Note: This article incorrectly states that 72 per cent of Toronto’s Chinese-Canadian students apply to university compared to 42 per cent of those born in Canada. In fact, according to Toronto District School Board statistics, 72 per cent of Toronto students born in East Asia apply to university compared to 42 per cent of those born in Canada who speak English.

Long admired for raising academic superstars, parents of Asian background are coming under fire from their own community for pushing their children into university programs for which many have no real interest or talent and often quit in distress.

At a recent conference hosted by and for the GTA’s Asian community, Chinese-Canadian educators and professionals warned some 300 parents in Mandarin, Cantonese and English to stop giving their children no other choice than professional courses such as engineering, medicine, accounting or pharmacy — programs for which some are so ill-equipped and uninterested they drop out, fail, get suspended for cheating or suffer depression and acute anxiety.

And this growing Asian presence on campus is sparking concerns about the cultural balance within Canada’s ivory tower, according to a report in Maclean’s magazine’s latest university rankings, to be released Wednesday.

“There is such extreme pressure from immigrant parents on children, especially east Asian, that many of them collapse under the pressure — it’s shocking,” said conference co-chair Maria Yau, research coordinator with the Toronto District School Board, who moved to Canada in 1995 from Hong Kong. Her son is bucking the trend by studying liberal arts at Niagara College in hopes of becoming a kindergarten teacher.

“The east Asian community needs a wake-up call that we know won’t be popular,” said Yau. “Even though our children always seem to have high enough marks to get into university, the hidden truth is that they don’t always have the independence or social skills to survive once they’re there.”

With a staggering 72 per cent of Toronto’s Chinese-Canadian students applying to university compared to 42 per cent of those born in Canada, some are starting to ask if Canadian universities are becoming “too Asian,” according to the article in Maclean’s 20th annual university guide, on newsstands Thursday.

While acknowledging the topic may seem racist, Maclean’s suggests the growing profile of students of Asian heritage on many campuses is fuelling resentment among some non-Asian students and even concerns among some university administrators about the demographic make-up of their student bodies.

“An ‘Asian’ school has come to mean one that is so academically focused that some students feel they can no longer compete or have fun,” the article says, quoting non-Asian high school students who say they wouldn’t choose the University of Toronto because it’s largely Asian.

U of T provost Cheryl Misak told the Star she finds such comments “rather alarming, and I am heartened they have not surfaced in any substantial way at the U of T.”

The article quotes non-Asian undergraduates complaining their Chinese and Korean classmates don’t mingle with others — a charge conference co-chair Nicole Wong reluctantly admits rings true.

“A lot of our young people get good enough marks to get into university, but they have low confidence and no friends to talk to and no way to express their feelings and no connection outside their community,” said the founder of Markham-based Across U-Hub, a group that promotes activities to encourage Asian youth to get to know people of other backgrounds.

The group co-hosted the conference “East Asian Parents: Multiple Pathways to Success.” Chinese-Canadian professors, educators and professionals urged parents to let their children consider community college, skilled trades or even liberal studies at university.

Of some 20 per cent of Toronto public high school students of east Asian background, fully 85 per cent of their parents say they expect their children to go to university, according to a 2008 TDSB survey, compared to 78 per cent of South Asian parents, 59 per cent of white parents and 49 per cent of black parents.

In contrast, east Asians have the lowest rate of attendance at community college — only 8 per cent, compared to 14 per cent for Canadian-born.

Yau said it’s not “natural” for any group to have so many students heading for university. “Can they really all be qualified or emotionally ready for that kind of learning?”

Wong notes the Confucian tradition of respect for hard work and obedience “often overlooks creative skills and leadership and social skills. The focus on studying makes problems for our youth; if they get 95 per cent, parents will ask what happened to the other five per cent.”

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Sociology professor Eric Fong told parents at the conference the east Asian students he teaches at the University of Toronto tend to memorize the textbook but rarely speak up in class. “Yes, they get good marks, but that is all I know about them,” which makes it tough to write letters of reference. He urged parents to encourage their children to reach beyond their social circles to get to know classmates and professors.

Recent university student Vivian Lo told the conference she had studied medicine, only to hit a bleak job market so she took a job in reporting that led to college studies in architecture that landed her a government job she loves assessing the architecture of medical buildings.

To the parents she said, “There is nothing to lose in trying new things.”