U.S. Schools Expelled 8,000 Chinese Students

[Kaleidoscope]

Students study for the national college entrance exam in Lianyungang, a port city in east China’s Jiangsu Province.

 

 

 

Wang Jianmin/Zuma Press
As tens of thousands of Chinese students prepare to study in the U.S., they might reflect on the experience of some of those who went before them. According to an estimate by a U.S. education company, some 8,000 Chinese students were expelled from American universities last year alone – and the main reasons were poor grades and cheating.

The estimate by WholeRen Education, a U.S. company that caters to Chinese students, was based on official U.S. data and a survey of 1,657 students expelled from American universities last year. More than 80% of these students were expelled because of poor academic performance or dishonesty, the company said.

The company surveyed students about their U.S. study experience a year earlier but didn’t make any estimate for expulsions.
The survey comes amid reports that federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh have indicted 15 Chinese citizens for allegedly taking part in a college exam scheme.

Stacked up against the huge numbers of Chinese students who go to American universities every year, the failure rate isn’t so bad, WholeRen said, though it does suggest a change in the once-shining image of students from China.

“Chinese students used to be considered top-notch but over the past five years their image has changed completely — wealthy kids who cheat,†said Chen Hang, chief development officer at WholeRen, which is based in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Two decades of rapid economic growth and a burgeoning middle class have given Chinese parents more resources to send their children abroad.

Last year alone, 459,800 students went overseas to study, according to China’s Ministry of Education. Most financed their studies on their own or had scholarships from a U.S. university. Only 4.6% of them were sponsored by the Chinese government.


Students from China account for nearly one-third of all international students in the U.S., taking the single largest share, according to a March report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Financially strained public universities are aggressively recruiting students from abroad.

Unlike American students who more frequently enter programs that fit their capabilities, Chinese students care most about the reputation of the school, trying hard to get into the top universities. But in reality they are not always prepared to study in highly-competitive programs, said Mr. Chen. More than half of the Chinese students expelled were from top 100 U.S. universities, the survey found. Cheating at exams, plagiarism and finding other students to write papers for them were frequently cited as the specific causes of expulsion, the survey showed.

In a commentary based on the survey, the state-run Guangming Daily said that the fact that thousands of students were expelled was not surprising given the large numbers of students in the U.S. It added that different education standards and different attitudes toward unacceptable behavior were partlyto blame.

It also said the problem wasn’t just with Chinese students that chose to go to the U.S. “This is an issue not just about students in the U.S., but about the entire higher-education system in China,†said the unsigned commentary.

–Liyan Qi

 

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/05/29/u-s-schools-expelled-8000-chinese-students-for-poor-grades-cheating/

[cornangel]

well im surprised

[hyoyeon's lines in check]

Not surprised. My school had a huge Asian population (from abroad) but many were, like the article states, academically dishonest and violated the integrity code - which unis take very seriously.

[imideal( ͡°ᴥ ͡° ʋ)]

I'm honestly not surprised. The reputation of the university is all that matters, so parents do everything they can to get their kids into the schools. But, once inside its extremely hard for them to get high grades, so they have to resort to cheating and paying off students. The education itself is not what's valued, but what you can show off to others. Of course its not all Chinese students, only a small percentage. But, its growing. 

[HelloMuses]

you gotta pass one way or another

[Thotcahontas]

Welll I mean thats not even 0.05% of China's population so... imagine how many more chinese students are still in US universities studying 

[UNIQ]

Fairly common in my experience, I just chuckled when I saw a similar article the other day. It reminded me of a guy I knew in college.

[Hizu]

It doesn't surprise me at all. It's like that here too. They try really hard to get admitted, but after that a lot of them don't really have the ability to keep up with the other students because of the language or their skills, so they cheat.

[˹AS˼]

It reminded me of that article that came out and how Indian parents were climbing up on the roof of the school to help their kids pass their exams.

[SEWER RAT]

I've had students like that in my programme too back in uni.

These kids won't speak a lick of english in class and flop hard during presentations but magically get 2:1s in essays that require critical thinking. 

[dishdash]

not surprised tbh. pretty much every single Chinese exchange student I know or am friends with, is rich. and almost all of them have a hard time with studying and tests because of the language barrier. some study twice as hard because of this, and as a result their studying pays off. but A LOT of them don't. they rely on friends-specifically native friends- to pretty much carry them through their classes. i've experienced this so many times and it can be exhausting. but i'm a pushover so i'll help them anyways t.t

[KPF93]

also to mention, the education systems and the approach to leaning between the two countries are diff.

[Vividemix3]

Not really surprised tbh. A majority of the students that come here from China aren't really here to study but to just "show off". Their parents are rich so they pay for their tuition and everything but some of them just treat it as a vacation. I have this one friend who goes to my uni and his job is to write essays for other students (he's from China too btw) and he gets paid. He made over $1,000 (if I'm remembering right) in just two months. I also have this friend who told me that his other friends who also came here from China had to go back because they started doing drugs and everything. It's actually pretty sad if you think about it.

[TIM£]

OBviously, however if they're not fluent in the country's language I honestly don't why they would bother, UNI is hard enough being fluent 

[Tadpole.]

all i can think of is that the 8k seats those students hogged up during admission only to get kicked out could've gone to more deserving students.

[ScarletWhimsy]

well im surprised

I'm not, sadly I've seen it happen first hand during a midterm exam, and it's really hard to do something about it as a witness (student who is also writing the exam) too actually...made me feel awful, just being there.

 

There's tons of (mainland) Chinese students like this in my university. Wealthy as heck, but they have absolutely no conscience when it comes to cheating. It's an eery and sickly mindset they have, thinking that their having money can get them anything.

[Haus of Tzu:Lai]

Mind you, the universities should also bear some responsibility and to a degree, at fault also. They make a lot of $$$$$ from international students and many schools are greedy enough to become lax with the admission scores/process in order to fill their quota. 

 

So is it surprising that some of the students who are admitted struggle with the coursework (and adapting overall)? It is well-known that education to the Chinese is extremely important, to fail is not really an option and to lose face not only for you but to your parents as well. Then you have a handful of 2nd Generation Rich (Fu Er Dai) kids, who are most likely lazy also and used to having people do their shit for them. 

 

Anyway, I was actually put into a project group with this mainland Chinese guy once. Nice guy, but he struggled with the English / coursework. I'm actually surprised the admissions office let him through to be honest. He tried really hard and told me once he spent 2 hours trying to read just one page of the coursework (he had to refer to his Chinese-English dictionary constantly). Nevertheless, he still submitted his part of the project (god knows how long he spent on it), and I helped him correct his grammar/structure, before we submitted it. All in all, I felt bad for him. I mean, he is intelligent  and had some really good arguments/ideas in his part, but just could not execute it well due to his poor English. I just didn't understand why the university would admit him, if he had such a poor grasp of the language?