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China and Southeast Asian Nations Expand Study-Abroad Ties

August 22, 2011, 12:07 pm

Education links between China and Southeast Asian countries are on the rise, reports China’s official Xinhua news agency. New figures from the country’s ministry of education show that between 2008 and 2010, the number of students from Association of Southeast Asian Nations studying in China rose from 34,000 to 49,000. In that same time period, the number of Chinese students in Southeast Asia rose from around 68,000 to 82,000.

Liu Baoli, deputy director of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges at China’s Ministry of Education, noted that 31 Southeast Asian universities have 135 cooperation agreements with some 47 universities in China. Plans for the future include increasing the ability to mutually recognize countries’ diplomas.

Bolstering such higher-education ties within the region helps enhance economic ties and fosters cultural understanding, Xinhua said, pointing out that China aims to become the continent’s top destination for international students by 2020.

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  • elie_s_dad

    You gave very good advice.  I doubt I could do better.

    I think you touched on it, but the advice I would give to someone who feels like they are about to be fired is to 1) look for other opportunities and hope to find something else before anything happens and 2) do not engage in any unprofessional behavior in reaction to your imminent departure.  By the time you have a realization that things are going downhill fast, it’s often too late to salvage your current situation in a long-term fashion however there are a lot of things you can do to make your life harder on yourself when you are inevitably on the market again.

    In the end you will need a reference of some kind from your immediately preceding employer (it doesn’t have to be the supervisor who didn’t like you) but if you create professional conflicts, you can find this hard to come by.  For this and the importance of networking in the job hunt, it’s very important that you don’t burn any bridges, even ones you think you can do without at the time.

    It seems like simple advice but it is surprisingly hard to follow when you feel you’ve been wronged.  Best of luck to your student.

  • utsingwaca

     I think the first decision a soon-to-be-fired employee needs to make is
    whether to fight.  If there is no good, verifiable (documentable)
    evidence of grounds for termination, and the employee feels that this is
    an unfair situation due to something like a personality conflict,
    restructuring, or poor management, s/he may want to defend him/herself
    by threatening a lawsuit or other action.  This strategy should ONLY be
    used if the employee has good, verifiable (documentable) evidence of
    his/her satisfactory job performance, and should only be used as
    leverage to get a good severance. No one should want to stay in a job
    (or company perhaps) that is threatening to fire them, but they should
    get a severance package and a good reference if they have performed
    satisfactorily.  However, if the employee is being threatened with
    termination due to his/her unsatisfactory job performance for which the
    boss or company does have documentation, then s/he should accept it but
    negotiate for the option of being allowed to resign rather than be
    terminated.  That would be a graceful exit strategy and allow everyone
    to win.

  • 900484393

    I always enjoy your columns and this is exceptionally sound advice. After 20 years in management, I continue to be amazed by the number of people who are shocked to learn they’re being terminated. I’ve never seen a situation where the warning signs weren’t there for inclined observers to see. There are no guarantees in life; your advice – to always take the high road and have backup plans – is the only way to exit such situations with dignity.

  • joejoe1

    “Unfortunately, I suspect my former student was too inexperienced to see what a more seasoned person would recognize as obvious signs that his days were numbered.”

    I’d like to know what the advance signs of being fired are.  Thanks.

  • joejoe1

    Shocked?  Really?

    Sometimes people think they’re doing a good job and they get along with everyone.  Then suddenly, boom.  

  • queeracademic

    I’ll second what elie_s_dad said in their comment and just add:
    Unprofessional behavior is a no-no for sure.  Also, this extends to social media/networking sites.  Posting on Facebook about how awful your department and colleagues are is not exactly the best way to express your feelings about the situation.  Word gets out, no matter how much you think it won’t, and this could impact getting a reference from a close colleague later.

  • eudaimon

     ”There are no guarantees in life . . .”
    In just about any context, readers would find that truism, well, true. But in the CHE, many readers are professors with tenure and will thus have some difficulty understanding what you mean.

  • graddirector

     That is the problem.  I have seen many folks get fired over the years (Faculty and staff alike).  I have also dealt with similar issues in regard to graduate student terminations from our program.  For many of these folks, it does not matter that they have received several written notices of non-performance with the possibility of termination if this does not improve.  It always seems to come as a big surprise to the person when the hammer finally falls.  There seems to be a lot of denial in regard to not doing a job well and maybe some cognitive disconnect too.  Studies show that incompetent students/employees often rank themselves much higher than their performance would indicate while highly competent people often rank themselves as average or lower.

    While there are several posts here about unfair bosses picking on good employees, and it probably does happen, many if not most terminations are for appropriate cause.  The sad fact is that sometimes some personnel decisions are big mistakes.  The outcome of that is that the “mistake” gets fired.

  • inlibrarian

    Call me practical–there are a couple of other things I would do (I actually do these periodically now):  Make sure I have all my professional email contacts saved somewhere other than my work account and any important personal information moved off my computer or company email.  We all accumulate this stuff even though we know it is better left at home, but I have seen too many people blindsided and then immediately locked out of their accounts. 

    I periodically update a file of my work that is accessible on a shared drive and would be important to my department if I left suddenly.  This will at least have your coworkers singing your praises should any prospective employer inquire. I would also link to as many people as possible on LinkedIn while I was still employed.

    Another thing, I have seen a terse request for a meeting send a young worker into a panic when things weren’t that dire.  At most decent companies, a manager meets to discuss shortcomings and demand improvement well before firing.  If the employee rather humbly asks for concrete ways to improve his performance and regular feedback on how to improve, most managers are willing to give at least a little time to show improvement.  Firing someone and hiring another is a hassle that most managers will avoid, or at least delay, if possible.

