The Future of Education

Nine Chinese-Foreign universities have been presently recognized as “Independent Legal Person Status (独立法人资格in Chinese)” by the Ministry of Education (MOE) of the People’s Republic of China. Nine of these higher education institutions are the leading Chinese-Foreign universities in China, among which four are located in Guangdong province. Up until 2019, Chinese-Foreign universities in Guangdong province have produced eleven cohorts of fresh graduates. It has been suggested in recent studies that, on average, these fresh graduates enjoyed a relatively higher salary in the first year of their employment compared to those who graduated from traditional Chinese universities. Does this imply that the Chinese employers tend to overvalue fresh graduates produced by the Chinese-Foreign universities than the conventional Chinese universities? Or the qualities sought in potential employees and the perceived benefits of fresh graduates to organizations have changed among the Chinese employers? While the objectives of Chinese-Foreign universities have been seen as more internationalize and different from the conventional Chinese universities, little work has been published to address the issue of whether internationalized Chinese-Foreign universities gave an education that is more relevant to society and industrial needs in Mainland China today. In the eyes of the Chinese employers, what are the qualities and skills of employees that they currently looking for in the job market within China? In order to answer the questions mentioned above, a survey with 100 first-line recruiters from 30 different industries in Guangdong province, China, has been conducted and examined in this paper.

Keywords: Employers Views, Employability, Chinese-Foreign Universities, Traditional Universities Education Models, Universities in Guangdong.

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