A rising proportion of college undergraduates and short term study students in the Chinese student population in the U.S.

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Feb 3, 2010 – 9:00:08 AM

PRC LA Consulate Education Counselor Chen on PRC Students Returning from U.S. in 2009

Chinese source at: http://news.sciencenet.cn//htmlnews/2010/1/227566.shtm

PRC website with information from the Shijie Ribao, a Chinese language newspaper in the U.S. on the increasing numbers of Chinese who have studied abroad and are now returning to China. During 2009, 80,000 Chinese students returned to China from the US. Quoting the Education Attache Chen Zhunmin at the PRC Consulate in LA, U.S. Embassy Beijing and the U.S. Consulates in China are giving visa to nearly all the students who are accepted by U.S. schools.

Chen said there has been a great change from previous U.S. visa practices. Formerly PhD students and scholarship students were much more likely to receive visas than other applicants. Now many graduate students paying their own way, undergraduate students and even language school students are applying and getting visas without difficulty. According to the PRC Consulate in LA, there were about 11,000 PRC students in (its consular district, and about 10 percent of the total in the U.S. ) of southern California and Hawaii. USC has 1600 students from the PRC.

College undergraduates now comprise 15% of all PRC students studying in the U.S. and will likely go still higher, said the Education Counselor. With the declining average age of the students, and their relative immaturity, the workload of the PRC foreign affairs agencies is rising rapidly. In one recent case, a Chinese family contacted the consulate because they had lost contact with their daughter. After ten days, the consulate found her at a supermarket. She said she was fine, but was arguing with her parents all the time, and so didn’t want to be in contact with them.

The 80,000 Chinese students who returned to the PRC last year was the highest single year number of returning students ever. Over the past 30 years, 300,000 PRC students have returned to China from studying in the U.S.

Chen said although the last several years the prospects for students returning from abroad have been mixed, sea turtles (returning students) who have studied in the U.S. still in general do better in the Chinese job markets that students who have studied in the U.K, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Those who were able to get both training in their specialty and work experience in the U.S. do particularly well in the Chinese job market.

留美中国学子掀海归潮 去年8万留学生登记回国

据美国《世界日报》报道，在大批中国学子大举进军美国大学校园时，回国潮同样风起云涌，仅去年一年，全美留学回国就达8万人。

中国驻洛杉矶教育参赞陈准民表示，目前美国驻中国各地使领馆对凡是获得美国学校录取的留学签证申请，几乎是来者不拒，与美国长期以来主要接受博士生以及获得奖学金的研究生作法截然不同，大批自费研究生、本科生，甚至语言学校学生，都顺利获得签证。

据洛杉矶总领馆教育组统计，包括南加十县、亚利桑那、夏威夷及关岛等地，去年共有中国留学生1万1000人左右，仅南加大，就多达1600人。洛杉矶领区的留学生人数，约占全美每年新增中国留学生总数十分之一。

陈准民估计，目前在美留学的中国本科生，已上升到总数15%左右，而且比例仍在上升当中。

低龄化使得中国留学生问题正在增加，中国外事部门留学生工作难度也不断增加。

陈准民举例说，最近总领馆接到一位本科留学生家人的越洋求援电话，表示孩子失踪十多天，要求领馆协助报警找人。结果领馆联络学校，终于在一家超市找到“失踪”女孩。女孩轻描淡写告诉官员，因与母亲吵架，才不与家人联络。

陈准民表示，与美国学生相比，中国学生学业基础较为扎实，但在人格培养、人际沟通和综合素质方面，美国许多教育值得中国学习与借镜。

在大批中国留学生进入美国同时，海归也在迅速壮大当中。

据洛杉矶中领馆统计，中国留学生因计划回国发展、买车、创业而向领馆申请留学回国证明的愈来愈多。仅去年登记在册就多达8万人，创过去30年30万回国大军中单年最高纪录。

陈准民表示，尽管近年回国人员良莠不齐，但与英、澳、纽西兰等国家相比，美国海归仍受欢迎，特别是在美国学有所长并具有实际工作经验，回国发展空间很大。