CHINA:China's economy is booming and the country is becoming a more attractive place to live for returned emigres but senior education officials are worried about a brain drain as the top educated people still seek opportunities elsewhere.
About 40 per cent of the top students in college entrance examinations have chosen overseas universities for their postgraduate studies, according to a survey, and most of them stay overseas when they're finished.
The China Alumni Association said it finds it worrying that many of the top students do not stay in China for higher studies despite the country's rapid development in the past few decades.
Education is taken very seriously in China and almost 3.3 per cent of government spending goes on schooling. The children who are the products of the one-child policy are under intense pressure to succeed at school, with their education often paid for by parents, grandparents and numerous aunts and uncles.
Most of them have stayed overseas after finishing their intended courses, according to a survey that tracked 130 top performers in college entrance exams from 1977 to 1998.
The top students are known as zhuangyuan, which were the star performers in the Confucian-style examinations in imperial times. They are put forward as an example to other students and lavishly praised in the media.
"The government should find better ways to hold back talented students," Cai Yanhou, a professor with Central South University in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, told the Xinhua news agency.
China produces about 500,000 engineering graduates every year as part of government efforts to promote science - it's probably no coincidence that the majority of the country's senior leadership are engineers.
The government is keen to shift from industries with low-added value such as manufacturing into more lucrative and sustainable businesses such as biotechnology and IT, which require greater levels of innovation and better-qualified people if they are to succeed.
According to Unesco, China has the largest number of students abroad, with 343,126 pursuing higher education outside the country, making up 14 per cent of the worldwide international student population.
About 3,000 Chinese students are estimated to be studying at third level in Ireland and the burgeoning Chinese market is being targeted for growth by Irish colleges and universities.
Overall, the favourite destinations for higher studies are the US, Britain and Japan, where the students receive useful scholarships and enjoy better job prospects and opportunities to pursue further studies.