Chinese students studying abroad

发布时间：2016-09-07 07:17:17 来源：文档文库

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Name: Aimee Student Number: 0215504

Chinese Students Studying Abroad

Xinhua Newspaper reports that more than 450,000 Chinese students studied abroad in 2013. In addition, China Daily also states that 523,700 students from the Chinese mainland were studying abroad, up about 14 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Education in 2016. It is obvious that the boom in studying abroad is especially striking. There are some reasons can explain this phenomenon. The main reason is that studying abroad can broaden student’s horizon, learn more knowledge but most importantly, the way of thinking and creativity. Secondly, it can enrich their personal experience such as creativity, communication and these soft skills which are never learned from books, learning from day-to-day life and interacting with all the other students around in school. Last but not least, the majority of Chinese parents firmly believe that as long as their children get a better education, their children will find a decent job in China. We cannot deny that studying abroad is of great importance, but there are still some drawbacks of studying abroad such as high tuition, culture shock and mental trauma which affect Chinese students.

First of all, Chinese students going abroad for better education have to pay high tuition. According to The Wall Street Journal, most Chinese students must foot the full bill, which could run in the neighborhood of ＄200,000 just for tuition and fees over four years. “There is an old saying in China that the way of using money is to invest in your child’s education, and my whole family believes in this,” Ms. Fan says. China Daily states that tuition represents a significant income stream for higher-education institutions in the UK, where the average annual cost for an international student at undergraduate level is 11,987 pounds ($16,900; 14,800 Euros). At postgraduate level that rises to 12,390 pounds. Combine these fees with the average cost of living, which is about 12,000 pounds, and the total comes to at least 24,000 pounds a year to study in the UK. For Chinese parents who send their sons and daughters abroad, this represents a significant financial investment. Chinese families will have lots of debts and live in penury.

Secondly, due to the culture shock, Chinese students cannot quickly fit in Western culture. For instance, The Wall Street Journal reports that Jocelyn Jia who studied in North Carolina State University said, “I think many Chinese students are wasting their money. They spend a lot of money to come, but if you’re here to hang out with the Chinese in America, why don’t you just go back to study in China? Most Chinese students study all the time and don’t go out, they think I’m too crazy….” South China Morning Post states that Chinese students study very hard but have little idea of what life looks like outside a classroom, Choi says. Many Chinese students do not make friends abroad and live their own life.

Furthermore, the fact that the majority of Chinese parents strongly believe that studying abroad can not only promote family fame, but also enable their children to find highly-paid jobs when they come back. According to The Economist, fast-growing number of families is sending their children to America earlier to study (and moving with them) as well. In 2013 about 32,000 Chinese received visas for study at secondary schools in America, up from just 639 in 2005. The growth has occurred despite a steep decline since 2010 in the number of Chinese aged between 18 and 22, from 121m to 89m this year. Parents have high hopes to their children. Therefore, students study abroad under great pressure, it probably causes mental trauma because of lacking of friends and homesickness and so on. It is not beneficial for their studies and living.

To sum up, studying abroad has been argued for a long time whether it is beneficial or not. From what have been discussed above, studying abroad has a lot of benefits, but the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. High tuition, culture shock and mental trauma must be taken into account as proved disadvantages.