During the past few decades, the social opinion on overseas education has changed. News reports about youths returning after studying abroad, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, but ending up with low-paying jobs have made people wonder whether it’s still worth sending their children overseas for education. Two education experts share their views on the issue.

在過去幾年內，社會上關于海外教育的觀念已發生些許改變。很多新聞報道一些斥巨資在國外留學歸來的年輕人最終卻只在國內找到了一些薪水平平的工作。這一現象不僅使一些家長思考將自己孩子送去海外留學這一舉動是否值得。兩位教育界專家對此觀點進行了一些探討與交流。

Unfair to label overseas diplomas ’worthless’

“海外文憑不值錢”這一觀點是不科學的

As a young teacher working in a Chinese college after earning a college degree in the United States, I have to say that it’s neither fair nor respectful to label an overseas college degree "meaningless". Social attitude toward overseas returned students has changed from widespread appreciation to bias. This calls for employers to analyze different cases differently.

作為一個從美國留學歸來現如今在中國大學任教的年輕老師，我認為“海外學歷沒有價值”這一結論下的非常草率，這種說法既不公平，也是對那些海外留學生的極度不尊重。社會上對于海外留學生的態度已經由原來的宣揚和贊賞到現在的充滿誤解和偏見，這需要用人單位具體問題具體分析。

That more and more Chinese students have easier access to overseas education than before does not necessarily mean overseas degrees have become worthless. For example, majors such as journalism, finance and engineering, are actually "imported goods". They did not exist in China, let alone the other majors in overseas universities that still have the best rankings around the world. So there’s no ground for questioning the quality of education Chinese students receive abroad. Take the major of business journalism I teach at the University of International Business and Economics. This major in Arizona State University ranks 1st in the US, and I believe people in China have barely heard the name of this university.

雖然現如今海外留學對中國學生的門檻相對較之前放低，但這并不意味著海外學歷的含金量也隨之下降。從某種意義上來說，諸如新聞、金融以及工程等專業實際上算是“進口貨”，國內先前并沒有設置這些專業，更別說那些在外國大學排名在世界前列的其他專業了。因此，我們沒有理由去質疑中國學生在海外接受的教育質量。我現在在對外經濟貿易大學教授商業新聞專業，該專業在美國排名第一的大學是美國亞利桑那州立大學，但我打賭很多人壓根就沒有聽說過這所大學的名字。

Employers should not seek only candidates with Ivy League college degrees, but they should not be deceived by degrees from some mysterious universities overseas either. That is to say, they should not go to extremes.

我認為用人單位不能光看應聘者是否具有常春藤聯盟大學的學歷，也不應該一味排擠國外某些所謂不知名大學的學歷。我的意見是，作任何判斷都不能走極端，要有所衡量。

It’s good to see students becoming increasingly competitive thanks to their diversified academic backgrounds. Now it’s time for employers to evolve, to have the ability to differentiate between good and bad, in order to formulate a basic cognitive system to evaluate the quality of candidates who have studied abroad, as they cannot be identified as key universities like China. This will allow employers to comprehensively evaluate the candidates’ educational qualifications and personal abilities.

隨著學術背景的多樣化，現如今國內的學生也愈發富有競爭力，這是一件好事。既然學生們在不斷提高，是時候也讓用人單位進化一下了。招聘者應該具有區分好壞的能力，尤其是在有些國外不知名大學不被國內認可的前提下，正確認知并評估來自這些學校的求職者。這需要招聘者全方位評估應聘者的教育背景以及個人能力。

Overseas returned talents still rare

真正的海歸人才仍舊稀缺

News about youths returning after earning a college degree and working for a few years abroad landing a job in China for a monthly salary of only 7,000 yuan ($1,089), much less than his or her pay overseas, prompts some people to believe overseas college degrees have lost their value.

有新聞報道，一些海外留學或海外工作幾年之后回國的海歸在國內工作的月薪僅在七千元(合1089美元)左右，遠比在國外掙得薪資要少。這種現象使得一些人認為海外學歷已經失去了原本的價值。

In the 1980s, the students who got government funding to study abroad were selected from hundreds of thousands of candidates. In the 1990s, the number of self-funded students increased, but most of them usually obtained their bachelor’s degree from a top Chinese university such as Tsinghua University or Peking University and then proceeded overseas for higher studies.

在上個世紀80年代，有很小一部分學生從成千上萬的候選人當中脫穎而出，有幸得到政府資助前去海外留學。上個世紀90年代，自費出國的學生逐漸增多，但這部分學生大多都是在國內諸如清華北大等頂級學府成功獲得學士學位之后再去海外進行深造。

Now anyone whose parents can afford to pay can get admitted to a college overseas. And in their blind race to get an overseas college degree, students even enroll in almost unknown or unrecognized colleges. However, of the about 544,500 Chinese students studying abroad in 2016-an overwhelming 498,200 of them self-funded-only 390,000 returned to China. And most of them were undergraduate or junior college students, with only 5 percent being PhD candidates. This shows talents with cutting-edge skills rarely return and are still precious "commodity".

現如今，只要父母有經濟條件，任何人都可以去海外留學。很多人為了盲目追求一個海外文憑，便隨意去一個不知名大學進行學習。在2016年前去海外留學的544500名中國學生中，有近498200名同學是自費出國，只有39萬人后來選擇回國。這其中大多數都是本科生或大專生，只有5%的比例為博士生。這一數據表明大多數擁有高精尖技術的人才仍舊待在國外，在國內仍屬稀缺資源。

According to a rough estimate, given the current situation of the job market, a person with three years’ work experience will usually receive higher pay and better treatment than one holding a master’s degree. So operational capability and work experience are the two key factors that really matter in the long run, while a college degree is just a key to open the door to your career.

據粗略統計，鑒于當前求職市場的現狀，擁有三年工作經驗的求職者薪資和待遇會優于碩士畢業生。從長遠來看，實踐能力和工作經驗仍舊是求職的兩大重要法寶，大學文憑不過是叩響你求職大門的敲門磚而已。