Chinese Students in America Policies, Issues, and Numbers (1988) / Chapter Skim
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3. Problems in Utitilzing Returning Students and Scholars
3. Problems in Utitilzing Returning Students and Scholars
Pages 57-74
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From page 57... ...
But despite the recognized value of returning scholars to the nation, the problems associated with their placement and utilization have so far received much more publicity than their contributions-another example of how open and self-critical China is today. So, while we know that all too often these highly trained individuals have not been properly placed or fully utilized, there remains much that we do not know: What impact do returned students make on their work unit and on China's modernization in general?
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From page 58... ...
Bullock on her September 1987 meetings in Beijing with officials from personnel bureaus of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the State Science and Technology Commission, and the State Education Commission. In 1988 the CSCPRC, in collaboration with several Chinese universities, initiated some preliminary surveys, on returning students and scholars.
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From page 59... ...
This made it extremely did ficult to assure a rational regional and sectoral distribution of college graduates, especially since the overwhelming majority of the graduates, if they exercised personal choice, would opt for employment in the large municipalities of China's coastal provinces. The shortage of professionals in science and technology has had another unfortunate consequence.
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From page 60... ...
In the post-Mao period the "indentures of professionals to a single work unit was recognized as an impedunent to modernization. In the words of Lu Jiaxi, the former President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, "Scientific and technological communities suffer from a lack of mobility, a condition not suited to modernization .
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From page 61... ...
Chinese authorities, in the process of expanding contacts with foreign universities and research institutions, were much more concerned about the candidate-selection process and a variety of other considerations associated with maxim~zing the number and quality of people sent abroad. Furthermore, since the earlier returnees were primarily older scholars selected by their units (usually institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or one of the more prestigious universities)
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From page 62... ...
First, the number of returnees started to increase and by 1984 it was reported at "some 10,000." Moreover, the composition of this group gradually began to change. The older and more established scholars who returned to their former work units gave way to the younger students with both undergraduate and graduate degrees, whose job assignments were not predestined and therefore subject to misassignment.
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From page 63... ...
In addition to unproper assignment, foreign-trained scholars deplore the inadequate laboratory facilities, a shortage of equipment and capital for scientific research, and generally poor working conditions. These problems were stressed at the 1984 conference on sending students abroad, when State Councilor Zhang Jingfu admitted that "70 percent of returning students are not being fully used 24-32.
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From page 64... ...
According to one survey conducted in 22 institutions of higher education and 14 research and development units in Shenyang, 80 percent of the returned scholars receive less than 100 yuan, and 45 percent, less than 80 yuan per month. Of 10 individuals with doctoral degrees from abroad, 6 earn only 78 yuan a month and are referred to as the "78-yuan doctors."' ~ There are few bonuses given and most returned scholars consider themselves to be in the "poor household" category.
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From page 65... ...
No one can deny the problems. Laboratories, equipment, and facilities obviously do not compare with those in the United States and other advanced nations; salaries and living conditions are not what one might expect for that segment of society so vital to China's modernization; and indeed there are many instances of misassignment that negate the main purpose of foreign education, not to mention the wasted expenditure.
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From page 66... ...
Inappropriate assignment is a less pressing problem in a country where free choice in job selection is a given, but in China, where virtually everyone would like to join an institute of one of the science academies or a key university in a major eastern city, any other assignment would, by definition, be considered inappropriate. Complaints about inadequate research funds and the need for more up-to-date equipment and the ever-elusive research assistants are so universal that they require no comment.
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From page 67... ...
It is very possible that a student or scholar spending several years abroad becomes not so much "spiritually polluted" as simply spoiled.~5 Most important, it would seem that many students return to China with exaggerated evaluations of their own worth, as well as unrealistic expectations of what China can provide and what China expects. Not to underestimate the unique problems of returnees, it is important to repeat that the complaints voiced by returning students are essentially identical to those expressed by the graduates of Chinese universities not of the two- or three-year specialized colleges, but of the elite universities.
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From page 68... ...
SOM1: PROPOSED SOLUTIONS Whether the problems listed by returning students and scholars are taken at face value, or viewed in a slightly modified form, they no doubt are of great concern to Beijing, not only because of the drag they produce on reaching the goals of modernization, but also because students who are still abroad pay close attention to the conditions they will be facing on their return. And yet the soJutions being proposed to correct "inferior working conditions and low management reverse rely on familiar and sometimes unrealistic prescriptions.~7 It is reasonable, for example, to call on leaders to have a better appreciation of the unportant role of returned intellectuals, to show political trust, and to strive to create conditions that will maximize the performance of the specialists.
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From page 69... ...
One of the main functions of these modern laboratories is to assemble groups of top scientists from universities and research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to work for a given period of time on specific priority projects in an environment conducive to productive research. This may not solve the problem of the individual's research interests, but it ~ another way to link research with production- one of China's immediate priorities.
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From page 70... ...
official in China, some returned Chinese PhDs are suspicious of the open laboratories, claiming that their main function is to maintain close control over the returning scholars. By way of a summary, let us consider a commentary by a Chinese academic who accurately reflects both the problems and the possible solutions as perceived by the Chinese and as reflected in many of the recent policy changes with regard to sending students and scholars abroad.20 Shen Xiaodan looks at returnees not from the perspective of the individual, but from the perspective of China's economic needs, and in that sense he is echoing some frequent complaints heard in other developing countries.
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From page 71... ...
Between 70 and 80 percent of the students have chosen basic or applied subjects as majors, making it difficult to rame the professional level of scientific and technical personnel engaged in production technology and developmental research. Given China's level of development, even with the best of intentions, she cannot possibly provide unit - date facilities and equipment, not to mention meaningful research projects, to the thousands of physicists, chemists, and other physical scientists now getting graduate degrees in the United States.
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From page 72... ...
degrees in theoretical sciences, while encouraging more degrees in engineering and other applied fields. Although Shen's article discusses foreign education, his basic solution seems to focus primarily on practices that have already become fairly standard in China's commercial dealings with corporations from industrially advanced nations.
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From page 73... ...
If, as now stipulated, the State Education Commission will indeed set quotas by field of study there will be more symmetry between training and China's need; and if the personnel going abroad on government programs sign agreements with their units, stipulating objectives, subjects to be studied, length of required service at home after studying abroad, rights, responsibilities, and so on, then at least the initial assignment will presumably be settled. from the Western perspective, however, any interference with free choice in academic matters is anathema and just how the Chinese students will react to these new conditions is also still open to speculation.
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