This is my letter written to each member of the Oregon House Education subcommittee on Higher Education prior to their 2/14/07 hearing on China:
Representative X,
On Wednesday, 2/14, the House Education Subcommittee on Higher Education will hold a hearing on China. I give much credit to Chairman Buckley for his foresight in scheduling this important hearing. If appropriate, the following are the questions I would respectfully suggest that you ask:
(1) Currently less than 1% (not counting heritage speakers) of Oregon’s annual high school graduates have had two years or more of high school Mandarin. For Oregon to reach its maximum economic well being (or for other reasons that you should describe), what percentage in your opinion of our annual high school graduates should have had two or more years of high school Mandarin in the year 2015?
(2) For Oregon to reach its maximum economic well being (or for other reasons that you should describe), what percentage in your opinion of your university’s annual baccalaureate graduates in the year 2015 should have had two or more years of university level Mandarin?
(3) Would you please estimate the percentage (or give actual data) last year of your university’s baccalaureate graduates that had two or more years of university level Mandarin.
(4) For Oregon to reach its maximum economic well being (or for other reasons that you should describe), what percentage in your opinion of your university’s annual baccalaureate graduates in the year 2015 should have spent four weeks or more in China?
(5) How many academic years of Mandarin at your university would prepare a student to live on his or her own in China without another English speaker around?
Comments:
You will have Oregon’s most knowledgeable and thoughtful minds on the topic of China before your Subcommittee. I believe they will give you a great briefing on the scope of the challenges and opportunities that a rising China presents. If not, ask the hard questions. I am confident they will describe the various faculty and university connections to China. And, in that regard, I believe Oregon has a solid academic infrastructure on China studies and Mandarin and many great connections to China. The missing pieces are the undergraduate students taking Mandarin in significant numbers and studying in China in significant numbers. I do not think we have these. I have seen no figures on numbers of students taking Mandarin, so the data you have asked for will be interesting and significant.
However, the Oregon University System does report the number of students studying abroad and the enrollment of international students. The 2003-04 report (the latest I have seen online) shows that too few Oregon University System students are studying abroad. And those that do are not studying in the countries most important for our economic and security future. Data from the report Enrollment by OUS Students in Study Abroad Programs, 2003-04 shows that of 1,877 Oregon University System students who studied abroad (2.25% of the total enrollment of 79,558) only 35 studied abroad in China (1.86% of students studying abroad and 0.044% of total enrollment). Looking further at several of the large, rapidly developing countries, the data is worse. 3 students studied aboard in Brazil, 1 in India, and 6 in Russia. Looking to other Asian countries, 161 students studied abroad in Japan, 1 in Mongolia, 1 in Nepal, and 28 in Thailand. Additional Asian counties, such as Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines are not listed. On the other hand, there were 637 students from Chinese speaking countries (China had 358 and Taiwan 279) for the fall 2004 Oregon University System headcount. The Chinese student are about 0.8% of total headcount and 17.1% of the 3,724 foreign students studying in the Oregon University System. Japan had 685 students, South Korea 410 and India 315.
Perhaps the numbers have improved since 2003-04.
The problem may be how to motivate students to study Mandarin. Mandarin is hard and it takes time. My proposal is to offer as an incentive a full scholarship for a four week study abroad in China adventure to any university student who completes one academic year of Mandarin (repeatable for second year, etc.). But seek other ideas. I think the Legislature can play an important role in shaping some goals (see below) for the Oregon University System relating to undergraduate student Mandarin proficiencies and to undergraduate study abroad in China. “For the well being of Oregon, how many students do we need to have studying Mandarin and studying in China? By when? Studying for how long? And how many do we have now?” These, I would suggest, are the question for you to focus on with your thinking, discussions, questions, data collection, and goal setting.
FYI, I have suggested the following: “The Goals for connecting Oregon and China through educational programs by the year 2015 are that (a) 5% or more of Oregon students graduating from high school have studied Mandarin for at least two academic years in high school and have spent at least four weeks in China, (b) 10% or more of the students graduating from Oregon public universities have studied Mandarin for at least two academic years, and (c) 50% of the students graduating from Oregon public universities have spent at least four weeks in China.”
FYI, I have also suggested $6 million in funding for Higher Education as part #12 of my “Oregon Comprehensive Mandarin Development Program Budget:"
“12. $6,000,000: Higher Education: Funding to State Board of Higher Education for student study in China, development of business internships in China, additional Mandarin courses and administrative overhead. Board of Higher Education can allocate, but must fund at least 1,000 students (can include community college students) who, each having taken one year of college level Mandarin, spend at least four weeks in China and administrative costs cannot exceed 10% ($600,000). Suggest Board of Higher Education use “take Mandarin for an academic year and we will send you to China for four weeks” approach. Corporate and foundation funding is preferred, but State of Oregon funding should provide what they do not.”
I know some of my ideas seem far from today’s possibilities. Future historian, I fear, may find them too conservative for the challenges that face us and our children.
Thanks for your time. Sorry for the long email. I am going to send this email to the full House Education Committee, the presenters and perhaps others. And I will also post it on my website.
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