labor - Chinese students want more work experience

European universities continue to report a dropping number of foreign students, a drop that is most clear among Chinese students. In Britain their number dropped 22.5 percent in 2005 compared to the year before.
Lack of the possibilities to obtain work experience is the major reason, warned the consul for education at the Chinese embassy in London, according to the Financial Times.

"It is true that Chinese employers value a good foreign degree, but they value even more the applicants' related working experiences abroad. Unfortunately, many Chinese students in the UK are not equipped with such useful experiences," he said.

In Scotland and England limited work experience is possible, but elsewhere in Europe - especially in the so-called Schengen-countries - students have to leave right after graduation, making, greatly diminishing the value of the education in the eyes of the students. On the contrary, in the US at least one year of work experience is allowed after finishing a study.
The restrain on wages in China itself also has not encouraged Chinese students to study abroad in the numbers they used to. Upon return many graduates discovered in the past five years they did not see any raise in salary and found it often even hard to find employment.
Also salaries for the relative 'high earners' like MBA-graduates earn in China 30 to 50 percent less compared to their earnings in the US or Europe in comparable functions.