The CER reports:

The highest goal for China’s elite students used to be gaining admission to Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University or Peking University. In more recent years, however, the consensus seems to have shifted, with an increasing number of students choosing to go overseas in search of world-class educations.

More than 300,000 Chinese students – disillusioned with the mainland’s exam-based education system that smothers critical thinking – attended overseas universities in pursuit of a higher degree last year.

Many of these students strive to gain a foothold working abroad after graduation, but limited job opportunities send roughly 70% back to their homeland, according to recruitment consultancy Zhilian Zhaopin. The Ministry of Education says the number of “haigui,” or students returned from overseas, surged from 50,000 in 2008 to nearly 340,000 last year.

Read more: http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/putting-down-roots