In an era of deep globalisation, where thousands of graduates applying for the same position in Hong Kong hail from New Delhi to Ningbo, there is still a dearth of Asia-literate Australian graduates.
This stands in sharp contrast to the huge pool of well educated, bi-lingual and culturally adept graduates from China’s top universities, graduating in their hundreds – if not thousands – year-on-year.
How, over the course of the next decade, can mono-lingual Australian graduates with little to no experience in China or Asia generally realistically expect to compete effectively with Chinese graduates in the globalised Asian market?
In Peking University there is a distinctly different ethos in respect of hard-work and ambition. Students have ‘hard-core’ attitudes to study and professional ambition. Internationals might grab a beer on the weekend; Chinese students study until their dorm lights flicker out at 11, shortly afterwards relocating to the brightly lit diners of the nearby McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chickens. These students might represent the nerds; but in Peking the nerds are the norm. The hunger to succeed pervades – and they are proud of it.
There is no ‘tall poppy’ syndrome there, only admiration – and, of course, envy and jealousy – for those who ‘make it’. Winning a graduate school scholarship to an Ivy League school in America, or a well paid job with a multinational in Hong Kong is the ultimate goal. This is a wake-up call to the levels of competition Australian and other overseas graduates in a globalised Asian job market.
This is globalisation, up close and personal.
It doesn’t stop there. Do an internship in Hong Kong and – in the globalised Asian job market – your competitors are bi-, or tri-lingual students from global top-tier schools. They hail from a regional and international who’s who of prestigious universities: Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, New York University, Oxford, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics. Not one of your fellow interns will come from a non-globally recognised university.
Chinese backgrounds are a commonplace – either full, half, or second generation Chinese. Those not from Chinese backgrounds generally have advanced Chinese, written and spoken. More often than not, the young professional making a career in China has been grooming him or herself since high school to be internationally competitive.
Professional interns in Hong Kong – leveraging family connections, the children of high net-worth families, from leading high school and university societies, engaging in volunteering activities, with families willing to paying top dollar to attend the best cram schools, the best high schools and ultimately the best universities – all share a common goal: to be internationally competitive.
These are the realities of competition within the globalised Asian job market.
ANU provides the Peking University experience if you go for it. The opportunities that follow in Hong Kong allow you to grow much faster than you ever could ever have hope at home. Beijing is an international melting pot. Its centres of learning are filled with young people where naked ambition and the relentless drive typify what young Australians are competing against in the globalised Asian market.
The sobering conclusion is that Australian graduates are grossly underequipped to embrace the rise of China and compete effectively in a globalised Asian job market. There needs to be a fundamental re-emphasis of the importance of Chinese Studies (and Asian Studies), complemented by strong corporate and government backing. To act otherwise means many exciting and lucrative opportunities that lie in Australia’s backyard will simply be out of the reach of future Australian graduates – underprepared to engage in the globalised Asian job market.
Henry Makeham is a final year Law/Asian Studies student at the ANU and a founder and President of the Australia-China Youth Association.
One spot per 30,000 applicants! Wow!
An interesting look into the Chinese psyche and their students’ ambition. It’s an important point re: the need for re-emphasis on Asian studies to have any chance of competing in the global job-market in future.
Paints a pretty bleak picture for us Aus grads…I better get back to studying!
Nationally we haven’t even gotten to the starting blocks to be competing comparatively – and we won’t be until there is a clear direction for our place in Asia. When regular citizens are more aware of our position, there can be pressure to maintain and progress it. Unfortunately I feel this will take a long time and in relation to your conclusion this means our regional isolation is only likely to be amplified as the economic rise of China out paces our awareness of competition and supposedly higher educational standards.
It’s amusing that we wish to be regionally integrated into a closed society of states, but there is no real federal will for Australians to be integrated before we’re part of the region. Sadly I imagine a satirical cartoon- Govt spokesperson: “It’s now ASEAN +4!” Citizens: “Oh.”
It’s hard to demonstrate to unexposed Australians the kind of pressure people in metropolises are under when our entire continent sometimes contains less people. Furthermore, I believe this pressure would be an antagonistic paradigm for many Australian graduates who would rather be lackadaisical.. Lee Kuan Yew’s “Texas of Asia” remark regarding Australia, while pig headed and blunt, was telling. To change this perception, as you say, leadership needs to take a more proactive role in relating Asia to the public.
sorry, Lee Kuan Yew’s ‘white trash of Asia’ remark. See, proof of Australian education deficiency! Apologies to Texans everywhere.
Makeham’s article serves a useful reminder of some of the differences in the education systems between Australia and China. Obviously, it gas implications for Australians. Equally, however, it has implications for Chinese as well.
I talk only about two points. One is that the somewhat over-emphasis on education levels or the degree of education degrees in China, both individually and both employers. I have heard that there are large back-locks in unemployed graduates in China, some with post-graduate degrees. I begin to wonder whether that represents a waste of resources in China.
