Another high-achieving student from Chongqing picked a semiconductor major at Westlake University, a newer private research institute also based in Hangzhou.
These students are not rejecting top universities for weaker options, noted Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of China Market Research Group consultancy.
“It’s not like they’re rejecting the number one, number two university to go to number 100 and have an easy way out. It would be like turning down Yale or Princeton to go to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology),” he added.
MOUNTING PRESSURE IN JOB MARKET
The changing preferences among top scorers come as young Chinese face growing pressure in the job market.
“We are still looking at the challenges with regards to the type of people who do want a job, but perhaps may not have the skillsets that the market is demanding,” said Heron Lim, a lecturer at Essec Business School.
“(Or it could be) the market is simply not creating enough jobs to accommodate the aspirations of people who would like to get this type of jobs,” he added.
Xiong Bingqi, director at China-based educational think tank 21st Century Education Research Institute, gave a hypothetical scenario of a student gaining admission to Shanghai Jiao Tong University – ranked fourth in China – but choosing to attend Shanghai Customs College – ranked 262th – as it could give them a better chance of securing a government job.
“These choices reflect the current employment climate: many students and parents are prioritising stable career prospects over famous university names,” he added.
Rein also said students are feeling a lot of anxiety and fear over underemployment, in which a job does not fully utilise a worker’s skills. This is in turn spurring them to be more pragmatic about what and where to study.
He told CNA’s East Asia Tonight programme that the asking pay has also fallen in recent years, due to the weak economy and increase in the number of Chinese graduates entering the job market.
Tsinghua graduates used to ask for a monthly salary of 15,000 to 20,000 yuan (US$2,100 to US$2,800) when applying for a job at his company before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Now, they’re asking for 8,000 to 10,000 yuan a month,” he said.
“It’s still easy – if you go to a top university – to get a job, but you might be making 30 per cent or maybe even half of what your counterparts would have made (if) they graduated in 2019.”
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