More foreign students rush to study in China

cctv.com 02-22-2004 13:29

While increasing numbers of Chinese students are busy applying to study in overseas universities, China is also attracting more overseas students.

At the China International Education Exhibition Tour, which opened in Beijing on Saturday, education officials said that colleges and universities in Beijing are to enroll 10,000 more overseas students this year.

Chinese education authorities plan to hold tertiary education exhibitions in Japan, South Korea and the United States this year - all aimed at attracting more foreign students to study in China.

Che Weimin, Deputy Dept. Director of Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange, said: "At present, there are over 85,000 overseas students studying in China. The number keeps rapidly rising. China has become a hot country for overseas student to study in."

Individual institutions are also taking measures to attract overseas students. Top universities, such as Peking University and Renmin University, have created scholarships for five to ten percent of overseas students.

Zhang Guozeng, Deputy Director of International Exchange Dept.of Renmin University of China, said: "Universities in China have broken away from the old thought in receiving overseas students. Take Renmin University of China for example, it sent five groups, which were led by the president of the university to foreign countries last year. They introduced China's tertiary education system and academic superiority of the university to students in other countries, to attract them to study in China."

Now more and more overseas students are studying in the country for academic degrees. In Beijing alone, there are 30,000 overseas students. The increase in number of foreign students has also raised much money for China's education sector. The annual revenue in Beijing has hit over one billion yuan, or more than 120 million US dollars. Beijing education authority is to use 100 million yuan, or about 12 million US dollars to improve the conditions of overseas students this year.

Editor:Zheng  Source:CCTV.com