Chinese students - some happy and some stressed

As any population group, students from China are diverse and come to university study with a broad number of strengths and challenges. Two separate articles paint that picture in graphic ways. The first article references a lifestyle study conducted by Sodexo that identified U.S.A. domestic students having great anxiety about paying for college. By contrast, the Chinese students in the sample (who studied either in the U.S.A. or U.K.) reported the least concern about paying for college. The second article reflected the disillusionment over job opportunities among Chinese students who returned to China after studying abroad. The salary advantage that study abroad previously ensured to Chinese students has been eroding, a particularly troubling change in the face of the significant sacrifices made by many Chinese parents who have funded their study.

The lesson for higher education faculty, staff, and domestic students is not to assume that Chinese students are all privileged. As with any cultural group, there is great diversity and assuming unanimity is not only inappropriate but may add to the pressure any group that is stereotyped experiences.