Comment On "Online Teaching" Makes The Gold Content Of Studying Abroad Questionable, And Delaying Enrollment May Become A Universal Choice

Chen Yongjie, associate professor of Sun Yat sen University

Summer vacation is coming to an end, and colleges and universities in Europe and the United States have begun to open. However, under the epidemic situation, many Chinese students who have already received the admission letter are now thinking about whether to start or apply for extension. Corresponding to this contradictory mood is the strategy that many overseas study agencies have been touting forcefully recently: the competition of famous overseas schools has been greatly reduced, and the students with "poor background" are worth taking this "once in a blue moon" opportunity. It seems that for most Chinese students, those European and American colleges and universities which usually "refuse to discuss with you" are now a rare opportunity to "counter attack".

However, under the epidemic situation, it is still hard to say whether the students are given the opportunity to "counter attack" or whether the school hopes to achieve "counter attack". QS, a British Higher Education Analysis Agency, recently sent out a questionnaire to nearly 30000 "prospective international students" on how the new crown pneumonia epidemic affects international students' decision-making on studying abroad. The results show that nearly half (48%) of Chinese mainland students tend to delay or delay their enrollment. This is probably related to the fact that they feel that the experience of studying abroad has been greatly reduced under the epidemic situation, and the cost-effectiveness has dropped sharply.

One important reason is that many courses have been changed to online teaching: since Cambridge University, a famous British university, announced in mid May that all lectures in the next academic year will be changed to online teaching, European and American universities have followed suit. Even if you can go to a top university like Cambridge, many students may be attracted to it. But how many Cambridge are there in the world? The QS survey also asked the prospective international students about their attitudes towards online courses. The results showed that only 39% of the students accepted the online courses to varying degrees, 24% said it was difficult to accept, and 37% totally unacceptable. Another related finding is that 78% of prospective international students believe that tuition fees should be reduced if they are taught online. However, not only has there been no substantive response from any of the top universities, but even Michelle Donelan, the UK Secretary of state for university affairs, has said that universities do not need to "cut prices" because of online tuition. It's a cold water.

It is worth analyzing that there are quite different calculations on this issue. For universities, whether it is online teaching or not, teachers' salaries must be paid according to the standards stipulated in the contract, so the labor cost will not be reduced. However, for students, if only online teaching, the whole experience of studying abroad will be completely different: life experience, cultural exchange and even social development are almost completely lost. More importantly, it is difficult to effectively translate this experience into the human capital label needed to compete for high paying jobs. As for the master's degree course, which has been compressed to one year, it is even worse: it has been ridiculed as "bathing study abroad" by HR of large domestic enterprises. Now, many people will feel more guilty when they come back without even touching the sea water.

The key here is the difference in social system. This difference makes it difficult for university administrators in Europe and the United States to accurately grasp the exact needs of Chinese students studying abroad and the employment competition they will face when they return home. The demand of Chinese students is to compete for high salary positions with high academic qualifications (Yuhang District has recently employed a large number of Beiqing master's and doctoral students, for example). Take the one-year master's degree, which is the fastest growing in the overseas study market, as an extension of the postgraduate entrance examination craze under the difficult employment situation of domestic college students. The starting salary of domestic college students has been completely polarized. In order to squeeze into the high salary end which can only accommodate a few people after entering the employment market, improving the academic level is the most basic condition: undergraduate students enter the domestic famous universities and have the opportunity to guarantee research and solve the problem; those who have economic conditions at home go abroad, those who have no two conditions will take the postgraduate entrance examination. These are basically the three categories.

However, with the rising tide, HR of domestic strong enterprises is also aware of the situation. Facing more and more applicants for master's degree, they will carry out the second round elimination according to the graduate's level of master's degree and whether they have completed the master's degree on the job. In Europe and the United States, degrees are not divided into full-time or part-time completion. However, in China, only in-service degrees are taught online, and some of them are even indicated on academic certificates. From this point of view, the negative impression brought by the word "online teaching" may be more detrimental to the potential competitiveness of international students than the lack of life experience in developed countries.

Therefore, the author tends to agree to apply for extension of enrollment. If we accept that the contemporary Chinese study abroad is not purely to see the world and gain insight, we can look at it from the perspective of parents: after all, the cost of studying abroad for tens of thousands of years is a huge expenditure even for the domestic middle-class families.

However, the biggest loss may be the claim that the online education industry can replace the traditional education model for many years. After this year, I am afraid that students' aversion to online teaching will last for many years.