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[vikdk]

[China.Pete]

"(T)he degrees they 'earn' are worth less than nothing, and simply serve to create an 'educated elite' who think they are entitled to more than the rest of the population because they spent four years in their dorm playing computer games..." - No Exit

I've often, especially in moments of frustration, contemplated what some of my students will be like when they hit the workplace. You've now confirmed a few of my worst fears. Unfortunately, the shortcomings of China's expanding education system appear to be structural. Being purely for-proift ventures, many of these universities seem to feel little incentive to be selective, either in admissions or in the granting of degrees. They seem to exist in part as institutions to confer status on the children of parents of means. Perhaps the next logical step would be for parent-cooperatives to fund dummy companies whose sole purpose would be to employ their pampered progeny in jobs where they could "download MP3s, chat on QQ, maybe take a nap, and collect (their) paycheck every month." In the meantime, I would hope that enough information about these private institutions of higher learning might filter back to the students' parents for them to make more intelligent buying decisions on their children's behalf. Then MAYBE the dyed-in-the-wool degree mills out there would enjoy the same "status" they have acquired in the West, and the rest could be encouraged to differentiate themselves as providers of an education.