A record 300,000 university graduates are expected to return to the mainland this year, facing one of the gloomiest job markets in recent memory as domestic firms favour work experience over expensive foreign degrees. But foreign-educated job seekers won't just compete with other overseas graduates for employment. They will encounter stiffer competition from an estimated 7.3 million domestic graduates. Since China's economic reforms started in 1978, more than 1 million students who graduated from foreign universities have returned, according to the Centre for China and Globalisation. About 80 per cent of them returned home in the past six years.