In today’s Talking Points: Chinese and Australian universities vaulted into global top 100; Investment in education and research lifts China into world’s top 25 innovators; Is China experiencing a higher-education glut?; Education, tourism and services to sustain Australia-China trade relationship
Chinese and Australian universities vaulted into global top 100
Two more Australian universities have made the global top 100 in the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) this week bringing Australia’s total to six. Monash University and the University of Sydney debuted at 79 and 82 respectively with Melbourne maintaining its lead at number 40 and the University of Queensland recording the greatest gain moving from 77 to 55. Two Chinese universities also made the list for the first time with Tsinghua University coming in at 58 and Peking University at 71. The change is due to a change in the ranking methodology to prioritize recent over past research. The list is has been found to be very influential in influencing school selection amongst Asian parents.
Source: Financial Review
Investment in education and research lifts China into world’s top 25 innovators
China has moved from 29 to 25 in the global innovation index as result of investment in education and research according to an annual report by the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), INSEAD Business School and Cornell University this week. China is the first middle income country to make the top 25, a list traditionally dominated by Switzerland, Sweden, Britain and the United States. The list ranks over 100 countries according to 82 innovation indicators. India also rose from 81 to 68 on the list.
Source: First Post
Is China experiencing a higher-education glut?
China’s higher-education system is producing more graduates than the economy can absorb, while vocational schools are struggle to meet demand for qualified blue-collar workers. Ambitious students and demanding parents are helping fuel an ‘education fever’ that’s producing a rapidly growing number of university graduates each year but is leading to deflated salaries and a 16 percent graduate unemployment rate. This year China produced 7.65 million university graduate, a new record for the country that in 1999 produced fewer than 2 million. The rapid increase in demand for higher education has resulted in lower entrance requirements, a proliferation of low quality universities, and a high-number of students taking courses the economy doesn’t need – and won’t be able to absorb for years to come. Simultaneously, the flow of students desperate to avoud the drudgery of factory jobs has left vocational schools struggling to meet demand from industry, pushing up labour costs in areas like manufacturing where the country’s 23 million textile workers now earn, on average, US$645 per month – equal to the average college graduate.
Source: Project Syndicate
Education, tourism and services to sustain Australia-China trade relationship
Although Chinese demand for Australian raw materials has slowed, increasing demand for Australian education and tourism will sustain the two nation’s trade relationship, according to a report by the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research at the Australian National University. The report predicts education and tourism services to jump from 8 percent to almost 20 percent of Australian exports to China by 2025. Australia relies heavily on China for trade – the country bought nearly 40 percent of all Australian exports in 2015 – but as key exports to China including raw materials such as iron ore and coal slow, the trade relationship will change. Australia has already seen an increase in exports of consumer goods such as milk powder and beef, but the report says demand for financial services and education will grow significantly over the next decade.
Source: Caixin