Higher Education in Shenzhen -- Training Their Own

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 017358

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD EINV CH
SUBJECT: Higher Education in Shenzhen -- Training Their Own
Peacocks


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1. (SBU) SUMMARY: As has been widely reported in the
Chinese press, this year's college graduates are facing an
extremely tight domestic job market -- there are reportedly
only jobs for 75% of the graduates. During Econoffs'
informal survey of the general higher-education situation in
Shenzhen, Shenzhen University claimed that a surprising
98.83% of 2005 graduates had found jobs by the end of the
year. We suspect, however, that these high numbers include
all types of jobs, including those for which college
graduates are overqualified. Shenzhen is also producing its
own pool of high-tech graduates -- rather than continuing to
rely on China's "peacocks" (the best and brightest who
migrate to Shenzhen in search of fame and fortune) -- by
establishing the University Town project to bring well-known
schools together to offer post-graduate studies. An
official from the Graduate School at Shenzhen-Tsinghua
University told us that its graduates are usually successful
finding jobs, but that they still prefer to work in Beijing
or Shanghai. END SUMMARY.

Shenzhen Not an Educational Powerhouse, But Trying
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2. (U) Prior to being designated a Special Economic Zone in
1980, Shenzhen was little more than a fishing village, and
thus lacked a tertiary education system. Today the city
counts with 11 universities and colleges to serve its
population of more than ten million. From 2001 to 2005, the
number of full-time university students increased from
18,700 to 45,000. The Shenzhen Education Bureau predicts
that by 2010, the number of full-time university students
will reach 100,000.


3. (U) According to the Shenzhen Education Bureau's Draft
Education Development Plan for the 11th Five-Year Period, by
2010 spending on education will increase to more than four
percent of the city's GDP; in 2003 it was just 2.25 percent,
according to the Hong Kong press. The Bureau also hopes
that, by 2010, Shenzhen University's (SZU) ranking among all
mainland universities will be in the top 100. In a 2005
poll conducted by Chinese web-site Netbig.com, SZU ranked
161st among all Mainland universities, up from 195th in

2004. Still, it is a poor performance for the best-known
university in what is arguably China's fourth most important
city.

Shenzhen University
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4. (U) SZU was established in 1983 and offers 54 bachelor's
programs, 69 master's programs, and 3 doctoral programs.
There are roughly 20,000 full-time students (including
undergraduate, graduate, and international students) and
18,000 adult-education students. Roughly half of the
students hail from outside of Shenzhen. SZU has established
relationships with more than 50 overseas universities, and
thus far has accepted more than 4,000 foreign students from
more than 40 countries. The majority of foreign students
(roughly 60%) come from South Korea; the next largest group
is from Japan.

A Rosy Job Picture, Say Officials
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5. (SBU) According to Huang Donglin and Gao Litian of SZU's
Foreign Affairs office (FAO),the percentage of the
university's 2005 graduates who had found jobs by the end of
the same year was 98.83%; the number of 2004 graduates who
had found jobs by the end of 2005 was a remarkable 99.1%.
Most of the jobs these students found were in their fields
of study, with the exception of those students who did not
like their majors and chose to find jobs in other fields,
according to Huang and Gao. SZU helps students find jobs by
offering online tests to help determine skills; running a
website that posts job vacancies sent to the school from
various companies; and hosting job fairs.

Staying in Shenzhen, if Possible
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6. (SBU) According to Huang and Gao, local students are
likely to remain in Shenzhen to find work. In addition to
the inherent desirability of living in a top-notch city like
Shenzhen (by Chinese standards, at least),these students
want to stay because they are familiar with the environment
and have a network of established connections. While some
students from outside of Shenzhen -- especially from rural
areas -- often return home to find jobs, the officials
implied that many, if not most, of these graduates would
prefer to remain in Shenzhen if they could find a company to
hire them and in turn help them obtain a residence permit
("hukou") to remain in Shenzhen.


7. (U) The fields that have the best job placement rates are
business, management, and economics, while students with an
education degree have the hardest time finding a job. New
teachers who want to remain in Shenzhen have an especially
difficult time finding work because the "market is
saturated." Huang and Gao commented that since 2004
teachers have had to find jobs on their own, instead of
being assigned teaching positions by the government.

The Role of High-Tech (and Peacocks) in Shenzhen
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8. (SBU) The high-tech industry is of paramount importance
to Shenzhen, but as other parts of the country ramp up their
own high-tech sectors, Shenzhen faces increasing competition
for skilled workers. Compounding the problem is Shenzhen's
lack of an educational infrastructure to churn out the
necessary workers. As a result, the city relies heavily on
transplanted skilled workers from throughout China.
According to an official from the Shenzhen Academy of Social
Sciences, roughly 90% of Shenzhen's degree holders come from
elsewhere. The trend whereby scores of China's best and
brightest migrate to Shenzhen in search of fame and fortune
has been described colloquially as the "peacock flies
southeast" after the name of an ancient Chinese poem. The
city's continued ability to attract these "peacocks" -- the
best of whom now have more choice in where they choose to
live and work -- is unknown, however.


