BEIJING: Graduates returning from some prestigious higher education institutions overseas will be eligible to apply for civil service positions in some regions, through a dedicated channel that was previously only reserved for their counterparts from topnotch domestic colleges, according to several local governments. In China, there are mainly two ways for fresh graduates to compete for a government job. The majority of young applicants sit the highly competitive annual national-level or provincial-level examinations for civil servants.
In the latest round that took place in January, there were more than 1.95 million applicants, with about one in 41 being recruited.
The other approach is to enroll in a program that will send applicants to grassroots positions in rural or less-developed areas for two to three years. Part of the appeal lies in that they are more likely to be assigned higher-level positions upon returning. The second approach, commonly referred to as the “selected and assigned graduates”, also carries additional requirements, including that applicants must be a member of the Communist Party of China, hold a leadership role in student unions on campus or have been awarded national-level scholarships that are closely associated with academic grades. For years, the channel was only accessible to graduates from elite universities in China, such as Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing and Fudan University in Shanghai. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
