Detailed rules for Sino-foreign joint schools on the Chinese mainland will be drawn up by the end of next month, to help guide schools or teaching programmes jointly run by Chinese and foreign educational institutions.

The rules will further elaborate on the Regulation for Sino-Foreign Joint Schools which was introduced last September, China Daily learned from the Ministry of Education.

According to the regulation, the Chinese Government encourages excellent foreign educational institutions to jointly run schools with their Chinese counterparts, including the introduction of advanced curricula to Chinese schools, Minister of Education Zhou Ji said recently.

Both the regulation and the detailed rules are designed to create more opportunities for high-level study, so that Chinese students do not have to go abroad, but can enjoy advanced courses and teaching methods in the country, according to the ministry.

China has seen a rising number of students going abroad to study in the last few years. The ministry's latest statistics indicate that China has sent 580,000 self-supporting and government-funded students to study abroad since the country started to implement its reform and opening-up policies in 1978. More than 160,000 of them have returned and the remaining 420,000 are still studying or working abroad.

The number of self-supporting students has increased in the last few years. In 2001, 91 per cent of students going abroad were self-supporting, rising to 93 per cent in 2002, according to Cen Jianjun, an official at the ministry's Department for International Co-operation and Exchange.

Cen said last spring's SARS outbreak discouraged foreign countries from receiving Chinese students in 2003.

However, the number of self-supporting students is expected to rise over the next few years as Chinese people's incomes rise, said Cen.

"Rich families may tend to send their children to study abroad, so as to seek more employment opportunities either in foreign countries or after returning to the motherland. College graduates have faced fierce competition in the job market over the past three years. Students from Tsinghua or other key universities may easily find jobs after graduation, but those who graduate from ordinary colleges find it difficult to get jobs. This is also a big reason for senior middle school students or college graduates to study abroad," said Yuan Chao, a father who sent his son to Canada a year ago. His son is learning computer science at a college in Vancouver, Canada.

Not all parents send their children abroad just because they have too much money in their pockets. To some extent, they have no better choices, because they wish their children to have more chances to find jobs in foreign countries instead of waiting to seek employment in China. But those moderate or even relatively poor families are likely to let their children study in the homeland if there are high-level Sino-foreign joint schools, said Yuan.

"Personally, I prefer to send my son abroad to live his own life. It is not beneficial to children's growing-up if parents always hug them in both hands," Yuan said.

However, students who enter prestigious universities and can enjoy advanced foreign courses in China do not have any strong desire to go abroad.

Ye Qingying, a young woman majoring in international MBA (Master of Business Administration) at Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, is confident of getting a good job in China. "Most graduates pin a higher hope on domestic market with the country's growing economic achievements. My classmates are trying to find jobs in our country instead of rushing to foreign countries," said Ye.

Tsinghua School of Economic and Management, in co-operation with Sloan School of Management of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), started to recruit Chinese students for an international MBA in 1997.

The school introduces textbooks and case study materials from MIT and Harvard University to help bring teaching activities to international standards, according to Chen Taotao, a teacher of Tsinghua School of Economic and Management.

For example, teachers in this school often give case studies such as inflation and the economy in Germany, the euros and unified European economic development to help equip students with an international MBA knowledge.

The school also invites world-renowned professors or scholars to give students MBA lectures through ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network). Thus students can enjoy international-level courses and lectures without stepping out of the campus, said Chen.

In the recent two years, 55 per cent of graduates from Chen's school have got jobs in foreign-funded companies, 18 per cent in State-owned or shareholding firms and the rest in private or other institutions, according to the school's educational center.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2004)