Overseas education comes at a cost(2)

Hidden risks

This year, thousands of people sold their houses and took out loans from the bank to send their children to study abroad in foreign cities, according to Liu Jun, vice president of Chongqing Overseas Study Intermediate Service Industrial Association.

An overseas education is a high-risk investment that can effect one's livelihood, future and family happiness, according to Yu Minhong, chairman of the New Oriental Education & Technology Group. Before planning to study abroad, one should carefully consider whether the investment would yield good results, the newspaper quoted Yu as saying.

While the benefits of a foreign diploma are well known, an overseas education is not a golden ticket. Foreign universities, especially the more competitive ones, tend to weed out bad students. According to the newspaper, about 50 percent of students accepted at first-rate universities abroad are squeezed out before graduation.

Some students spend thousands to study at a foreign university without considering its reputation, only to return to China to find that their diploma is not widely recognized, the newspaper reported.　

Yang Qiao studied in a university in the UK, costing her 1 million yuan, and returned to China two years ago. After a long job search, she landed a position in financial investment consulting with a monthly salary of 4,000 yuan.

Yang told the newspaper it will take her at least 20 years to recoup the cost of her tuition if she continues to receive her current salary.

About 70 percent of Chinese overseas students choose to return to China after graduation. Among returned Chinese overseas students polled by the EIC Group, 39 percent of respondents receive a monthly salary of between 5,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan, 32 percent earn 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan, and 11 percent make 3,000 yuan. Only 3 percent have a monthly salary of more than 30,000 yuan, according to an EIC Group report on employment of returned Chinese overseas graduates.