TiesThatBind2014EditionWeb

Chinese Students at Bay Area Universities
On tight budgets, with inadequate language and
social skills to navigate a foreign culture, many of
these students rarely leave their dormitories. Without
proper counseling or language support, a
growing number fall behind and even drop out.
At USF, international students pay annual tuition
of $36,000 plus living expenses. The university
“conditionally” admitted a number of Chinese
students with weak English language skills, to the
point that they initially needed translation headsets
for their orientation. They have had difficulty
keeping up in their courses and collaborating with
other students. In response, the university has
been in talks with California State University officials
to partner on English-language course programs
for USF Chinese undergraduates, in return
helping CSU market its less well-known Bay Area
campuses in Asia.
Since the trend is relatively new, no concrete
statistics on student success rates will likely be
available before 2015. Stanley Kwong estimates
that 15–20 percent of the students he sees will
complete college in five years, given the extra
time spent attaining language proficiency. Another
5 percent will complete their four-year programs
in less time by taking on more than a full
load of classes. About 80 percent of USF Chinese
master’s graduates return to China; most undergraduates
stay on for graduate school.
At UC Berkeley, a public university, International
Office director Ivor Emmanuel says successive
years of budget cuts have reduced state
funding to only 11 percent of Berkeley’s budget.
As a partial response, the university has raised its
admission target for non-resident students to 20
percent, half from out of state and half from outside
the U.S. International students currently
make up about 9 percent of the student body.
A rising flood of undergraduate applications
from China caught Berkeley off-guard; most Chinese
undergraduates apply as economics or
business majors—subject areas heavily dependent
on language skills—Emmanuel says. Entering
freshmen often are not able to make a separate
trip from China for orientation and so are at a
disadvantage when selecting and signing up for
classes. Once in class, they may have trouble
following lectures and discussions.
Precise numbers are not readily available for
the numbers of foreign undergraduates who
do not complete four-year programs (Korean
students have faced similar difficulties);
anecdotally the numbers are small but growing.
Emmanuel believes the answer over time
will entail expanded counseling services and
parallel English instruction throughout the school
year, but ramping up such programs has been
a challenge.
A larger issue—especially for a public university—involves
the broader demographic student
body makeup, as higher-paying out-of-state and
international students fill more admissions slots
relative to in-state students.
What happens after a student graduates has
particularly important economic impacts. A July
2013 article in The Economist cites estimates
from the China Western Returned Scholars Association
that, of some 2.6 million Chinese students
going abroad to complete their studies since
1978, some 1.1 million have returned to China—
suggesting that 1.5 million have not.
Many students who have chosen to remain in
the Bay Area have become successful technologists,
entrepreneurs and investors, magnifying
their contribution to the economy. Those that
return to China bring a Bay Area/Silicon Valley
perspective and often serve as two-way bridges,
developing products and operating companies in
both countries. For returnees, the transition may
not always be easy. Recent “sea turtles” are
finding a bleaker picture in China. Slower economic
growth has curtailed hiring, and returnees
face longer waits to land lower-paying positions.
As a distinct, uniquely Chinese Internet emerges,
tech entrepreneurs with Silicon Valley backgrounds
can find themselves out of step with indigenous
technology, applications and customer
tastes and have difficulty managing local engineers
and programmers.
Also, an overseas degree may no longer carry
the same cachet with Chinese employers, as top
students from leading universities are snapped up
by global employers while students with less aptitude
or questionable degrees find employment
prospects weaker.
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