Nation learns lesson of globalization
(06/10/2002) (China Daily)

It has been a Chinese tradition to send children away to another area or overseas to get a better education.

But now the tradition is becoming a fashion which an increasing number of Chinese parents and students find difficult to avoid.

A new survey by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization shows that at the end of 2000, there were 1.6 million overseas students studying in 108 countries throughout the world.

Of these, 380,000 students in 103 countries are from China, making it the largest number from any one country.

It is clear that the globalization of higher education is sweeping China and since its accession to the World Trade Organization, the nation has had to meet increasing demands for highly skilled professionals and talented people in many fields.

China's fast economic development is attracting many foreign education institutions wanting to try their luck in the country's huge education market.

Richard Riley, a former United States minister of education, said during his recent tour to Shanghai that the globalization of higher education will bring many opportunities to China.

Professors and experts from China and foreign countries are now venturing into educational fields in which their predecessors rarely dared try.

Amb Julia Chang Bloch, a Chinese-American and former United States ambassador to Nepal, is currently lecturing at universities in Beijing and Shanghai, while the distinguished Chinese scholar Yang Fujia is chancellor of Nottingham University in Britain.

Yang has urged Chinese universities to learn from foreign educational administrative practices and become more innovative.

Wu Qidi, president of Shanghai-based Tongji University, said at a recent seminar on the globalization of higher education that universities in the 21st century should pay more attention to cross-cultural communications and enhance understanding between different cultures.