9. (SBU) In response, in 2001 the Shenzhen municipal
government provided major investment for an ambitious
"University Town" project, which would bring together
various schools in one 65-acre, 38-building campus, where
only postgraduate programs would be offered. University
Town has attracted graduate schools from Tsinghua, Peking,
and Nankai Universities, as well as the Harbin Institute of
Technology. Hong Kong press reports have noted, however,
that many classrooms and laboratories are empty and awaiting
funding. In fact, Econoff only ran across two students
during her visit to the campus on a Friday afternoon,
despite the fact that Tsinghua was gearing up for its five-
year anniversary celebrations. During a recent earlier
visit to the campus to speak with Tsinghua students,
Congenoffs found only a class of 15 students with few others
on campus.

Educating High-Tech Workers - Tsinghua U's Graduate School
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10. (U) At the Graduate School at Shenzhen-Tsinghua
University (GSS-TU),Econoff met with refreshingly frank Ma
Li, the deputy director of the school's FAO. GSS-TU is part
of Beijing-based Tsinghua University and is its only branch
campus. The school was inaugurated in June 2001 and moved
to its campus at University Town in 2003. The first PhD
degree was conferred in 2004, and since then an additional
300 students have graduated from GSS-TU. The school has
five divisions: Information Science and Technology;
Engineering; Science and Liberal Arts; Management; and Life
Science. There are approximately 1,900 students enrolled in
the school, 1,110 of whom are full-time.


11. (SBU) Many GSS-TU students travel back and forth between
the Shenzhen and Beijing campuses, Ma explained. Students
from the main campus can be assigned to the Shenzhen campus

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depending on their field of study and their grades. Ma
admitted that many students prefer the Beijing campus
because it has better "conditions." She noted, however,
that some students specifically choose the Shenzhen campus
because they want to study with one of the Shenzhen-based
professors, or because the program in their chosen field of
study is better at the Shenzhen campus. Meanwhile, GSS-TU
is trying to develop its own special characteristics by
offering unique programs such as those in logistics, art
design, and marine biology.


12. (SBU) Ma explained that the idea behind the Shenzhen
government's support of GSS-TU is that if Tsinghua's top-
notch students came to Shenzhen to study and had a good
experience, they might be willing to remain in Shenzhen to
work, benefiting the local economy. Despite these efforts,
however, the most popular places for employment for the GSS-
TU's graduates are Beijing, Shanghai, and the Pearl River
Delta, in that order. Ma explained that, while the job
markets in other cities are not necessarily better, students
perceive those cities to have a better quality of life.


13. (U) While some have noted that the theoretical, textbook
approach to education that many Chinese students get does
not provide them the practical and teamwork skills that top
companies require, GSS-TU and its fellow tenants at
University Town have been able to counter this to some
extent. The vibrant high-tech economy in Shenzhen provides
opportunities for "hands-on" experience with local
enterprises. Ma explained that GSS-TU professors are
commonly contracted out to work or consult on specific
projects for local companies. This provides funding for the
school and also offers real-life work experience for the
students who are involved in the projects. In the past two
years, three universities at University Town have launched
more than 100 research programs with companies and
government bodies such as Huawei and ZTE, TV maker Skyworth,
Shenzhen People's Hospital, and urban planning
organizations, according to a Guangdong news website. GSS-
TU also offers internships with local companies, including
an American logistics company that participated in the
program last year.


14. (SBU) These programs, as well as Tsinghua's first-rate
reputation, have led to a high rate of job placement upon
graduation. Ma frankly admitted that she did not know the
exact percentage of GSS-TU graduates who find jobs, but she
said that "most of them do." She pointed out that because
GSS-TU only has graduate students, they tend to be focused
and know exactly what they want to do, and thus find jobs
directly related to their fields of study. She admitted
that while the job situation in China overall is "not so
good," the situation for GSS-TU grads is better. Because
all GSS-TU alumni have post-graduate degrees, they are able
to successfully compete for even the most academically
demanding jobs.

Comment: Are All Jobs Created Equal?
--------------


15. (SBU) While it is plausible that gradates from a top
school like Tsinghua do not face problems finding jobs, it
is less believable that a minor school like SZU can obtain
such prima facie impressive placement rates, at a time when
there is a job crunch across China, and official figures
place the employment rate for graduates at 70%. If SZU's
numbers are accurate, then they most certainly must reflect
a lot of employment outside the employed student's field of
study. Indeed, Shenzhen university officials admitted that
getting a job is not a problem, but finding a suitable job
with a decent salary is. A Hong Kong press report described
a trend whereby recent mainland graduates are taking jobs
such as peddling wares from street stalls for lack of other
opportunities. We suspect that some schools are including
these types of jobs -- no matter how menial -- in their
statistics to boost their placement rates.

DONG