(Yicai) Dec. 11 — Young Chinese people are increasingly interested in gaining a Master’s degree abroad amid rising living standards.
From January to September, nearly half of Chinese students returning to China after studying overseas are aged between 26 and 30, according to a report recently released by recruitment platform Liepin’s Big Data research institute and the Providence Academy, a think tank. Some 78 percent of the total are aged between 21 and 35.
Chinese people are investing more in education as their living standards are improving, and more people expect to gain a better education and richer life experience by studying overseas, per the report. Chinese households are also sending their children abroad earlier, it added.
Most of the students are pursuing a Master’s degree, making up 76 percent of the total of returnees. Holders of Bachelor’s degrees account for nearly 19 percent of all and those with PhDs have a less than 5 percent share.
People who return are mostly finding jobs in finance, information technology and gaming, or scientific research technologies and business services with shares of almost 18 percent, 17 percent, and 15 percent, respectively.
Half of the graduates end up settling down in first-tier cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, and almost half of those who study abroad plan to live in these big cities too. Emerging first-tier cities are also popular, and among them, Zhejiang Province’s Hangzhou attracts the biggest share of overseas returnees. Second and third-tier cities are mentioned in the plans of 14 percent of the total.
Editor: Shi Yi, Emmi Laine