Join us for a free one-day workshop for educators at the Japanese American National Museum, hosted by the USC U.S.-China Institute and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. This workshop will include a guided tour of the beloved exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community, slated to close permanently in January 2025. Following the tour, learn strategies for engaging students in the primary source artifacts, images, and documents found in JANM’s vast collection and discover classroom-ready resources to support teaching and learning about the Japanese American experience.
Online Education in China
Online education has been a profitable and growing business. China's government has slammed the brakes on that.
August 12, 2021
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China's state and families spend big on education. Governments spent about 4% of the nation's GDP on schools in 2019 (compared to 3.2% in the U.S. in 2017). Private classes and tutoring is a US$120 billion industry in China. As technology has improved and with the shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic (which we covered in May 2020), the online education market grew to almost US$40 billion in 2020. That same year, investors poured US$8 billion of investment into online education companies in China. One startup, Yuanfudao, was valued at US$1.5 billion.
More than 75% of 6-18 year olds attended after school tutoring classes in 2016 and it isn't cheap. Parents spend an average of US$17,400 a year on tutoring for six hour a week—with some parents spending US$43,500 a year. This disadvantages children in rural areas where the average annual income is just US$2,635.
In an effort to ease the pressures of increasingly competitive educations on children, Chinese regulators have banned for-profit tutoring in core subjects. They have also banned tutoring for children under six years old and on weekends, public holidays, and school vacations. In addition to spending less time in font of textbooks, this will also ease the financial pressures of children on families and encourage a higher birth rate—which is necessary to support China's aging population.
The restrictions stopped the flow of money into these companies. The news triggered share prices of publicly traded tutoring firms to drop over 50%. New Oriental, an English-language and exam tutoring company, saw shares tumble from from a high of $19.68 in February to a low of $2.18 last Friday. While this is causing immediate changes in the education business, it may be a few years before we see the effects on test scores, student quality of life, and family finances. Together with measures toward tech companies, investors are being reminded that the party-state's priorities will come first.
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October 20, 2024
October 20, 2024
Please join us for the Grad Mixer! Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, Enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow students across USC Annenberg. Graduate students from any field are welcome to join, so it is a great opportunity to meet fellow students with IR/foreign policy-related research topics and interests.
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Events
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 - 3:00pm
Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow international students.
Thursday, November 7, 2024 - 4:00pm
Join us for an in-person conversation on Thursday, November 7th at 4pm with author David M. Lampton as he discusses his new book, Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War. The book examines the history of U.S.-China relations across eight U.S. presidential administrations.