Laba, a junior student in the Tibetology Department of
Tibet University
didn't take a break even during the summer vacation; instead, he
has been busy studying by himself on campus and plans to take part
in the postgraduate examination before he graduates next year.
The graduation of the first batch of postgraduates trained in
Tibet this year has aroused great media attention. They have
become examples to other young people. "We have many opportunities
of sitting for postgraduate examinations at present," said Laba.
Tibet University alone has three master's disciplines. Laba plans
to register for the Tibetology major.
Due to limited majors and the numbers able to enroll in
postgraduate studies in Tibet Autonomous Region at present, more
young Tibetans choose to pursue advanced studies in inland
cities.
In
recent years, Tibet Autonomous Region has signed cooperative
agreements with some key universities including the People's
University of China, Tianjin University, Sichuan University. They
are responsible for training postgraduates for Tibet. Currently,
there are 94 Tibetan postgraduates studying at People's University,
18 at Tianjin University and 20 at Sichuan University. People's
University first enrolled 34 students in Tibet in 2000 from over
400 candidates.
Like young people in inland cities, many young Tibetans not only
study in famous universities of inland cities, but also choose to
study abroad.
Graduated last year, Suonan Yangji will soon study in the
University of California in Berkeley. She said: "I go to study
abroad at my own expense. Although the expense is not small, my
mother wants me to go and learn more at the time when I am young
even if she has to borrow money."
Self-study is also a channel of pursuing advanced studies. Since
1999, The Economic and Trade Committee of Tibet Autonomous Region
has jointly organized Master's Degree classes in Tibet with Sichuan
University and the Sichuan Business Administration Institute. So
far, 25 students have obtained their MBA degree and 61 students
have obtained a diploma in business administration.
According to Ma Guangyao, vice chief of the Tibetan Education and
Science Research Institute, young Tibetans' pursuit of advanced
education is related to the requirement of social development. In
the 1980s, Tibetan youth craved for secondary schools in order to
get a job earlier. At that time, Tibet Autonomous Region had
specially publicized some policies to encourage them to study in
colleges. Currently, various industries of Tibet have a larger
demand for well-educated personnel. Take the education system, for
example: Tibet plans to enable all teachers at middle schools or
beyond to achieve the undergraduate level. Therefore, study has
become a trend in Tibet, now.
According to the statistics issued by the Statistical Bureau of
Tibet Autonomous Region, the number of well-educated people has
increased rapidly during the past 11 years. At present, 33,000
people have received college education in Tibet, which account for
1.3 percent of the total population, and the figure is higher than
the average level of the country. Compared with the situation in
1990, the number per 100,000 of population achieving college
education has increased from 565 to 1,262.
(china.org.cn by Wang Qian, August 29, 2002)