SUZHOU, China--They call it the "Venice in the East," but these days the city of Suzhou, located about 70 kilometers west of Shanghai, is attracting attention for a different reason: its newly established educational district.
In the "Suzhou Dushu Lake Higher Education Town," located in the outskirts of the city, stand a number of new school buildings, research facilities and libraries.
The Suzhou city government started development of the 10-square-kilometer educational district in 2002 with a budget of about 10 billion yuan (about 150 billion yen). The district has already accepted branch schools of eight prestigious public universities in China, including those in Shanghai and Xian.
Most of the new schools offer graduate and undergraduate programs with a scientific or technical focus, and have been established in cooperation with universities in Britain, Singapore or Hong Kong.
The total number of both undergraduate and graduate students in the education district has jumped from 200 in 2003 to 12,000 this summer. The figure is expected to increase further to 20,000 in the near future. A U.S journalism school and China's leading film school are also considering setting up branch schools in the academic district.
Since most students are from rich families from China's coastal areas, they can afford to pay the high annual tuition fees, which range from 10,000 to 20,000 yuan (about 150,000 to 300,000 yen).
In an industrial development zone next to the education district, 2,000 foreign companies from Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries are waiting for the time when they will be able to hire capable graduates from among the students here. According to the management office, universities in the district also hope that their research results in fields such as electronic engineering and new materials will be used to develop new products in related industries.
In Ningbo, a port town in Zhejiang province, a university has been set up jointly by Nottingham University in Britain and a local private company.
The school opened in September 2004, and uses the same system as that of Nottingham University. All lectures are given in English by teachers sent from the university in Nottingham. Students will receive the same undergraduate or graduate degrees as those the university gives in Britain.
Most of its faculties cater to the social sciences, including business administration. Despite annual tuition fees as high as 50,000 yuan (about 750,000 yen), about 1,000 students have enrolled at the new university.
Zhejiang Wanli Education Group, the Chinese company behind the Nottingham University branch, operates a variety of educational facilities, from high schools to driving schools.
Xu Yafen, 49, the company chairman, embarked on the new university because he felt, based on his own experience, the necessity of education to train business people. The son of a painter and decorator, Xu worked at a state-run factory after he graduated from senior high school.
The establishment of a number of foreign and local businesses has put Ningbo at the forefront of China's economic revival. Xu thought that an internationally-minded and highly trained work force would be a valuable asset to the economy. This belief dove-tailed nicely with the British university's plan to move into China, leading to the establishment of the university in Ningbo.
Most of the construction costs--about 550 million yuan (about 8.25 billion yen)--were covered by Xu's company, but the Zhejiang provincial government and the Ningbo city government also contributed to the project.
"Producing a Nobel laureate (from our university) is my dream," Xu said. In the meantime, the next step is to include the natural sciences.
However, despite the university construction rush, many graduates are having difficulties landing jobs.
In the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region in inland China, one such 26-year-old graduated from a public Xinjiang Medical University in the region's capital Urumqi in summer last year.
Despite a major in preventing epidemics, the man was unable to find a job and was forced to work for free at the emergency department of a public hospital until early June this year. He chose to work for free while looking for a hospital position because he did not want to let his parents down after they had paid his expensive university tuition fees.
His family covered his living expenses, but times were hard, and sometimes he had to skip breakfast to save money. In the end, he gave up hope of landing a job at the hospital and returned to his family home close to the boarder with Kazakhstan.
Other graduates are also worried they may have no choice but to work at companies that have nothing to do with the medical field. In fact, more than 20 of the man's 36 classmates are still looking for jobs while working temporarily at pharmaceutical stores or other firms part time, he said.
According to Xinjiang Medical University, about 4,600 students are taking undergraduate courses at the university. About 1,100 people graduated from the school this summer.
The university has not revealed what percentage of its graduates succeeded in landing jobs, but it acknowledges that a significant number failed to secure jobs at medical institutions where they could gain the experience necessary to qualify for the national examination for medical practitioners.
Up until 2000, almost all graduates could be sure of finding employment. In some underdeveloped inland areas, however, hospitals have been slow to increase the intake of university graduates. In spite of that, Xinjiang Medical University, for example, expanded its quota for new students this year, taking on 60 percent more than in 2000.
Outside of medicine, graduate job shortages are even more serious.
The total number of new university graduates this summer is estimated to be 4.13 million, an increase of 20 percent on the previous year. Sixty percent of those graduates will have difficulties in finding a job, according to a government report.
Meanwhile, the cost of university tuitions imposes a heavy financial burden, especially for families in rural areas. In some areas, parents need to pay the equivalent of 35 times their annual income to enable a child to get a university education, according to local media.
The university construction boom really took off in 1998 when former Chinese president Jiang Zemin announced a university expansion policy that would give China "state-of-the-art world-leading universities."
This led to the integration and expansion of existing universities and the establishment of new ones. Currently, there are more than 50 "university towns," including the Suzhou Dushu Lake Higher Education Town.
National statistics show that the number of universities increased from 1,022 in 1998 to 1,792, including 249 private schools, in 2005.
Since 1999, universities have expanded student enrollment at an annual rate of 15 to 20 percent. In 2005, the total number of students reached 15.62 million, more than five times the corresponding figure 10 years ago.
China has become one of the world's largest "university nations," with 23 million students, including those at graduate level. The ratio of senior high school students who go on to universities has increased to 21 percent.
While the country is making efforts to encourage the advancement of human resources and developing advanced technologies, there are those who are concerned that pushing university level education may have a negative impact as well as lead to the deterioration of the quality of education as a whole.
Behind all the construction is a large amount of debt. Between 150 billion yuan and 200 billion yuan (about 2.25 trillion yen and 3 trillion yen) in bank loans have been extended to public universities in China, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government-affiliated research institute.
Nonetheless, some universities have failed to keep up with the rapid increase of students due to shortages of staff and research facilities. As a result, educational quality has declined.
Not only that, but should some universities fail to repay their loans, the report warns, it could result in financial crisis.
It's a warning that central government is taking seriously. At a State Council meeting in May, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao called on ministers to tackle the education issue, with an emphasis on the problem of graduate unemployment.
Yang Dongping, 56, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, explains that in the late 1990s, after the Asian currency crisis, university construction became a major means for economic growth in some parts of the country.
"Our university systems need to improve in terms of (education) quality rather than size," said Yang, an expert on higher education.
"Also universities are not accessories of the government. They should be independent from it," he added.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200609130121.html
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