For a country like China, which has nearly 10 million square kilometers of land and a population of 1.2 billion, it is naturally a big country. The rapid development of China can be regarded as a reform dividend, a demographic dividend, and a market dividend, and reform is the most important.

But these dividends will disappear sooner or later, the faster China develops, the faster the dividends will disappear, and the development of labor-intensive industries mainly benefits from the demographic dividend, but with the mainland's family planning policy, at most twenty or thirty years later, the demographic dividend will disappear, and then the mainland will have to face the problem of population aging.

From dividends to burdens, the transition is so fast.

However, the birth policy is unlikely to be abolished anytime soon, because after all, the burden on the state and society caused by the 1.2 billion population is also very large, and the state cannot afford the consequences of sustained and rapid population growth.

In a sense, the expansion of higher education has indeed accelerated the mainland's advantage in labor-intensive industries to a certain extent, because in 20 years, the gross enrolment rate of higher education in the mainland will exceed 50 percent, which means that half of the school-age population will enter universities, and for these people who have received higher education, they will certainly not be able to accept jobs and low wages in labor-intensive industries, which will directly cut the potential labor force in labor-intensive industries by half.

In addition, the development of the tertiary industry will also absorb a large number of school-age population, which leads to fewer and fewer people willing to engage in monotonous and repetitive labor-intensive industries, and some factories often have labor shortages.

However, the explosive growth of higher education has indeed increased the level of education of the people in the mainland. When answering why Apple produces iPhones in the mainland, Apple once said that only in the mainland can it find a sufficient number of technical engineers. Mobile phone OEM is not a high-tech, but precision production requires a large number of engineers, without the great development of higher education, it is probably difficult for the mainland to have so many engineers, industrial upgrading will be even more difficult.

From the perspective of a person who has come before, there are indeed many problems with the explosive growth of higher education in the mainland, because after all, doubling in two years and expanding the number of colleges and universities by 100 a year is contrary to the law of development of higher education. On the one hand, this crude growth method has raised the overall level of higher education, and on the other hand, it is inevitably mixed. It is quite realistic for the modeatists to worry about the problem of higher education resources.

However, there are many practical implications for the current government to expand the scale of higher education. The decline in the mainland's economic growth in the past two years is not only due to cyclical reasons, but also to structural problems and reform problems, and the reform of state-owned enterprises is very important in the long run to break the shackles of economic development and activate the potential of economic development. But for now, it is also necessary to look at the troika of economic growth: exports, investment and consumption.

In terms of exports, under the influence of the financial crisis, the currencies of Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and other countries have depreciated, while the Chinese dollar, which is firmly pegged to the US dollar, has risen in relative value, and the result of the appreciation has caused the price competitiveness of products produced in the mainland to decline relative to those of Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asian countries.

In terms of investment, the growth rate of investment is not slow, but affected by the reform of state-owned enterprises, the fiscal situation is also relatively tight, although the government adheres to a proactive fiscal policy, but due to the impact of fiscal tightness, the scale of fiscal expansion is also limited, and relying only on government investment in infrastructure is not a long-term solution.

Relatively speaking, the pull of consumption to the economy is relatively healthy, and the government has been trying to stimulate mass consumption, proposing new housing reform policies, and promoting the development of real estate is one thing, and the reform of higher education fees and the expansion of the scale of higher education are also related to this.

According to statistics, mainland families account for 40 percent of their consumption on education, which shows that mainland families attach great importance to the education of their offspring, so the government hopes to promote the consumer economy by expanding the scale of higher education, and some people even shout the slogan of industrialization of higher education. Of course, this slogan was more controversial and was later retracted, but in these two years, this statement does have a certain market.

The expansion of the scale of higher education has stimulated consumption not only those collected by colleges and universities, but also the addition of five or six hundred thousand college students every year, which has driven consumption after this group has moved to the city. In addition, the expansion of higher education has also made the university entrance examination a hot topic, if only a small part of the school-age population will apply for the university entrance examination, then in the case of the gross enrollment rate and the college entrance examination acceptance rate have increased significantly, more and more people will apply for the university, and the consumption driven by this will affect the entire high school, and even junior high school students and related families, and this group includes tens of millions of middle school students and tens of millions of families. This is the real impact of the public of higher education in the future, in the past, the university entrance examination was only a small number of people's business, after the expansion of higher education, it will become everyone's business, and some of them will continue to pursue a better education, which will have an impact on the education and training market and the study abroad market.