  • bowl_haircut

    Good advice, Allison.  I’m assuming this was a non-academic job, yes?

  • http://www.facebook.com/RJsBlues Robert Johnson

    Always best to professional . . . revenge is a dish best served cold . . . how about this:  always document a history of your friendly informing management of their legal shortcomings: non-compliance and outright violations . . . then, when they terminate you, you can file a whistle-blowers case, which can be quite lucrative, and is inclined to get the boss who fired you terminated, or worse.

  • bbr123

    Nice article.

  • awegweiser

    Revenge is a funny thing. Too soon and they know who did it. Wait too long and you forget why you wanted to do it anyway.

  • lippertc

    Always professional.  Many states are hire/fire at will no matter the documentation (non academic).  Many below have offered excellent advice especially about the social network “revenge”.

  • lenci5362

    Great advice for recovering last minute; however, I learned that one should always be aware of what potential opportunities are out there, have an updated resume ready to go, and bear in mind that no one is indispensable.
    Also, do you really want to hang on to a job with an employer that was ready to fire you?

  • raymond_j_ritchie

    The best thing to do is to leave ASAP and make sure it is a divorce absolute.

  • a_vaillancourt

    Yes, it was a non-academic job.

  • a_vaillancourt

    An idea for a future column! I’m on it.

  • lexalexander

    Considering what passes for “feedback” and “evaluation” in most workplaces, I’m not shocked at all. Termination for chronic performance problems should *never* come as a surprise; it should be along the lines of “that stuff you’ve been nagging me about for six months.” (One-time events like an egregious act of sexual harassment, say, are another story entirely — but that shouldn’t be a surprise, either.)

  • echinoderms

    Early in my career I quit a nonprofit job after seven months when it became clear that my verbally abusive boss had put me on her s##t list and that there was no way to get off it without losing my dignity as a human. Putting myself on the job market again in a tight economy terrified me, but now, a decade later, I am very glad that I did. Quit/fired…the subtleties of a mutually recognized bad match fade over time, but how you handle yourself in the separation is the critical bit for being able to move on well.

    I remain deeply grateful that a colleague, who had watched the abuse I was absorbing and who knew that the boss had made an appointment to talk to me, took me aside, handed me a scrap of paper with a phone number, and told me to call her mentor for advice asap. That phone call was a sanity saver. After I described the situation, the borrowed mentor  said, “Wow. Um, yes, I think you will get fired tomorrow, though it’s likely, given that organization, that she’ll offer a behavior modification plan first to prolong the process. You need to focus on maintaining your dignity. Stay calm. Tell yourself you are there to listen; let her talk. Wiggle your toes in your shoes as stress relief. Seek to understand thoroughly her perspective so that if there is anything you can learn from her critique, you can. If/when she outlines a plan for behavior change, say that you would like time to absorb all the information before responding and agree with her on what day you will get back to her. Above all, stay calm and breathe, and do not cry. After the meeting consider your options and whether you are likely to suffer more by prolonging the job or by moving on. I know this is awful but someday it will be a distant memory. My mentee says you are a great colleague, so keep that in mind. Given what you’ve described, this crisis may be a good thing in the long run. Don’t let this job experience or this one boss define you. Good luck.” I have never had further contact with this elder professional, other than the thank you card I sent the next morning, but I am indebted to his compassion and spontaneous coaching to a stranger in a tight spot.

    That fateful Friday morning, I followed his advice, saw the boss and situation more clearly, and rather than accept further abuse, I quit the following Monday, in writing, very respectfully, giving the required amount of notice. Funny thing, the boss was shocked and flipped out that I was abandoning her.

    I know I did the right thing, despite the challenge of finding another job. Explaining the short duration of that position on my resume has been surprisingly easy, because it’s sandwiched between longer commitments, and most people recognize that sometimes getting out of a bad fit is a respectable action. I have never bad-mouthed the crazy boss (other than this post). I did once meet someone else who had worked for her in a different era, and when I said that I’d only worked for her only 7 months, she revealed her own horrible, prolonged experience and that it had taken a two years of therapy to get past the abusive mindset she’d contorted herself into in order to suck up to the boss’s craziness and keep her job.

    Ultimately the lesson I learned by quitting when I was about to be fired was that I must be honest and clear with myself about what I am willing and not willing to do in order to get a paycheck. I’m the only person who can control my behavior; it’s always a choice to be employed or not.

  • herbitsky

    All good advice, but one thing is missing. There are situations where the employee has taken a job errouneously (aka lied to) and then abused by managers who had no intention of being honorable in the first place. And who hasn’t heard (or experienced) the “new regime” coming in and cleaning house?? It would be wonderful to believe that most managers behave honorably, but why does it always end up being the employee’s negligence? I’m not talking about those who are living in denial, I’m talking about those dedicated, hard working employees that seem to be “toys” to people who have large egos and little hearts. Sad to say, our educational system is rife with EGO’s and political focus, rather than creating a dynamite workforce/team. When do we move from talking about “teamwork” doing actually living it?

  • smalltimeguru

    bad advice! obviously allison sounds like she works for HR. always be professional and stick it out and wait for the severance and get as much money as you can from the management. they have already made up their minds what they want or need to do — the only thing in question is how much it wil cost. you can always find another job with another employer who will pay you less than what you are making.

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