A Message For Chinese Students: Go Anywhere but Here

See the full story at Caixin Media Magazine (English), published in Beijing, China, at http://english.caixin.cn/2011-10-24/100317029.html

The students in my Beijing classes must believe I hold the key to their future career success. When I arrive each morning at the International College of Beijing (ICB), part of a University of Colorado Denver cooperative undergraduate program, their eyes light up as though I am a ten-foot tall avatar. They believe in my power, or at least they pretend to. We speak the common language of their futures: both Chinese and English. They are among the lucky and privileged Chinese youth who, powered by scholarships and their parents’ cash, are among the 440,000 Chinese students flooding international university programs both at home and abroad.

My birthplace – the West – has quickly become the Shangri-La from which these students hope to reap the rewards of an international education. Those with solid English and strong technical skills will become the investment bankers, economists, researchers, and golden transnational communicators of the next generation. As they pass their TOEFL tests and complete their studies in America, the UK, or Australia, these students are likely to outperform and out-earn their stay-in-country college counterparts by far.