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Q: Why some westerners come to China to study engineering?
Don't you think it is a waste of time to study engineering in China?
I had heard that a couple of universities had moved into the top tier for engineering recently which is good for everyone. But if this does occur, I'm guessing it is because firstly, it is ridiculously cheap to study in china and the uni will have a foreign quota so it is easy to get into the college.
I am interested to hear the take on this from our esteemed engineering members.
I had heard that a couple of universities had moved into the top tier for engineering recently which is good for everyone. But if this does occur, I'm guessing it is because firstly, it is ridiculously cheap to study in china and the uni will have a foreign quota so it is easy to get into the college.
I am interested to hear the take on this from our esteemed engineering members.
This may be true of a couple of the top Chinese Universities, however, given my extensive experience working with Engineering graduates from Chinese universities, I'd say it was a waste of time. Rote learning without a significant amount of projects requiring critical thinking and innovation, and a lack of internships are a problem. Combine that with poorly led engineering depts in the manufacturing sector with engineers working outside their degree fields leads to inefficiency, disappointing results, and inferior products.
That said, I think many young Chinese engineers I've met, are intelligent and would make good engineers with the right leadership and western style in service training. A Chinese Engineering degree would be a handicap in most of the western world, due to our bias about Chinese QC and innovation.
iWolf:
I actually do a lot of work with engineers of various disciplines too but at factories in the hi-tech zone in this city. The factories in this area are quite exceptional and constantly working to exceed ISO standards throughout the manufacturing process.
Perhaps they are not your common factory so my opinion is coloured by my experience working with them only.
The engineers are indeed, very smart and these factories have world class QC departments. There appears to be nothing wrong with the knowledge and practical skills of these people and they are quite innovative.
Aikidan:
Been here over 10 years. I can only speak from my personal experience. Worked with factories primarily in GZ, SZ, and a couple in Wuxi and Chongzhou. Mostly less than 50 mil annual volume. OEM/ODM Projects for Volvo, Delphi, Ford, GM tier ones down to low run specialty products for mostly western clients. Most of the factories I've worked with here have no end user experience and copied their major products. In dealing with almost 200 Chinese factories, unlike western suppliers, not one has ever asked what i wanted their product for. Engineers have plenty of opinions, but again, no real world experience.
My immediate thought would be that they can't get into a university in the West, due to either being unable to meet the program entry requirements or secure funding. For non-Chinese, universities in the Mainland are incredibly cheap and have a relatively low standard for entry.
Viki87:
Points made, I wonder if they could land an engineer job back to the west?
If I were them, I wouldn't study engineer in China even it is cheap. There's not much value on the degree obtained from Chinese university.
My thoughts would just be it's cheap and easier to get a pass. You pay, you pass.
philbravery:
That seems to be the stigma China is branded with and deserved in many cases. I doubt if they will loose that image anytime soon
mike168229:
Phil, they'll lose that stigma when it no longer happens. I don't see that happening any time soon.
I think I remember reading somewhere that Chinese students are up there with the best in the world as far as maths and science scores go. Maybe not the innovative side of it, but the number crunching part.
I don't know much about Engineering but isn't it very math and physics focused? If you need to learn that stuff the Chinese seem to be able to teach it well.
