Universities ‘partly to blame’ for Chinese graduates’ job woes

Chinese universities are not equipping their graduates with the skills they need to secure a job amid soaring rates of youth unemployment, researchers say.

Even as China’s overall employment prospects have improved somewhat, the country’s young people continue to face record-high joblessness rates, with nearly 20 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds not working, according to government figures published in March.

In a recent editorial for the China-focused publication Sixth Tone, Li Xiaoguang, an assistant professor of sociology at Xi’an Jiaotong University and author of a forthcoming study on youth unemployment, suggested that universities might be to blame.

He and his co-authors found that, of the graduates they surveyed, 34 per cent suffered from a “horizontal mismatch” between their degrees and the job market, meaning that they held jobs unrelated to their area of study. Meanwhile, 24 per cent of graduates suffered from a “vertical mismatch” – that is, they were overqualified.

Scholars speaking to Times Higher Education said that while the effects of a hobbled economy could not be ignored, poor teaching at universities was partly responsible for graduates’ struggles.

Yingyi Ma, a professor of sociology and director of Asian studies at Syracuse University, said the problem had been compounded by the “unprecedented” expansion of China’s higher education sector in recent decades, which has created a large pool of candidates with university degrees.

“The millions of college graduates churned out each year by the ever bigger Chinese higher education system [have] worsened the situation,” she said.

But while oversupply contributes to the graduate employment problem, Professor Ma said, a big factor is the quality of university teaching.

“I think that has much to do with the low quality of [higher education] instruction in China, barring some elite institutions. Faculty are rewarded and incentivised to publish, not to teach,” she said, adding that the growth of the sector is “too excessive to ensure quality”.

Nevertheless, she did not believe that the prospect of unemployment would deter many young people from pursuing a university degree, with China’s rising middle-class population “still very keen for their children to receive the best [education] possible”.

To address the situation, Professor Ma said, universities could do more to prepare graduates to enter the workforce, but more important was that they prioritise teaching.

“I think the key is still the quality of college education and instruction, not necessarily the specific goal of preparation [of] grads for the job market,” she said.

Chia-Ming Hsueh, vice-dean of Taiwan’s Minghsin University of Science and Technology, agreed. “China’s higher education system has long had many problems, such as teaching content that does not meet practical needs and inadequate guidance on career planning for students.”

He argued that the mismatch between graduates’ degree courses and their employment outcomes was “not news” in China, just as it was common in many developed countries. However, he believed universities could do more, such as “incorporating more practical, hands-on training and focusing on skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork”, in addition to offering “more comprehensive career services to help students identify their strengths and interests, explore career options and connect with potential employers”.

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com