It seems to me that it is a paradox of pursuing “higher” education. It is obvious virtuous to learn more through “higher” education as much as possible for an individual, just like savings. However, if everyone in the whole country is doing exactly the same, you will have over supply of highly educated people. The point is it is good from an individual point of view, but aggregately it may cause a problem if every individual is doing the same thing. You might get a country of PhD, or in the Chinese case, post-doctorial, or more interestingly a few generations of post-doctorial for a person, as one’s education credentials to show.
There is no doubt there are benefits of that, everyone is more equally hooted to compete and to earn a living. But at the same time, you have many PhDs unemployed at least at a lowered natural unemployment rate. That, at least in a strict sense, represents a waste of more resources compared to some of the unemployed to have received lower levels of education.
Of course, if the world is perfectly mobile in human resources, then the matter may be different, that is, the paradox in a “closed” economy may disappear in an “open” economy. Those with better education (assuming that translates to better skills) are likely to find better opportunities elsewhere. That was the same point I made regarding Paul Krugman’s paradox of wage cuts in his article of “Falling wage syndrome” (see http://mrlincolns.blogspot.com/2009/05/krugmans-paradox-of-wage-cuts-is-untrue.html).
The second point relates to another potential externality of individual pursuits of better education and learning. If I borrow the production function concept in economics, one knows that you might have diminishing returns at some stage of the production function curve. If I further borrow a concept from economics, the optimal point of an individual’s inputs into education should be at such point where the expected gains from further inputs equal the costs of those inputs. If you further increase inputs into that education production processes, then the return will be lower than its costs. So it may be detrimental to an individual’s utility/wellbeing to pursue too much education.
Now let’s look at an alternative to the Chinese case, the Australian education. Here many people take a quite different attitude. For example, it is often said that one of the main things for primary schools is that children studying there should be made happy. That is obviously more humanitarian as for human beings as a whole. After all, what is the purpose of life? Happy, of course! But this may mean less learning, if we leave aside the possibility of diminishing returns and the so called optimal levels of study efforts/inputs.
So, what is my second point here? The point, if you put the two education systems together, is that we might have a need for a third way, the middle way, an alternative to both the Chinese and the Australian systems. In the middle way system, if one can get the production returns right and one utility (expected) calculation right, then one may not necessarily study as hard as the Chinese in their pursuits of education, but may study a little harder than many Australian students. Many Australians, students in particular, may have a different view regarding to the concept of nerds – a word my daughter often uses to describe me!
A just made a nice revenge, didn’t I? But I only used this forum, not in the debate with my daughter. By the way, she has finished her medicine study at Monash University at the end of last year, even though she says she is not a nerd. For that she will never say; the concept of nerds is too hard to swallow and acceptable for many vogue and young Australians – the future of our current grown-up generations. That was probably a main reason why the Rudd/Swan government has increased the age for aged pension from 65 to 67 in the 2009 budget!
Having finished the two points, I am wondering whether I have caused another paradox in the process! Remember my point? A paradox in one perspective may be solved in a different perspective?
Good piece and I know you love this idea Henry, the only thing about this which I think you ignore is whilst Chinese students work to clinically insane levels you seem to accept/approve that this should be encouraged or is in and of itself a good thing.
Don’t you think its not exactly normal to be ‘grooming yourself’ for these sorts of jobs as a teenager? (although I appreciate a Chinese student has far more incentives to work hard than a middle class Australian – and this is a major factor driving the differences in competitiveness you describe)
Still I’d rather be the Australian who has a beer on the weekend than the overworked Chinese student who gets a fulbright to Harvard any day at that price – then’s people like you who’ll probably go and do both.
Irrespective of views on the desirability of intense study patterns in contrast to having a beer on the weekend, I think the point remains that if Australia wishes to maintain employability of its citizens in what is becoming a highly competitive market, attitudes to a) our changing relationship with Asia and b) the amount of investment (both by the government and current/prospective students) must change.
If it doesn’t, serious risk is posed for the unsuspecting Arts / Commerce graduate wishing to find sustainable employment overseas. A common aspiration by graduating high school students in the current context is “I want to work and be able to travel!” – hence the popularity of International Relations degrees etc. Are these just pie in the sky aspirations without greater engagement with the region? Greater knowledge of prospective employment opportunities and the expectations of employers overseas must be made clear to potential graduates if they are to successfully take advantage of changes in the Asia-Pacific. This may be assisted by greater engagement on the part of Australian institutions (eg. Universities, government and non-gov bodies) with those of the Asia-Pacific . Cheers to ACYA for making this a priority.
sorry, Lee Kuan Yew’s ‘white trash of Asia’ remark. See, proof of Australian education deficiency! Apologies to Texans everywhere.
