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The UCLA Higher Education Research Institute's Cooperative Institutional Research Program conducts an annual survey of college seniors to assess attitudes toward different aspects of their college experience. We received permission to survey students on a campus in China and gave a subset of 128 of these questions to 385 students at Lanzhou University, China. The results highlight attitudinal differences toward education in China and the United States and shed light on how different educational systems produce different results.This work is relevant for at least two reasons. This paper provides insights into reforms that can be considered in both systems. The differences between the Chinese and American educational systems are profound. While large parts of society in China have been reformed since the opening in 1979, the Chinese educational system remains largely intact and structurally unreformed. Looking at areas where satisfaction is greater in each system can help provide insight into reforms that might be considered in both.This paper also offers a glimpse of one aspect of China's future. China is rapidly increasing its investment in higher education in the hope of growing a knowledge economy. The success of this endeavor will rest in large part on the ability of the graduates to contribute to society. Chinese student attitudes toward their educational experience will shed light on how successful this investment has been and ways it can be improved. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1999, the Chinese government began the Western Development Program in an effort to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the western regions of the country, as the income disparity between the eastern and western half of the country was growing acute. This program has been successful in some ways but has not had the impact that was intended.The authors argue that FDI will not flow to the western regions in any great quantity for a number of structural reasons and that a different approach is needed to promote growth in the western portion of the country. The approach advocated is knowledge based and is possible in China because of the high degree of state control over higher education that exists in China today.By allowing a select number of schools in the western regions of China to provide a more westernized higher education experience (including allowing students to choose their major), China can attract some of the brightest minds to the more economically backward portions of the country. This has the twin benefits of helping to remove the stigma of moving to the western regions of the country and infusing highly educated individuals in the western regions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]