China’s Shifting Economy Attracts International Students

This article is sponsored by CEIBS. Learn more about the program.

The landscape has shifted. In the 1980s, Japan ascended. Throughout most of the 1990s, the island nation was one of the world’s most-popular study abroad destinations. Across the world, many studied Japanese. Today, however, things have changed as a consequence of the country’s economic struggles (though it is still the world’s third-biggest economy).

“When the downturn of the Japanese economy sank in, the enrollments were really supported by the anime, manga, J-pop crowd,” James Dorsey, chair of the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures at Dartmouth at Dartmouth told The Japan Times. “Any student who matriculates at Dartmouth today has grown up playing Pokémon. I call them the Pokémon generation.”

Today, it seems that China has taken Japan’s place in the global imagination. In the 21st century, its growth and active recruitment efforts helped it attract more international students. Worldwide, over four million students study outside of their home country. Ten years ago, fewer than 2% of those chose China. Now it’s over 8 % – with around 300,000 international students currently studying there. The country ranks just behind the US and the UK, long established as the world’s most-popular study destinations. 

Although South Korean students make up nearly 17% of China’s total international student enrollment, the US comes in second. Over 24,000 US students have chosen to attend universities in China – some 6% of the total.

An International Experience: The CEIBS MBA

Naturally, to attract international students, you need high-caliber institutions. Observers of higher and business education will know that China has made significant strides in recent years, with a host of younger institutions joining the old elite. One such institution is the China Europe International Business School – or CEIBS. Founded in 1994, CEIBS was the first business school on mainland China to offer a full-time MBA. The program is a regular entrant in global rankings rankings (it is ranked 23rd in the QS Global 200 ranking for the Asia Pacific). Its appeal goes beyond standings in global rankings. “The most significant competitive advantage CEIBS has is its location, which connects students with a huge job market with tremendous opportunities,” MBA student Daniel Shi explained in a blog post (published on Business Because). “Given the advantage of the close connection with China as the fastest growing economy in the world, CEIBS is also closest to the evaluation of business dynamics, which are constantly put into the design of the MBA curriculum.”

Attending CEIBS also means being exposed to a diverse environment which reflects that of global corporations (but not always as prevalent in US business schools). Usually well over one third of the school’s MBA students are international. Although other Asian countries contribute the lion’s share of students, growing numbers hail from the US. CEIBS MBA students Leela Greenberg and Dennis Allen Bridgeforth reflect this trend.

Greenberg, who traveled extensively after her graduation from the University of Colorado at Boulder, was led by her childhood interest in Daoism to study classical Chinese. While working in education she also discovered an untapped passion for business development. “Education is like a microcosm of many businesses,” Greenberg explains, “teachers are specialists, honing their craft and providing services; administrators are generalists, balancing short-term opportunities against long-term success.” 

Deciding that she wanted to study an MBA, she was drawn to China, where she had traveled extensively on business. CEIBS was one of the top schools on her list.

Bridgeforth knew he wanted an MBA as an undergrad at North Carolina A&T State University. In 2010, he began working in Shanghai but admits, “I was actually only interested in b-schools in the US. My plan was to spend four months in China as an intern and then make my way back home. Three years later, I said next year is my last year and it's time for me to start preparing for b-schools.” During his GMAT prep he read about CEIBS and went on to participate in its pre-MBA boot camp.   

Travel opportunities and learning Mandarin

Studying at CEIBS provides opportunity to not only witness the global economy in microcosm but to also to see one of the world’s great cities. When international students first watch the lights and activity next to the city's historic Bund and across the river in the Lujiazui Financial Centre, says media officer, James Kent, “the word that first crosses the minds of many is simply ‘wow’. Life here offers a plethora of culinary, cultural, and shopping options which even cities such as London and New York will envy. Shanghai resonates with youth and innovation, and provides its residents with an outstanding standard of living, high levels of personal safety, and an extensive and modern metro and public transportation system.”

When Bridgeforth first arrived, he’d never been away from the US's east coast. He quickly realized, that “It is just like any other cosmopolitan city, but better because of opportunity and safety. There is always something going on no matter the day or time and if the city is missing something you enjoy, then create it.”  Regular treks to Puxi, the city’s historic center, punctuate his time in Shanghai.

Cosmopolitan teaching style suits international students

Economic obstacles are not the only ones countries encounter as they try to attract international students. Most Japanese universities teach their classes in Japanese – which helps explain why 90% of their international students come from other Asian countries. South Korean and Chinese students may speak a different language, but they generally struggle less than native English speakers. Japanese professors tend to follow a traditional teaching model where lecturers speak before crowded halls with little opportunity for student contributions. At many of China's business schools, however, professors follow a more Western model, in which students and educators interact. At CEIBS, that is due in part to the faculty's diversity with two thirds of the school's professors coming from outside the country.

CEIBS, like most top business schools like INSEAD and HKUST, offers classes in English. Still, they encourage students to learn Mandarin. The school offers free courses from elementary to advanced. They also provide information about local language schools for students who wish to go beyond the lessons which are offered two-to-three times per week.

An ability to speak the language is seen as necessary for those who wish to remain in the country after graduation. Still, it can be a challenge. Despite spending over five years in China, Bridgeforth reflects, “I also spend time trying to learn Mandarin, which seems like an uphill battle.”

For Greenberg, before even trying to learn Mandarin, the main challenge was adapting to the city’s “intense urbanity” after growing up in “bucolic Colorado”. As she traveled around Shanghai she faced another, surprising challenge. “When I first arrived, I went searching for Chinese food and found Mexican, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese before happening upon a Chinese noodle shop. The CEIBS campus is actually full of surprises and interesting spaces if you explore thoroughly enough.”

Life in China presents challenges and opportunities

Another CEIBS graduate, Luis S Galan Lozano, admitted in an October interview with Business Because that three years after earning an MBA, life in China continues to surprise and occasionally frustrate. “For me, living in China is not really living but surviving; struggling. I love it. I hate it. It is a place where you can somehow love and enjoy the struggle. This is how crazy China is. In Europe, people accept the status quo. Here in China, there is a feeling of speed, pressure, and an urgency to improve and catch up, to make up for lost time.”

Today earning an MBA in China means immersing yourself into a rapidly changing environment. The nation has worked hard to shift from a manufacturing, export-focused economy to one that is orientated toward native consumers. Even if GDP growth slows, China anticipates its consumer market will be worth $6.5 trillion within the next five years. “In the US, supply-side reform is largely equivalent to tax cuts,” explains deputy director of the enterprise research institute Zhang Wenkui in China Daily. “In China, the most discussed issue is the destocking and elimination of zombie companies (companies that cannot sustain themselves). But I think the reform of state-owned enterprises is genuine supply-side reform.”

The transition has been painful, with stock market undulations and currency devaluations that have impacted the global economy. For Bridgeforth, his time in China provided a front-row seat for the shift. “I think the fact that my four-month trip to Shanghai has turned into five years and counting says the pros out weight the cons. CEIBS as expected, thus far, has made sense of and opened up my views on business in China and China’s role in the world. China's shift to a consumer-driven economy simply means opportunity and CEIBS is making sure we will be able to capitalize on it." Bridgeforth  and Greenberg anticipate earning their degrees in 2017. 

This article is sponsored by CEIBS