A growing number of doctoral graduates from elite global and domestic universities are bypassing traditional careers in academia and research to take jobs as secondary school teachers in China's major cities, driven by an oversupplied labor market and fierce competition for university posts.

According to a recently published roster of prospective hires at Shenzhen Middle School, all 21 incoming teachers hold master's degrees or higher, including five with Ph.D.s.

The group features elite talent from top institutions: a Tsinghua University electrical engineering Ph.D. hired to teach high school math, a University of Cambridge electrical engineering Ph.D. hired for physics, a Fudan University materials physics Ph.D. for chemistry and a University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Ph.D. recruited as a math Olympiad coach.

The trend is not entirely new for the school. In 2017, Principal Zhu Huawei stated that as the bellwether for basic education in Shenzhen, the school should strive to become a world-class institution.

By 2019, it made waves on social media with a hiring list featuring 20 graduates from Tsinghua and Peking University, alongside one from Harvard University.

Currently, Shenzhen Middle School employs more than 100 teachers with doctoral degrees, over 150 graduates from Tsinghua and Peking, and more than 100 alumni of top global institutions like Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge.

The phenomenon extends beyond Shenzhen. Key middle and high schools in tier-one and tier-two cities are increasingly packed with elite Ph.D.s.

In 2021, the Affiliated High School of South China Normal University hired 40 new teachers, nine of whom were Ph.D.s or postdocs from institutions including Peking, Tsinghua and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

For its 2025 recruitment cycle, Suzhou High School hired 13 new teachers, including 10 graduates from Tsinghua and Peking, and eight with doctoral degrees.

The shift has sparked public debate over the perceived underemployment of highly trained researchers.

Qi Yifan, a Tsinghua optical engineering Ph.D. who will join Tianjin No.1 High School as a physics teacher in 2025, defended his choice on social media. Qi noted that helping hundreds of students enter top universities could yield a greater contribution to society than working in an isolated research post.

Lucrative compensation packages also play a significant role. In 2019, Shenzhen's Longhua District offered starting annual salaries of 260,000 yuan ($36,600) for teachers with bachelor's degrees and 280,000 yuan for those with master's degrees, plus a 200,000 yuan bonus for full-time Ph.D.s and priority access to talent housing.

Guangzhou offers moving allowances of 100,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan for incoming Ph.D.s, while Shengzhou in Zhejiang province provides housing subsidies of up to 1.05 million yuan for Ph.D.s from Tsinghua and Peking.

Behind this trend is a stark macroeconomic reality: China's pool of doctoral graduates is expanding rapidly, but the supply of high-quality jobs has failed to keep pace. According to the Ministry of Education, the annual number of Ph.D. graduates in China surged 82% from 53,700 in 2014 to 97,200 in 2024. The total number of enrolled doctoral students more than doubled during the same period, rising from 312,700 to 676,300.

Traditional employment avenues for Ph.D.s, such as universities and research institutes, are experiencing severe supply-demand imbalances and excessive competition.

In 2023, Liu Shengjun, a professor at the Civil Aviation University of China, estimated that domestic universities offer only about 35,000 jobs annually, including administrative and logistics roles, resulting in a supply-to-demand ratio of nearly three to one for academic posts.

Universities also widely enforce an up-or-out tenure-track system. Young Ph.D.s face intense pressure to publish papers and secure grants within a three- to six-year evaluation period, with failure resulting in transfer or dismissal. This leaves young academics in a chronic state of anxiety.

Meanwhile, jobs in the private sector, such as internet and tech companies, come with high volatility and career uncertainty. In contrast, positions at premium high schools provide stability, social respect and room for professional growth, making them an attractive safe haven for elite Ph.D.s.

Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said the public should respect this mutual choice and recognize the current employment and educational realities. Securing a teaching job at a top high school is now a strong career outcome for elite Ph.D.s, Xiong noted.

As local governments reduce teacher recruitment due to shifting demographics, high-credentialed graduates will inevitably face underemployment unless demand for research and development roles increases.

For the basic education sector, attracting top-tier Ph.D.s aligns with a push for higher quality schooling. These educators bring robust research backgrounds, broad academic perspectives and rigorous analytical skills, potentially breaking traditional classroom boundaries and bolstering innovative education, academic competitions and research-based learning.

However, top academic credentials do not automatically translate to teaching excellence. Xiong cautioned that schools should assess candidates based on their teaching aptitude rather than obsessing over elite degrees.

Schools must avoid using the concentration of Ph.D.s or top-university alumni as vanity metrics and instead focus on providing the professional support needed to transform elite graduates into exceptional educators, he said.

here is the English-language online news portal of Chinese financial and business news media group Caixin. Nikkei has an agreement with the company to exchange articles in English.