Record numbers of graduates, but not all find jobs

The Conversation 14 April 2017

A record-breaking 8 million students will graduate from Chinese universities in 2017. This figure is nearly 10 times higher than it was in 1997 and is more than double the number of students who will graduate this year in the United States, writes Katherine Stapleton for The Conversation.

Just two decades ago, higher education in China was a rare privilege enjoyed by a small, urban elite. But everything changed in 1999, when the government launched a programme to massively expand university attendance. In that year alone university admissions increased by nearly 50% and this average annual growth rate persisted for the next 15 years, creating the largest influx of university educated workers into the labour market in history.

Chinese universities have a great track record of teaching students ‘hard skills’, but the test-focused education system has placed little emphasis on the development of anything else. So while graduates from technical or quantitative majors find employment because they have the necessary ‘hard skills’, graduates from less technical majors are hampered by their lack of both types of skills.
Full report on The Conversation site

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