As the annual sessions of the top legislative body and political advisory body continue, China Daily collected questions on issues that netizens care most about and solicited answers from political advisers, legislators and senior government officials.

The question

How does the government feel about the increase in the number of Chinese students who have been leaving in their thousands to study abroad?

A netizen who goes by the name "Kate"

The answer

I think we should respect the choice of students studying abroad. With economic development, an increasing number of families in China are able to afford the expense of children studying overseas. I totally understand parents' hopes that children will sharpen their foreign language skills and broaden their outlook through experiences overseas.

At the same time though, we should note that the short supply of quality higher education resources in our country is also driving more students overseas.

China has thousands of higher education institutions but few are world class and most students fail in the extremely fierce competition to gain admission to China's top universities.

Under such circumstances, rather than attend a less prestigious Chinese university that might rank 30th or 40th in the country, many will choose one that ranks 30th or 40th in the United States because they are thought to be better than regular universities in China. So, I think the overall quality of higher education in our country should be improved if we want to keep students here.

(China Daily)