In addition, expanding the scale of higher education can also help alleviate the current employment pressure. The biggest contradiction in society in the past two years has been the problem of laid-off workers, migrant workers, and unemployed youths, resulting in a very high actual unemployment rate at present, and after the expansion of the scale of higher education, colleges and universities will absorb an additional 500,000 or 600,000 young people of school-age every year, and at the same time as colleges and universities expand their enrollment, the scale of middle schools will also expand, and some of the young people who would have entered the society for employment will enter high schools and universities, and the jobs created after the expansion will reduce the demand for employment by millions or even tens of millions every year.

Liang Jianwu was able to serve as the Xingang Office, so he naturally knew the background of the controversy, game and decision-making behind the expansion of higher education, so he paid special attention to Bao Feiyang when he contacted several universities in Xingang.

Compared with the expansion of the scale of colleges and universities, it will undoubtedly be more difficult to improve the academic level and education level of colleges and universities, for which the country has also launched the 211 project and the 985 project, which is also hoped to establish a number of world-class famous schools while expanding the scale, but this task is obviously a long way to go.

Bao Feiyang plans to introduce an international vision and teaching atmosphere to the construction of Huixun District University Town through cooperation with universities in Xingang, so that Huixun District University Town is different from ordinary university towns, and Liang Jianwu still agrees with this. Since its own accumulation is not enough, it is a good way to solve it through introduction and exchange, and the development of Xingang University of Science and Technology is enough to illustrate this.

However, the situation in the mainland is different from that in Xingang. In addition to the problem of running a school, there will be many restrictions in management, enrollment and other aspects, relatively speaking, funding is not a problem that Bao Feiyang is worried about, he knows very well that what mainland universities lack in the future is not money, but real scholars and masters, as well as the quality of education.

"That's a good idea of yours......"

Liang Jianwu glanced at Bao Feiyang and said, "Here in Xingang, if you need help, you can just tell me." I can also help you to get this cooperation included in the key projects of strengthening exchanges and cooperation between Xingang and the mainland, so that both Xingang and the mainland will provide some support and convenience for the project. At present, Xingang has been seeking a breakthrough in this area to revitalize Xingang's economy, so I think everyone will be more happy to see this project come to fruition. ”

Bao Feiyang nodded: "Then trouble Uncle Liang......"

Bao Feiyang thought for a while and said: "During this time, I have been studying the higher education of Xingang, which is above the standard in Asia and even the world, and if Xingang wants to strengthen its ties with the mainland, this is actually a very useful point." ”

Liang Jianwu smiled slightly: "Since last year, Xingang has increased the number of places for mainland college students, and also increased the number of students sent to the mainland. ”

"The international learning atmosphere of Xingang universities is still very attractive to mainland college students. Bao Feiyang nodded and said.

"In addition, I note that the New Town government proposed to build the New Town into the Oriental Boston in '97, and put forward the vision of building a regional talent training center and education hub, and it is likely that the New Town will promote the implementation of relevant plans in the future. At the heart of this idea is likely to be to expand the scale and quality of higher education in Metro and attract more international students from the Asia-Pacific region to study in Metro ......"

Xincheng and Xingang are relatively close in many ways, in terms of area, population, urbanized independent economy, free port, logistics and financial center, etc., and the two are now the world's largest and second largest ports respectively, and naturally there are frequent comparisons with each other, and they are also more concerned about each other.

Two years ago, Seaport put forward the vision of the Boston of the East, and invited experts from various countries to the counselor of Newtown, although there are no more concrete actions yet, but Newport has also taken note of this plan.

"During the financial crisis of '97, although the economic and financial system of Xincheng did not collapse, it suffered great losses, and the economy fell into a serious recession in the past two years. At this time, the leaders of Xincheng proposed to transform to a knowledge-based economy, and they put forward the vision of Oriental Boston at this time, which should be to use first-class higher education to attract outstanding talents from all over the world to Xincheng, and then stay in Xincheng to contribute to the knowledge economy of Xincheng, the core of which is to gather and cultivate local and international talents in the overseas diaspora. ”

Liang Jianwu sighed slightly: "Feiyang, do you think Xingang should follow up on the Oriental Boston plan of Xincheng?"

Bao Feiyang smiled and said: "Xingang's strength in higher education is no worse than Xincheng, Xingang also proposed to develop a new economy, the core of the new economy is knowledge and the Internet, the biggest feature is globalization, just with Xingang's local talents, how can they dominate the new economic wave of globalization?"