Graduates from foreign universities are coming home

Where it was once inevitable that those who left to study at prestigious foreign universities would remain on distant shores for years, China’s graduates are now answering the call of home more than ever before – and many are turning down lucrative careers on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley in favour of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, writes Luke Kelly for Forbes.

The term ‘sea turtle’ has long been used in China to refer to people who have returned home after having studied abroad for several years. Typically, the majority of these students who went abroad to study would stay overseas. The National Science Foundation reported in 2013 that 92% of Chinese graduates with American PhDs still lived in the United States five years after graduation.

However, evidence now points to a reversal of this trend. Five years ago, government figures showed that the number of Chinese students studying overseas was 339,700, with 186,200 choosing to return to China after graduation. More than 45% of graduates were therefore choosing to remain abroad. Compared to 2011, 2016 saw a 37.61% growth in the number of students studying abroad and a 56.95% growth in those that returned to China.
Full report on the Forbes site