(some of my reflections from the QS Shanghai Summit, Cheryl Yu)
Student mobility, nationally and internationally, is often driven by push-pull factors. Recently, there has been a noticeable decrease in the number of Chinese students choosing to study in the UK. This may be due to the current political climate between China and the rest of the world. As a result, there has been a shift in international higher education which has affected the attractiveness of the destination countries. The pull factors in the UK also play their own role in influencing Chinese student's choice to come to the UK.
However, it's important to consider the internal environment of China and how it may impact the current and future Chinese students' mobility. Specifically, we need to examine what is happening with higher education in China and how it may influence the decisions of Chinese students looking to study abroad.
Discipline shifts from Arts and Humanities to STEM
More Chinese universities are investing in STEM subjects and disciplines as part of the national strategy to develop these disciplines. Consequently, a greater student recruitment quota has been allocated to STEM subjects instead of humanities or arts programmes. The challenge of unemployment, driven in part by the popularisation of university qualifications, has forced some universities to reduce or even close traditionally popular courses, such as language, laws, business, management, and arts. By aligning themselves with the national strategy, universities can also apply for more grants. This also means the traditionally popular language universities are losing their advantages in competing for government funds. The shift of '985' '211' reference to the 'double first class' initiative allows new emerging university players to have access to the national government fund which is traditionally reserved for over '985' or '211' universities only.
Anyone who has gone through China's Gaokao system knows the typical discipline choice that takes place in high school. Students can opt for either arts/humanities or science. If they choose science, students must study Chinese, Mathematics, and English, as well as optional subjects such as biology, physics, and chemistry. On the other hand, humanities students have to study Chinese, Mathematics, and English, in addition to history, politics, and geography. Today, students can choose to mix the optional subjects along with the core subjects of Chinese, Math, and English. This development gradually allows students to move away from the traditional rigid route of science or humanities. When more STEM graduates are needed in the industry, naturally, more students will choose science as their study route.
There has been a changing trend in top Chinese universities, such as Peking University, wherein only students with a science background are admitted into their humanities programs. This could only be a starting point for other universities to follow suit.
The stratification of high school education in the past few years has now become more established and we start to see its impact. The aspiration is that only half of Chinese middle school graduates can progress to study at the traditional middle school route, and then go into universities. Other students would opt for vocational and technical high school, but they can still progress to higher education, typically lower-tiered universities if they wish. In a Ministry of Education report in 2022, the admission rate of universities has increased from 30% in 2012 to 57.8% in 2022. It makes a total of 0.24 billion people with university qualifications in China.
The promotion and investment in vocational high schools have resulted in a decrease in the number of students aspiring to and have the route to attend top universities in China. As a result, entering top Chinese universities is becoming less competitive. This also leads to growth in lower-ranked universities that need to adjust their programs to cater to this group of students from technical high schools. The stratification of high school education could also mean that these UK universities have encountered challenges in attracting Chinese students during the last few years, this could present new opportunities to tap into by forging meaningful institutional collaborations.
These changes in the Chinese education system could have an impact on the UK universities that typically attract Chinese students to their arts, language, education, business or management programs. The call for a shift to STEM discipline is not the UK HE sector alone but possibly a much wider change of the society, as a result of the changes of the global industry landscape.
Increased capacity to recruit Postgraduate students to study in China
More universities have gradually increased their delivery capacity for PG and PhD studies by gaining approval from the MoE. For instance, this particular university used to admit 700 postgraduate students annually to their programmes in 2020. This year, they have increased the quota and can now admit up to 1,500 students. All available spots have been filled.
In China, the traditional approach to postgraduate studies is still based on exams, which makes studying abroad an attractive option for many Chinese students. In the past, at my last university, only the top 10% of students were eligible to apply to top universities in China without an exam, and the top 20% were allowed to continue studying at their current university without taking exams. However, more Chinese undergraduate students are now able to progress to postgraduate studies without exams, although admission requirements vary by university.
Chinese family value also dictates that parents would always place their child or children's safety first, invest in their education, and want to keep them close by. As more Chinese students can pursue postgraduate studies in China and it becomes easier to gain access, fewer students may choose to study abroad. Mostly, we have also seen increased capacity and confidence in Chinese university systems to educate the right talents nationally. Some Chinese employers will value the UG qualification more than the PG qualification for a graduate who has returned from overseas.
Some other changes
There have been several changes in China recently, including top talent recruitment, industry PhD delivery, graduate donations, and access to government funds, national and regional, based on performance and achievements, among others.
As always, referring to some scholarly research on the wider motivation of Chinese universities in internationalisation, nationally, it is about a journey to learn from the developed Western countries, so then they can compete on an equal footing. Nationally the government wants more Chinese students to study in China and retain its national talents upon their graduation.
These could mean many things for UK universities by understanding the push factors in China. Fundamentally, it is about the credential of its qualification, reputation, quality and relevance to the employability in China.
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