Huskies at Beijing University, class of 2024
How to Export the American University: from University World News: (excerpted)….Shen Yang, deputy director-general of the department of international cooperation and exchanges in the Ministry of Education..””China has been doing extremely well sending student to all parts of the world to study and we still have 950,000 students currently in other countries,” (However) The number of foreign students in China is currently around 260,000 including those on short-term programmes. “We believe that by 2015 the international student population in China will reach 350,000 students and by 2020 [it will reach] 500,000,”
China has seen huge growth in its own student numbers and is hoping to increase enrolment in higher education further, to 40% of the school-leaving cohort by 2020. “And now we want students from other countries…we also want to be an [education] hub,” Shen said.
Currently the largest number of international students in China are from Korea, followed by the US and Japan. But in order to reach the target of half a million foreign students, Shen said China would not just develop country-to-country student exchanges and contacts but also build on regional cooperation with the European Union, Association of South East Asian Nations, North East Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Arab World……
But China was also interested in more jointly run programmes with foreign universities such as a recent agreement signed with New York University to set up a campus in Shanghai in collaboration with a Chinese university. “We aim to welcome more world-class universities to come to China to participate in our development,” Shen said.
“In 2010, the gross enrolment rate in China’s higher education reached 27%, an increase of nearly 6% compared to 2005. The figure is almost 2% higher than the planned goal.” The qualifications of academics had also continued to rise, with more than 57% holding graduate degrees, a rise of nearly 17% from 2005.