每日英语：China's Middle-Class Parents Underwhelmed by Undergrad Degree

As students, businesses and educators in the U.S. ponder whether the master's degree is the new bachelor's degree, China's well-off tiger parents appear to have already decided.

ponder：思考     well off：小康

Three-quarters of middle-class Chinese parents expect their child to earn a postgraduate degree, while only 32% said they would be happy if their child stopped at the undergraduate level, according to a report on the lifestyles of China's so-called 'little emperors' by Mintel, a global market research provider.

postgraduate degree：研究生学历  

'Little emperors' refers to single children born under the auspices of China's one-child policy who are often spoiled by overactive parents and grandparents. Mintel estimates there are 50 million or more little emperors in China at present, with 35 million qualifying as middle class.

 auspices：主持   

This report surveyed a sample of 1,500 middle-class Chinese people between the ages of 20 and 49 who are classified as middle-class with a single child younger than 16.

Middle-class people are defined in the report as those who earn more than 7,000 yuan ($1,110) per month in so-called Tier 1 cities like Beijing and Shanghai, or yuan 5,000 ($793) per month in Tier 2 cities like Tianjin or Chengdu.They are mostly white-collar office workers in either state or private business, self-employed or SME business owners, according to Mintel.

The pressure to pursue a higher degree may be motivated in part by the tough job market for college graduates in China. The country churned out more than 6 million college graduates last year, with about 570,000 failing to find jobs half a year after graduation, according to official statistics. Many highly coveted civil service jobs now require a master's degree from job applicants, meaning further is increasingly seen as a stepping stone to the lifetime salary and benefits known in China the 'iron rice bowl.'

coveted：令人垂涎的      churn out：生成出  

A record 1.5 million people registered for China's civil service exam this year in an effort to nab one of only 20,000 government jobs.

While they face rising expectations from their parents, middle-class Chinese kids also appear to enjoy greater access to top flight education. Two thirds of middle-class children in the cities attend highly competitive 'key schools' that feed into top universities, with the rest attending regular state schools (19%) and private fee-paying schools (9%), Mintel found.

feed into：送入    

'Either they (middle class kids) are performing better, or due to family connections (guanxi) or monetary influence they have access to schools and opportunities that less affluent children do not,' said Liam Russell, Strategic Marketing Manager of Mintel Asia Pacific.

 affluent：富裕的    

Compared to their Western peers, Chinese kids in middle-class families face more pressure in school, the report says. 'There simply aren't enough places at enough good universities for all the Little Emperors capable of attending and passing the required exams,' said Paul French, Chief China Market Strategist at Mintel. 'Therefore, the pressure on children is immense as academic success is both the path to a good future and also not available to all.'

 immense：巨大的               obsession：困扰

Most middle-class parents grew up during the Cultural Revolution, when many of the country's universities closed down or stopped accepting students, which might also explain the obsession with higher education. 'They want this for their kids,' said Mr. French.