This isn't just a trend

More and more Chinese students are seeking admission in overseas colleges

China is now the top source for international students in the United States. Since 2006, more and more Chinese students have come to study in the US, according to the Institute of International Education of United States. For every four international students in the US, there is one from China. The number of Chinese students registered in the US for the 2011-12 school year reached 196,029, an annual increase of nearly 23 percent over the past six years.

The report also presented other charts that clearly depicted a movement of Chinese students who are coming to study in the US to achieve both undergraduate and graduate degrees. There were only 10,000 Chinese students registered in the 2006-07 school year for undergraduate studies in the US, but the number ballooned to more than 100,000 in 2012-13. There are also more than 20,000 Chinese students registered in the US for non-degree educational programs.

This phenomenon is also happening in Europe. The statement is on the website for the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service): "Over the last few years, the largest proportion of foreign students has come from China. In 2011, the number of Chinese students matriculated at German university came to 22,828 - with the figure still rising."

This trend is also occurring in France, Italy and in other European countries. But many Westerners may wonder how so many Chinese students have the financial wherewithal to afford an expensive overseas education. In 2009, China surpassed Germany as the third-biggest economy in the world; a year later, China passed Japan as the second-largest economy. Most believe that some day, China will be the biggest economy. With a booming economy and a massive population, China will definitely generate a new generation of rich people.

According to the 2012 Hurun report, China has 2.7 million US-dollar millionaires and 251 billionaires. There isn't a doubt that these men and women will send or have already sent their children and grandchildren to Western countries for schooling at all levels, from graduate school to possibly elementary school.

But from my eight years of experience in Beijing as an educator for SAT preparation and college admission counseling, apart from the wealthiest people, millions of families in China can afford a Western education.

"For my daughter's education, money is not an issue; $200,000 (148,420 euros) is nothing but a quarter of one of my apartments inside the Third Ring Road," says a 45-year-old woman, who works in a local community agency. She is from the Chinese middle class, who often own more than one apartment in major cities.

She says the one issue is that "I want my daughter to get a higher education in one of the top schools, the Ivy leagues".

Many Chinese parents believe that as long as their children achieve high scores on tests and enroll in one of the top Western universities, their kids' futures are guaranteed. Chinese parents are perhaps more confident in America's top schools than American parents. With this belief in a Western education, Chinese parents aim to spend all they have, even to the point of taking out loans from relatives, to send their children abroad.

One mother from the Inner Mongolia quit her job and rented an apartment in Beijing. Within a year, she was taking her son from one training center to another to prepare for the SATs. She asked her son to repeatedly simulate all of the SAT exams, as well as the previous years' tests, again and again in those months. To her, her son's education is the hope, for him and for the family.

With nearly 10 percent of the 10 million Chinese students who annually graduate from high school aiming to go abroad for higher education, American, European, Australian and Canadian universities are all vying for this gigantic multibillion dollar pie. Many countries have actually done better than US colleges in preparing for this phenomenon.

In China, there are more than 171 international baccalaureate programs, 190 A-Level programs and hundreds of advanced placement programs at the secondary level. There are also more than 3,200 joint higher education programs between Chinese and overseas schools. There are 300,000 students each year taking the International English Language Testing System exam to prepare for an overseas education in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The US version of the IELTS is the TOEFL iBT, a standardized English test.

Today, from education institutions to service agencies, everybody realizes the opportunities abroad and expects this trend of Chinese students studying abroad to move forward.

Chinese parents and students are nearly consumed with what a Western education has to offer. Based on a survey by usadaxue.com, a Chinese education consultancy, nearly 30 percent of high school students in provincial capitals such Harbin, Shenyang, Nanjing and Zhengzhou, are interested in studying abroad, mainly in the US. According to the Xinhua News Agency site, 70 percent of the high school students in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, are interested in studying abroad, with 45 percent of them specifically looking at US colleges and universities.

The good news is, economically, most of these students come from middle class families who favor a Western education. These families have benefited from the rapid economic development in China over the past 30 years, which is essentially the backbone of this fantastic phenomenon.

The author is an education counselor in Beijing. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily 02/08/2013 page9)