Good Business

Recently, for work, I attended an education fair in Beijing with hundreds of universities all over the world represented to attract young Asian students to study in their institutions. As thousands packed this exhibition hall, I thought it would informative to check out the designated US Area. I was not surprised to see that most of these American universities were third-tier schools trying to market themselves like a business, but that the average price tag was 30,000 dollars. An American education is damn expensive for foreigners... and damn lucrative for those less prestigious schools trying to make a buck. With a price like that, how can over tens of thousands of Chinese students go abroad every year.

First of all, lets look at some rough statistics comparing the US and China. The US has a population of 300 million while China has the population of 1.3 billion. The US has 4000 schools of higher education, China has 1500. Of the 5.3 million Chinese that took the gaokao (like SAT)last year, 2.7 million (52%) attended college. Of the the 2.3 million Americans that took the SAT last year, 1.6 million (70%) attended college. Our market for education is so expansive that most Americans don't worry about getting into a college but which college to get into. In China, getting in in itself is a stressful and difficult journey. So China limits college to only those students top in their class.

So, as most poor rural students study their hearts out to fight for their only chance for a better life, an expanding class of comfortable urban students are hitting the books less and spend as much time as they can on the basketball court or in the Internet cafe. These children don't see how imperative education is because they have a relatively high quality of life already, and its more fun to play with friends, play sports, or join a band. And since extracurricular activities are not part of college applications in China, just test scores and marks, most of these children are going to find it difficult to get into Chinese college. But if your daddy makes a decent paycheck, he will take his child to the international college fair, hire consultants like myself, and send him to get a degree at a school in the US (more likely Canada, UK, or Australia). Its a win-win -win situation and as long as the economic boom keeps rolling more and more parents will do this.

Why now - why is this market suddenly exploding?

One, like I already mentioned, as the society gets richer, the students get lazier or more likely they get more modern, social, artistic, athletic, and overall rounded (but not as good at taking exams).

Two, with Dengs reforms came English classes. A small village in Gansu Province may not have electricity, but they have an English teacher. It is mandated by the state that all students in China start learning English by 6th grade, and some schools in Beijing have even started at 2nd grade. The importance given to English has created a generation of English speakers, most are horrific, but those who are not have a chance to broaden their horizons by going abroad. The English classes are getting better and China sees the need to communicate to the world being a member of the WTO while hosting special events like the Olympics next year. Taxi English is priceless since their only sentences may include "Beijing pollution is normally not this bad."

Three, with reform came population control, came the one-child policy. Chinese parents are getting richer because they only have one child, and these little emperors will then receive the best of the best. Their lives are scheduled around their children, and if their pampered child's grades don't surpass those of the fighting farm girl, give them an envious American education that can be easily bought.

These comfortable city single children are just starting to graduate high school and their parents see no choice but to pay for an overseas education, America has many colleges, China has many students, that's just good business.