International flow of Ph.D. Students since the 1990s and Its Impact on China Shen Wenqin Peking University 16th International Conference on Education Research (ICER). Seoul National University 2015
International Doctorate Recipients in Various Countries: the global trend Graph 1: Annual Percentage of International Students (Non-native citizens) among All Doctorate Recipients in Various Countries (%)
Percentage of International Students among All Doctorate Recipients: long term trend 1980 1990 2000 2012 U.S. 15.9 27.1 34 35.29 Japan 13.7 (2001) 18.18 France around 33% 25 (1998) 40 Canada 13 (1998) 25 (2011) Germany 6.9 (1982) 6.56 7.74 15.39 China 1.57 2.93 U.K. 32.7 (1995) 33.6 46.34 Australia 2.75 (1988) 16.7 16.07 33.2
Competing for best international doctoral Students: policy trends visa, migration and employment policies financial assistance to international students(in 2010, 23.7% native Ph.D. students have to pay tuition but only 4.2% for international students. 92.3% of international Ph.D. students receive aids from their departments, university or outside university) international graduate schools English-teaching doctoral Programs in German, Switzerland,etc.
China s contribution to the global flow of doctoral students Between 1989 and 2009, 57,705 mainland Chinese students earn Ph.D. degrees in the United States, accounting for 25.8% of all international doctorate recipients. From the academic year 2000/2001 to 2007/2008, the number of China s students reading graduate programs in the United Kingdom has risen from 6,135 to 22,790 In Japan, an average of 59% of international students comes from China between 1997 and 2006
Impact of International Mobility of Ph.D. Students on China: Positive influences 1)internationalization; international network and cooperation 2) faculty with high quality doctoral training abroad; etc. Taking Shanghai Jiao Tong University as an example, from 2006 to 2013, the percentage of overseas-trained Ph.D. holders in the faculty rises from 5.9% to 21.73%.From 2011 to 2015, Thousand Youth Talents Plan ( 青 年 千 人 计 划 ) attract 360 foreign Ph.Ds. back to China 3) brain circulation;
Impact of International Mobility of Ph.D. Students on China Negative influences: 1)historically, great brain gain from foreign trained doctoral degree holders,but Very low return rate after 1980s; 2)Negative implication for domestic Ph.D. research training 3) Unequal competition between foreign Ph.Ds. and domestic Ph.Ds.
Brain gain from foreign trained doctoral degree holders :1920-1961 Between 1920 and 1961, China (2,026, 13.6%) ranks next to America s neighbor, Canada, as the country with the second most doctorate recipients among all those conferred to international students. Example: Father of Missile Hsue-Shen Tsien, Father of Atomic Bomb Chia-Hsien Teng
Father of Missile Hsue-Shen Tsien 1911 2009 1934,B.A degree in Shanghai Jiaotong University 1939,Ph.D Degree from Caltech 1955, Back to China
Father of Atomic Bomb Chia- Hsien Teng 1924-1986 1950, Ph.D. degree from Purdue University
Implication for domestic Ph.D. research training: Number of Graduates Continuing Studies at Home or Abroad (2013) Undergraduate Going Overseas(1) Undergraduate Continue higher studies in China(2) Ratio( 1)/(2) Master Going Overseas Master Continue higher studies in China Ratio (1)/(2) Shanghai Jiao Tong University Tsinghua University Zhejiang University(201 4) Fudan University Peking University Xi an Jiaotong University (2014) 952 1152 0.83 193 403 0.48 846 1686 0.5 308 50 6.16 1189 1783 0.67 154 356 0.43 834 930 0.9 173 68 2.54 901 1252 0.72 280 112 2.5 395 1665 0.24 70 161 0.43
B.A degree holder pursue graduate studies abroad 2014 In 32 (out of 39) 985 Project Universities,18922 graduates went abroad for graduate education in 2014, 591 students per university, accounted for 13.78% of total graduates in these universities. In 59 (out of 73) 211 project Universities,,15586 graduates went abroad for graduate education in 2014, 264 students per university, accounted for 6.17% of total graduates in these universities.
CSC doctoral students in USA (blue pillar =degree students; yellow pillar =joint training students)
Implication for domestic Ph.D. research training Our best students are taken away by them.now what I am really worried about is that our best students choose to go to the best universities in the United States and Europe. This year, nearly 40% of the undergraduates have gone and a group of master students will leave, too. So when it reaches the Ph.D. level, someone blames us for bad training programs but how can we produce an excellent Ph.D. with an incompetent student?.
Conclusion remarks (1) After the 1990s, with the collapse of Soviet Union and the end of Cold War, lots of barriers against international mobility of Ph.D. students have been removed, leading to an even larger flow of students.
Conclusion remarks (2) From 2000 to 2012, higher education is further globalized. The massification of higher education within developing countries like China, India, etc. provides more students for mobility, bringing it to a new height.
Conclusion remarks (3) Although doctoral student mobility benefits the home countries by means of brain circulation, yet there is no denying that overall, it wields a negative impact on the doctorate education in developing countries, especially on the whole Ph.D. research training system.
Conclusion remarks (4) contemporary doctorate education has been completely placed in the context of globalization and internationalization and the global mobility of Ph.D. students is one of the prominent characteristics of globalization in higher education. In the context of globalization, higher education systems in different countries have been woven into an interconnected network, with Ph.D. students as the nodes. As they enjoy freedom of actions, their choice of going out or coming back will profoundly alter the developmental paths of higher education in various countries.
Thanks for listening shenwenqin@pku.edu.cn