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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

International Chimerica Today: University of Chimerica

Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 8:29 AM

The number of Chinese undergraduates on U.S. campuses in the last school year increased 43 percent from the previous year, according to the annual Institute of International Education Open Doors report that was released today.

Chinese undergraduates, like most international students, are highly attractive to universities: They are usually well-educated and well-traveled, bringing a global point-of-view and sophistication to campuses. Their helicopter parents are on the other side of the world. And they hardly ever tap university resources to fund their education.

This is a major social transformation. And to understand it fully, you have to put it in the context of the student debt crisis in America.

Comments (7) RSS

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Best of all, they grease a lot of palms to get in. Nobody knows capitalism like the Chinese.

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/c…

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Posted by rob!

on November 15, 2011 at 8:50 AM

Good Morning Charles,
Yeah, I just read that. A Dutch student I met two years ago said that only she & 2 other British students were the only students at her residence hall that weren't from an Asian country. It was interesting to note in the article how international students outnumbered out-of-state students at the UW for the first time. Quite frankly, China is enormous population-wise. A growing moneyed class of families are choosing to send their children to Western countries (mostly the USA) for higher education. That and the fact from understanding, that the UW raised tuition fees by 20% makes higher education cost-prohibitive for out-of-state students and some in-state ones as well. I guess the numbers do say it all.

Posted by lark on November 15, 2011 at 9:03 AM

Price out Americans and let the Chinese get a good education. Good strategy! We really are fucking stupid.

Posted by Vince on November 15, 2011 at 9:12 AM

I wonder if all this Chinese tuition money and Chinese intellectual capital coming our way is factored into the so-called "trade imbalance."

It's a pretty sweet deal for the US - we get Chinese best and brightest kids, and they pay us for the privilege of coming here.

Posted by seandr on November 15, 2011 at 9:26 AM

chinese students bring "sophistication" to campuses? in what respect? they bring money.

Posted by Max Solomon on November 15, 2011 at 9:28 AM

Chinese undergrads are attractive in comparison to shoe-gazing American students who major in philosophy or queer studies (gaak!) instead of something practical like science or engineering.

Posted by Chris in Vancouver WA on November 15, 2011 at 11:17 AM

Perhaps we shouldn't let people from our new major economic competitor study at our universities in order to use their skills against us.

Posted by Theoretical