This year American schools have seen shootings, teacher strikes, and have suffered chronic budget cuts -- but none of this is swaying Chinese students from travelling to the US and paying record high tuition fees.
In a study by China-US Focus, 120,000 Chinese students attended American universities last year, contributing over US$4 billion to the struggling US economy.
At a time when the average American graduate is struggling under US$27,000 in student loan debt which may never be paid, China’s best and brightest - and richest - are keeping struggling US schools open in tough times.
The annual Beijing Education expo has become a priority for American school recruiters. One school which greets applicants at this event is Green River Community College, a tiny low-ranking public college outside of Seattle and charges foreign students US$9,600 per semester when locals pay US$3,522. The school has now begun to promote its wares in Guangzhou, Chengdu and Wuhan.
‘Samford’, a private university in Alabama whose name is often confused in China with the rather more prestigious Stanford University, is also doing well out of the mainland, charging students US$24,570 a year.
The market is huge. And in 2008, China surpassed India as the largest exporter of foreign students, although some institutions may be taking advantage of the Chinese emphasis on education. A Bloomberg article on the education sector in 2011 reported that Chinese families were especially vulnerable to “predatory fees”, and anecdotal evidence suggests that nothing has changed since then.