As Chinese families cut costs, studying abroad goes on the chopping block
- Popularity of overseas education wanes as incomes tighten and domestic institutions continue to improve
- Fierce competition for jobs, higher tuitions reduce potential benefit, but some students continue to pursue opportunities internationally
Grace Wang wakes every morning around 6 to spend her day planting trees in the Finnish wilderness.
Laden with baskets brimming with saplings, Wang and her fellow planters trudge down an uneven dirt road strewn with weeds and branches. With each step towards the designated area for planting, the weight of the basket presses harder on her weary shoulders.
“I had never done this type of physical labour before,” said the 21-year-old, who came to Finland last year to pursue an undergraduate degree in international business.
But now she is able to plant up to 800 saplings per day. Each one will earn her 0.11 euros (12 US cents).
The summer job is essential for Wang to continue her studies. Her parents’ business back in China, an overseas study agency, was on the decline during the coronavirus pandemic and eventually went bankrupt before the zero-Covid policy was abandoned at the end of last year.
Many Chinese students studying overseas have encountered similar financial issues. The country’s total cohort of outbound students reached a record high of 703,500 in 2019, but plunged to 450,900 in 2020 before recovering and hitting 662,100 last year, according to data from the Chinese Ministry of Education.
The three-year pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the Chinese economy in general, plunging its annual growth from 6.0 per cent in 2019 to the average of 5.2 per cent in the past two years. But small businesses were among those which were hit the hardest, and their post-Covid recovery has been slow.