China is gearing up towards expanding its pool of international students. In 2015, Vice Premier Liu Yandong stated that the government planned to increase the number of international students in China to 500,000 by the end of 2020. As of 2018, there were 492,185 international students in China so the Vice Premier’s statements seem to be coming to fruition. The massive rise in the popularity of China as a study abroad destination could be attributed to many factors. The principle factors include favorable government policies, economic factors, and the rising prestige of Chinese universities.

Related Government Policies

The ‘Double World Class Project’ was launched in 2015 with the aim of strengthening the reputation and performance of China’s top-ranked universities. In addition, China’s massive “One Belt, One Road” development has been a powerful lever for these academic links. Backed by a USD 50 billion investment fund, the strategy is targeting new projects and partnerships along traditional Silk Road trade routes throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa. Due to the movement to expand student markets, more than half of these students are coming from other counties in Asia.

Economic Factors

According to survey respondents in this article from the Association for Studies in International Education titled “the Emergence of a Regional Education Hub: Rationales of International Students’ Choice of China as the Study Destination”, the main factors are the affordability of Chinese universities along with the availability of scholarships, and the growth of the Chinese economy in recent years. The article states that, “China’s rising economic weight in the world has become an important driving force for pulling international students to study in China.”

Prestige of Chinese Universities

While universities in the United States and the UK still dominate the top 100 list of global university rankings, China is leading Asian universities in the 2019 World University Rankings. Beijing’s own Tsinghua University leads all eastern hemisphere universities as the top institution in Asia by being ranked 22^nd in the world as of 2019. China’s focus in improving the quality of education in their first-tier universities has played a significant role in pulling in a greater number of international students to the country.

Sam Langton from Venture Education, which is a Beijing-based consultancy driving UK excellence in education, entrepreneurship, and employability, as well as one of the members of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, shared his opinions with beijingkids about the growth of China as the next big study abroad destination in Asia:

“China still has a way to go before it can be seen as a truly major international education destination. If you look at the government’s recent data on the top fifteen source countries of international students in China for example, thirteen of the fifteen are in Asia, and nine of these border with China. What’s more, in 2016, 53 percent of students were enrolled in short term, non-degree programs, often Mandarin programs, as opposed to full degree programs. Although the proportion of students on full degree programs has been on the rise, it will be difficult to compete with universities in the UK, USA, and Australia, countries in which English is the primary language of all degree programs.”

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