Some young students who were sent abroad to receive education by their parents have returned to China before completing their studies, the Beijing Morning Post reported yesterday.

Despite a tuition hike, the Master's of Business Administration programme at Tsinghua University has already had more than 4,000 applicants for next year. Ten candidates are competing for each opening in the programme.

They are mostly middle school and even primary school students, whose expenses were covered by their families. Some of them were sent abroad when they were only four or five. They felt foreign environment did not suit them and that the education in foreign countries is no better than in Beijing.

Education experts have repeatedly urged Chinese parents not to blindly put their faith in foreign education. And severing children's ties to Chinese culture at a young age is not good for their development, the experts said.

(11/16/2001 China Daily)