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Friday, 27 March 2009
More than 220,000 foreigners studying at mainland campuses
The number of foreigners studying on the mainland exceeded 200,000 for the first time last year as more students were drawn by the country’s growing economic clout and government publicity campaigns.
More than 220,000 foreigners studying at mainland campuses
Raymond Li 26 March 2009
The number of foreigners studying on the mainland exceeded 200,000 for the first time last year as more students were drawn by the country’s growing economic clout and government publicity campaigns.
The Ministry of Education said yesterday that the number of foreign students admitted to mainland institutions rose by 14.3 per cent year on year to 223,000 last year.
Thirty years earlier, in 1978, there were just over 1,000 foreign students on the mainland.
The ministry said people from 189 countries were studying in 592 mainland universities, with South Korea, the United States and Japan the top three sources.
To break down its international isolation, mainland authorities launched student exchange programmes with a handful of “friendly” countries from the communist bloc in the late 1940s.
But as the country’s economy grew at breakneck speed over the past 30 years and its financial clout rose, officials and academics became increasingly interested in nurturing the country’s “soft power”. A growing interest in the study of Putonghua and the increasing number of overseas students are seen as key indicators of that power.
The number of Confucius Institutes, a government-backed initiative to promote Chinese studies worldwide, had increased to 305 in 78 countries by the end of last year, an indication of rising global infatuation with the Chinese language.
Zhang Xiuqin, director of the Ministry of Education’s Department of International Co-operation Exchange, said the nation had come a long way in terms of the number of overseas students, but it was far from making money from the sector or luring elite international specialists.
“All we want to achieve is to train some people [from other countries] who know the country and show goodwill towards us,” Ms Zhang said.
The central government raised funding for foreign students in China last year and the number of foreigners on government scholarships rose by nearly a third to 13,516.
Ms Zhang said people from overseas had enrolled in almost all fields of study, with more than 60 per cent choosing social-science and humanities subjects. She said people who studied in China were much better positioned to compete for jobs after they returned home or when they chose to live in China.
She shrugged off concerns that the global economic crisis could drive down applications from foreign students.
“Quite the opposite,” she said. “I believe the financial crisis provides better opportunities for students to come to China for a recharge because the low tuition fees and living costs in the country are still attractive for foreign students.”
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More than 220,000 foreigners studying at mainland campuses
Raymond Li
26 March 2009
The number of foreigners studying on the mainland exceeded 200,000 for the first time last year as more students were drawn by the country’s growing economic clout and government publicity campaigns.
The Ministry of Education said yesterday that the number of foreign students admitted to mainland institutions rose by 14.3 per cent year on year to 223,000 last year.
Thirty years earlier, in 1978, there were just over 1,000 foreign students on the mainland.
The ministry said people from 189 countries were studying in 592 mainland universities, with South Korea, the United States and Japan the top three sources.
To break down its international isolation, mainland authorities launched student exchange programmes with a handful of “friendly” countries from the communist bloc in the late 1940s.
But as the country’s economy grew at breakneck speed over the past 30 years and its financial clout rose, officials and academics became increasingly interested in nurturing the country’s “soft power”. A growing interest in the study of Putonghua and the increasing number of overseas students are seen as key indicators of that power.
The number of Confucius Institutes, a government-backed initiative to promote Chinese studies worldwide, had increased to 305 in 78 countries by the end of last year, an indication of rising global infatuation with the Chinese language.
Zhang Xiuqin, director of the Ministry of Education’s Department of International Co-operation Exchange, said the nation had come a long way in terms of the number of overseas students, but it was far from making money from the sector or luring elite international specialists.
“All we want to achieve is to train some people [from other countries] who know the country and show goodwill towards us,” Ms Zhang said.
The central government raised funding for foreign students in China last year and the number of foreigners on government scholarships rose by nearly a third to 13,516.
Ms Zhang said people from overseas had enrolled in almost all fields of study, with more than 60 per cent choosing social-science and humanities subjects. She said people who studied in China were much better positioned to compete for jobs after they returned home or when they chose to live in China.
She shrugged off concerns that the global economic crisis could drive down applications from foreign students.
“Quite the opposite,” she said. “I believe the financial crisis provides better opportunities for students to come to China for a recharge because the low tuition fees and living costs in the country are still attractive for foreign students.”
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