Does it still pay off to study abroad? New research suggests ‘yes’ for returning Chinese graduates

Chinese students returning home with overseas educational qualifications are still likely to be paid better in the short and long run, than those educated at home, although fresh graduates arriving back on home soil have become more realistic in what salary levels to expect in their first jobs.

Wide-ranging new latest research, polling 100,000 Chinese grads, suggests Chinese students armed with a foreign degree are this year being paid 17.2 per cent more than those graduating from a home university.

Carried out by BossZhipin, a Beijing-based big-data recruitment firm, the study showed 26.3 per cent of fresh graduates from overseas universities are being paid over 10,000 yuan (US$1,500) and 2.3 per cent more than 20,000 yuan per month in their first jobs in China – which is double, and triple the level of the average domestic graduates.

But interestingly, the advantages of an overseas educational grow even more pronounced in the longer run.

After eight years in work back home, 43.2 per cent of the returnees can now expect to be paid over 20,000 yuan a month, 30 percentage points more than domestically counterparts.

Newly returned students, on average, pitch for expected monthly salaries of 8,315 yuan, but in reality they are actually being paid 7,306 yuan.

The number of more ambitious returnees looking for upward of 15,000 yuan per month has lowered their expectations, with 11.6 per cent this year, from 13.8 per cent in 2016, while those who are happy to be paid below 8,000 yuan have increased from last year’s 41.2 per cent to 45.4 per cent.