Editor's Introduction

Contemplating the multiple sources of tension building within their academic communities in 1988, Chinese university educators identified among other things the growing gap between student aspirations and existing employment opportunities. The problem was not lack of jobs or too many college graduates. Rather, there was only an insufficient supply of the openings graduates had come to expect as big city employers replenished their stock of tertiary-trained expertise after the Cultural Revolution. By 1988, however, most such preferred work units were full, while positions at the "basic levels" remained empty from one year to the next for want of college graduates willing to accept such positions.