Summary:

According to research published by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE), 81% of returning Chinese overseas students hold master’s degrees and a further 11% hold PhDs, with less than 8% holding only a bachelor’s degree or lower qualification. This is much lower than the proportion of outbound students going to study a bachelor’s or sub-degree course, implying that a large proportion of Chinese overseas undergraduates go on to study a higher-level qualification.

The information comes from the CSCSE’s recent report, “2016 Blue Book of Employment of Chinese Students Returning from Study Abroad”. In comparison to 2015 figures, the proportion of returned graduates with doctoral degrees has increased.

The report also shows that the largest groups of returnees have studied subjects in the fields of science, management, economics and engineering, with students studying science and technology exceeding the number of students who studied management for the first time. The top country for PhDs was the USA (29% of all returning PhD graduates), while the UK remains the most popular country for returning master’s degree holders (41%, down slightly from 43% the previous year).

Other information in the study includes the region where returning graduates choose to work. According to the survey, Tier 1 cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen) are continuing to lose their appeal, attracting only 35% of returnees this year compared to 49% two years earlier. Similarly, the proportion of returnees moving back to the relatively wealthy East China region has dropped to 65%, 9 percentage points lower than last year.

In terms of industry, the financial sector is still the most popular among overseas returnees and accounts for 41% of returning graduates, followed by the education sector (12%), cultural-related industries (8%) and IT-related companies (6%).

Analysis by Kevin Prest and Xiaoxiao Liu:

One important result from this research is the very high proportion of returnees who hold postgraduate degrees. In comparison, Ministry of Education statistics show that outbound students were much more balanced – 36% of all outbound students in 2016 were going to study a master’s degree or PhD, making up around half of the 70%+ who were studying any kind of higher education course.

This pronounced difference shows that a large majority of Chinese students that go abroad to study an undergraduate course go on to also study an overseas master’s degree. This has implications for UK universities’ student recruitment. Although undergraduate students are applying for bachelor’s degree courses, they are likely to be at least considering overseas postgraduate study, so messages regarding the value of UK master’s degrees could be attractive to them.

The CSCSE is a body under the Ministry of Education, whose responsibilities include registering the degrees of Chinese students who have studied overseas. This is seen as an important step before gaining employment in China, and is followed by the overwhelming majority of returnees. This means that figures from the report are a good indicator of all returning Chinese students.

Although the numbers do not include students who stay in the host country rather than returning to China after graduation, these only make up a relatively small proportion of Chinese study-abroad students. According to Ministry of Education statistics, the number of returnees in 2016 was 79% of the number of outbound students.

Sources:

1. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/micro-reading/2017-03/06/content_28449402.htm

2. http://edu.qq.com/a/20170302/021499.htm