At least according to the BBC.

By way of elearnspace, I discovered this BBC article arguing for a new benchmark for superpowerdom – number of degrees awarded in a country. And China’s winning.

Building on Peavine’s post from last week, it is becoming more and more clear that in a global society, education is one of the most important factors driving individual and national success. Education drives up individual income, which in turn drives up the economy and stifles crime. Education increases political participation. It empowers women, who, as it turns out, are the backbones of most developing economies.

The BBC article in particular is measuring university education (much easier to quantify than elementary and secondary education, especially in developing countries). China now awards more college degrees than the U.S. and India combined. This, of course, is partly a factor of their sheer size, but when you consider the lingering cultural effects of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, it’s damned impressive. The percentage of China’s population with college degrees has jumped from 10% to 20% in less than a decade.

Does this mean you need to be rushing across the Pacific to get your college degree? Not necessarily. For now, American college degrees are still seen as the pinnacle of educational achievement. But if you’re envisioning a global career (and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be), you might want to add Mandarin classes to your course schedule.