odin

Emerging Market Equities Now Far More Interesting than U.S. Market

This is exactly the point.

While quantity (esp. obtained at a cheap price) can make up some of the shortfall, quality still matters a lot.

The perception that BOTH quality and quantity of graduates is high comes from the fact most of the Indian and Chinese graduates the west encounters are the best and the brightest.

However, in both those countries, because of the competitive job market, having a advanced degree becomes the equivalent of having a HS degree here. It doesnt matter what you know, you need to have the paper credentials (from someone...anyone). Hence the proliferation of low-tier educational institutions that will grant vast amount of degrees. Students (with ability and will) are not the only input in producing high quality graduates. You need other resources as well, which are still lacking.

It will continue to get better, but the myth that there are simply hordes of Indian/Chinese graduates waiting to compete with western grads is simply not true. (However, it is true that a large majority of grads in western institutions do come from abroad--usually the best & brightest--but generally, they add to the workpool in their adopted countries rather than their native lands.)



On May 21 08:56 AM Expat in Tokyo wrote:

> I work and live in Tokyo and have lived here 5 of the last 12 years.
> You are naive to think that every student that graduates in China
> or India have received equivelant educations as American students.
>
>
> I am an engineer manager and have been for 15 years. Only around
> 25-30% of the Chinese engineers are equivilent to US engineering
> graduates They are getting better every year. But the vast majority
> are not nearly as productive as the US or Japanese engineers. Their
> schools as are not as good as US and Western universities and will
> not be for a while. The Indian technical schools are good, but they
> are few in number.
>
> With that fact base on my experience in Asia there still are a heck
> of lot of Chinese and Indian graduates each year.
>
> So the American technical workforce is still the world's best overall
> and will remain so for the next 25 years. Yes, the rest of the world
> is gaining but not anywhere near the rate that many people prophetize
> - who only look at the raw numbers of students!