Magnet for foreign students

By Takashi Noguchi
Publisher:The Yomiuri Shimbun - Publication Date: 08-10-2007



Students don't go to China just for language training anymore, nor is it any longer a nation that sends more students abroad than it takes in.
In 2005, China for the first time saw the number of foreign students studying in the country - more than 140,000 - surpass that of Chinese students
heading overseas, at about 120,000.
The number of foreign students studying in China exceeded 160,000 last year, coming from 184 countries and territories. Forty per cent of them came to the country for reasons other than language training. South Korea was the top source of foreign students with 57,000, followed by Japan with 18,000
and the United States with 11,000. Viet Nam and Indonesia sent 7,000 and 5,000 students, respectively.
Daisuke Yamada, 21, of Waseda University's School of Political Science and Economics, was one of three Japanese students who completed a one-year course at Beijing University's School of International Studies this summer to earn "double degrees" from the two institutions.
At Waseda University's office next to Beijing University, the three students talked about the courses they took and described one course that
compared political systems, in which the lecturer criticised the democratic system over and over again.
For example, one time the lecturer said: "When three candidates run for an election, one of them can win it by gaining just over 33.3 per cent of the
votes, but more than half of the voters cast ballots for the other two. As such, elections cannot always reflect public opinion."
The instructor usually ended up by criticising the United States, concluding that as long as China can make the rule of law function correctly, it can rectify social misconduct - even without a "US-imposed" democratic system - and achieve modernisation. The Chinese Communist Party is
required to control the nation, according to the lecturer's view.
"This is (a viewpoint) you can never learn in Japan," said Yamada.
The three Japanese students faced a high level of study on the courses they took. During the first semester, it was difficult for them to catch up with
their Chinese classes but they were also given an assignment to summarise a 600-page Chinese-language textbook about disarmament in two weeks.
Because each room in their dormitories housed four to six people, the occupants find it difficult to study there. Therefore, the Chinese students
go to the library at 5am or 6am to secure seats, while also reciting English passages on the campus. Yamada and his two friends said the attitude
of their Chinese counterparts made them realise what a university should be like.
On the other hand, China is now attracting more and more skilled workers, just like the United States, mainly thanks to an increase number of foreign
enterprises opening up for business.
Microsoft Corp has set up a laboratory in Zhong Guan Cun, Beijing, known as "the Silicon Valley of China". As the firm's largest lab, bigger than those in Britain, China, India and the United States, the facility has about 300 researchers.
The lab accepts 200 to 300 interns every year -mainly postgraduate students. Currently, Mizuki Oka of Tsukuba University is one such intern.
Majoring in computer science at the institution's Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering, she started a six-month internship at
the lab in April.
Oka, 27, who is taking advantage of one of the world's most advanced research environments in the field of computer graphics, said, "All the
researchers and Chinese interns here are top-class people, and their arguments are really exciting."
The driving force for Oka to head for Beijing was when she read a paper written by Xu Yingqing, 47, a project leader at the lab who also serves as her mentor now.
The report discussed the technology to allow harmonious colour blending in computer graphics. "I was impressed to realise computer graphics can involve a type of sensitivity like colouring," she recalled.
Because Oka's performance was highly appreciated, she was chosen as one of the 10 "best interns" who were invited to a party that Microsoft founder
Bill Gates held in June at his home in Seattle.
Currently, Oka is studying how graphic information can be used as passwords. "In the scientific research field, what kind of human network you
have can serve as a factor to open the door for your success," she said.
"I'd like to maintain the relationships I have built here and also expand them after returning to Japan."

Attached Images

13159.jpg (20.6 KB, 13 views)