You also seem to imply that the Chinese students are graduating and walking into top jobs around the country… when in fact, this is not the case at all. If a Chinese student, say, is mastering English as an English major, his or her area of study is strictly confined to their major. One of the major drawbacks of the Chinese education system is that students who grow up in it have a very narrow world view. Of course they spend their evenings strapped to a desk, because it is all they know how to do – but ask them to think outside of the textbook and they simply can’t.
I also think that your idea of the hardworking Chinese student is misguided, in high school a Chinese student will study as if it was for life or death (and it is, if you dont pass the Gaokao, you are not granted college entry)… in college however, their attitude is far more relaxed. Many students study only because they are so starved for entertainment , going to the movies is impossibly expensive here, going downtown means shelling out cash as well, then they share a dorm room with 8 other Chinese men or women- I dont blame them at all for burning the midnight oil at a KFC, but at the same time, they are doing it at a relaxed pace. Its a rare, rare student who will move China forward and take the top international job without the guanxi that a foreigner wouldn’t have access to in the first place. And what happens to that rare and special student? They do take the Fulbright to Harvard, and they don’t look back.
http://www.china.org.cn/english/education/189340.htm
At least for now, internationals have the upper hand.
Having been on a recent exchange program, this recognition of the comparative difference between our grads here and in Beijing is to me a significant wake up call. The problem is not so much embedded in the study lifestyle differences of our Aussie students and Peking students, but the contrast in the academic and employment environment between these two cities, and nations as a whole. Like one commenter rightlypointed out, the population density of Australia compared to other metropolitan states, allows us to maintain a relaxed attitude and vision when it comes to our future prospects. Students and jobseekers in China significantly, develop their ambitious nature and “nerd” like statuses due to the competition pressure within their own societies and family circles. It is in each student’s interest to achieve top grades and therefore, the competitive nature requires these students to study themselves stupid. However, that being said, the result — it pays off. And contrast to the popular notion that Chinese students, although study hard are quite useless in experience and lack worldliness is simply a myth of yesterday. One amazing quality with the Chinese I am still in awe with and admire is their ability to adapt and root out problems or fill in the lacking holes. This is to say, that the Chinese know the flaws in their education system compared to Western structures, and thus take on extra measures outside the state structure to make up for the lack of individuality and analytical skills through their own personal endeavors. Let’s not forget that China is a booming open market economy and as education and the priming of children is indeed a big investment for Chinese parents, many steps are taken to nurture their children in preparation for good employment prospects in the global market. Even with the expansion of Asian studies in Australia, the ratio for Australian to Chinese grads in globalised or Asia market placements will maintain a great contrast. This is not merely a result of lack in fluent Asian language speakers or “nerds” but also simply because the number of Australian grads looking for opportunities outside Australia compared to that of China for example is too big a contrast already. Consequently, this kind of competition crisis still goes unrealized here.
Makeham’s article is not a prediction of the future, but a comment on a very real and current trend.
On my first experiences in China 7 years ago, I was met with surprise, shock and awe when saying “Ni Hao”, professional opportunities were available with little to no experience or mandarin language skills and all on the virtue of hailing from the west and speaking English as a native language.
Today, rather than surprise at an ability to say “ni hao” an expectation has developed that one must and should have the ability to converse in Chinese, professional positions are only open to those with advanced, written and spoken Mandarin and this is accompanied by a deep seated knowledge and understanding of Chinese culture and the Asian mentality. Without either value added skills and or experience, the place for the ‘token’ westerner on the professional team has all but been made redundant. I have seen many esteemed contemporaries miss opportunities in the Asian market, not for lack of academic ability and or talent, but rather a screaming lack of experience, study and or interest in China and or Asia generally.
Even from such subjective experiences as such it is clear that the statement “at least for now, internationals have the upper hand” made in one of the comments above is sorely mistaken. Rather Makeham has identified the existing dynamic of the professional job market in Asia. If Australian graduates continue to arrogantly rely upon the inherent advantages that once stemmed from speaking English as a native language and graduating from western institutions then the future is very grim.
Further, as the economic crisis continues and nation states adopt conservative and insular protectionist methods and withdraw from economically integrated affairs the importance of understanding the Chinese and Asian market has not been lost, rather it has been exemplified. In a bid to accommodate the decrease in global consumption, and starve off the crisis, China must increase its domestic consumption by 40%. This shift and focus on the domestic market means developing and maturing an already fearsome machine. Thus competition for catering to the Chinese domestic market is a very real prospect. If Australia, and our graduates are to participate in this developing market, an overall understanding and reemphasis on our Asian neighbours must occur.
We as Australian’s can still have a beer on the weekend, but in a bid to render Australian graduates and Australia as internationally competitive what is required is not an adoption of Chinese educational practices and or study habits but as Makeham and others elude, an attitude change coupled by exposure to the reality of the situation all accompanied and supported by corporate and government Australia.
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