Young Tibetans in Pursuit of Higher Education

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 30, 2002

Young Tibetans in Pursuit of Higher Education

An increasing number of bright young Tibetans are working hard to seek higher education as the autonomous region's economy booms and local Tibetans' living standards improve.

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An increasing number of bright young Tibetans are working hard to seek higher education as the autonomous region's economy booms and local Tibetans' living standards improve.

Soinam Yanggyi, who completed her college education last year, is preparing to go to the United States for advanced studies at the University of California at Berkeley this August.

"My study at the U.S. will be at my own expense, which will be no small sum, but my mother told me to learn more at my age and promised to help me out even by borrowing money," said Soinam Yanggyi.

Soinam Yanggyi's family has a higher-than-average income in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region.

Dawa, along with nine other students from Tibet University and Tibetan Medicine College, who have just obtained their master's degrees, are the first group of postgraduate students trained by colleges of higher learning based in Tibet.

"Study fill me with joy and I plan to work for a doctorate if there is a chance to do so," said 36-year-old Dawa. "Because of mystudies, I choose not to get married early. After obtaining my master's degree this year, I made up mind to get married soon."

Ma Guangyao, deputy head of the Tibet Education Science Institute, said the fact that young Tibetans love to pursue and value all the more higher education nowadays was closely related to the demand of social development in Tibet and increasing international exchanges.

In the 1980s, many young Tibetans preferred studying at secondary technical schools and to get jobs at their earlier age, though the regional government issued a set of special policies toencourage them to attend colleges or universities and receive higher education, said Ma.

"Tibet is now engulfed by an upsurge of education as the demand for skills of higher education rises sharply," said Ma.

Lhaba, a third grader with Tibet University, dedicated every minute of his time to study on campus instead of taking a summer vacation. He hopes to qualify for postgraduate studies.

"There are more chances for a master's degree and I want to do postgraduate courses in Tibetan studies," said Lhaba. At Tibet University, there are now three centers conferring masters degrees.

Many young Tibetans are longing to do postgraduate studies in institutions of higher learning based in the China's interior areas because of the limitations placed on specialties and number of students working for masters degrees within Tibet.

In past years, Tibet signed agreements with interior colleges and universities in training postgraduate students on cooperative terms. There are now 94 Tibetans working for masters degrees at the People's University of China, 18 at Tianjin University and another 20 at Sichuan University.

Self-study is another approach to chance for higher education. Degyi, of the Land Resources Bureau of Tibet, qualified for postgraduate studies at the People's University of China in 2000, but had to quit half a year later on health grounds. Since her return to Tibet, she has not slackened to the least her efforts and now has three senior academic titles in economics, accounting and statistics.

"I have been fully preparing for getting myself qualified for a master of business administration (MBA) course," said Degyi.

A total of 86 Tibetans have acquired MBAs or certificates of MBA studies from training centers jointly operated in Tibet by theTibetan Regional Commission of Economy and Trade, Sichuan University, and Sichuan Business Administration College.

Statistics show that the number of Tibetans with higher education has been growing at an alarming speed in the past 11 years.

To date, 33,000 people in Tibet have received a college education, accounting for 1.3 percent of the local population, farhigher than the national average.

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