College Education in China

Only a tiny fraction of China’s 1.2 billion people go to college./ Still, the number of university students has skyrocketed in recent years./ A five-year-campaign by the Chinese government to expand access to college/ has doubled the number of those matriculating./ In fact, China’s class of 2003 is the largest ever/—2.12 million students./ About a quarter of China’s urban labor force now hold college degrees./ The problem is, there aren’t enough jobs for new graduates/—or, at least, enough for the jobs that they want. /And there won’t be for a long time. /The unemployment rate among university graduates worries Beijing /because it’s not just an issue of oversupply. /There are jobs available foe educated Chinese,/ but they’re unglamorous, local bureaucrats, even police officers./ Many of China’s new graduates expect jobs with high-tech companies,/ multinationals or the top levels of government. /Some would rather go without work than consign themselves to what they perceive as drudgery.