Educator calls for rationality amid frenzy for overseas study
- By Ni Tao
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, November 9, 2015
"Why would it be necessary for Chinese youngsters to study abroad once they finish high school? I simply don't understand!" As if to stress his point, Chia-Wei Woo threw up his hands, a little agitated.
To outsiders, this outburst may easily elicit the impression that Woo is a nativistic curmudgeon, with a blind faith in the superiority of Chinese education. But this cannot be further from the truth. Born in 1937, Woo left Hong Kong for the US for education at the age of 17, and stayed there for the better part of his life. He studied physics and worked his way up the academic ladder. His crowning success came in 1983, when he was appointed president of San Francisco State University, becoming the first Chinese American ever to land a position as president of a US college.
Perhaps sensing this author's confusion about the paradox between his own background and his perspectives, Woo smiled and said, "I just hope Chinese children will not waste time and energy on the wrong schools."
The gray-haired, bespectacled Shanghai native sees danger in the trend of Chinese students going overseas for higher education — and increasingly at a younger age.
"What's the point of foreign education if one cannot even master his own language and culture?" he told Shanghai Daily on the sidelines of a recent forum held at Fudan University's School of Management.
Woo's aim is to restore reason to the argument for overseas education, as similar criticisms have been aired on many occasions — sometimes in much more forceful terms. For example, at the Fudan forum, where he was honored as a member of the management school's international advisory board, Wu warned, somewhat alarmingly, that "Of all the approximately 4,000 to 5,000 colleges in the US, the reputable ones account for less than 10 percent."
For instance, the US, much like China, has seen its own proliferation of diploma mills.
In one extreme case, "In California, seven people can found two universities and issue doctorates," said Woo.
In San Francisco, the city he used to call home, local Chinese-language newspapers are often filled with page after page of ads recruiting students for dubious MBA programs, often with blustery phrases such as "elites like you need PhDs and MBAs to shine further!"
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