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When Chuan He was first invited to start up a lab at Peking University in 2008, the first thing he did was notify his US employer—he’s a chemistry professor at the University of Chicago—of his plans. He’s been working part-time in China ever since, making sure he follows the rules so everyone knows about his international collaborations.

There is something economists call the college earnings premium – the amount of money college graduates earn in excess of people with high school diplomas. It amounts to about $32,000 more a year, according to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, and that gap widens every year. Of course, a higher paycheck isn’t the only reason students pursue higher education.