Chinese Universities Attract Undergraduate Students Through Elite Programs

Despite most of China’s education providers still being far from shifting their focus from quantity to quality, a few forerunners have begun the race to attract top quality students at the undergraduate level. Zhejiang University’s experimental institution, the Zhu Kezhen Institution (named after Dr. ZHU Kezhen, the Chinese geologist, meteorologist, Harvard PhD graduate and president of Zhejiang University during 1936-49), for instance, will open two new classes this year: an Intelligent Energy Class and a Public Management Class (in addition to the pre-existing engineering, science, agriculture, and medicine classes). Students enrolled in these “experimental classes” are taught by top lecturers from China and abroad and enjoy a high teacher to student ratio, sometimes as high as 1:1.

With the support of alumni donations, Xi’an Jiaotong University is able to offer the highest valued undergraduate scholarship in China, at RMB 420,000 (USD 62,000), to attract top talent. The university’s first year plan is to recruit 50 students, who will each will be given an alumnus as a mentor, and have the opportunity to take up an internship with a number of Fortune 500 companies, as well as to spend one year studying at a top overseas university.