in the US than in the UK at any one time, the UK's shorter courses mean that the number of new graduates each year is closer to parity. The second reason is the UK's post-study visa policy, which forces most non-EU students to return home soon after graduation.

The large number of UK graduates returning to China underscores the importance of universities' alumni engagement in the country. Surveys consistently show that employability is one of students' main reasons for studying abroad, and the increasing proportion of graduates choosing to work in smaller cities and domestic companies shows that one size no longer fits all when it comes to improving returnees' prospects in China's increasingly competitive jobs market.

Source

http://www.moe.edu.cn/jyb_xwfb/xw_fbh/moe_2069/xwfbh_2016n/xwfb_160325_0...