Feature Articles

The International Ranking Race: Remain or Quit

Published June 2022: Although many media reported that top Chinese universities have withdrawn from international ranking surveys, there is as yet no official confirmation by each of the universities. Ranked in China’s top 30, the three universities that withdrew are Renmin University, China’s No.2 “Party University” (after the Central Party University); Nanjing University, which has hosted Johns Hopkins University’s Centre for Chinese and American Studies since 1984; and Lanzhou University, a top tier university in China’s north-western region. …Continue reading

No Choice but a Sharp Turn – New Directions for China’s Training Conglomerates

Published April 2022: After months of anxious speculation, the final hammer came down in July 2021 far more ruthlessly than expected: it was “Black Monday” for China’s after-school training sector. According to Qi Chacha, China’s authoritative company registration platform, 70,000 enterprises with a scope of business that included curriculum training deregistered themselves within 150 days of the “Shuangjian” policy being issued. That is an average of 465 businesses closing their doors each day…Continue reading

China’s “Bloodletting” Reform to Release Tutorial Burden & Pain

Published September 2021: Guidelines restricting after-school tutoring released by the General Office of the State Council in China in July caused stock prices of Chinese education companies to plummet, with some losing 70% of their value overnight. Under the new regulations, no business licenses will be granted to core curriculum training providers, and the ones already in business are required to be converted to not-for-profit. Listing and any other form of capital raising is banned, and employment of foreign tutors has also been prohibited….Continue reading

Underlying Factors in the Trend of Chinese Overseas Study

Published April 2021: In 2020 the UK surpassed the US for the first time as Chinese students’ most preferred study destination. Asian countries, Canada and some small European countries have also gained market share through the pandemic-led reshuffling of study destinations. According to BONARD’s 2020 Survey of its database of 1,500+ agents in China, 1/3rd of agents did not receive new applications for studying abroad for the Fall intake of 2020, another 1/3rd experienced a significant business decline, while only the remaining 1/3rd of …Continue reading

Credit Transfer or Joint Program – How to Determine Which One Is More Suitable?

Published November 2020: As the objective of a credit transfer program is to relocate students to study on the offshore campus, the students’ capability to study abroad (academic score and financial backing) is the key driving factor. It’s common for Chinese institutions to offer one cohort multiple offshore programs with different study destinations; for any international partner, your success in recruiting can only be guaranteed by those students who believe your institution is a better choice than the rest. Students must weigh out the costs and benefits of each different option—studying in a different country, different institute, or remaining in China—before mapping out their future …Continue reading

Can Joint Programs Still be a Driving Engine for Student Recruiting in China?

Published October 2020: After CHE’s two webinar sessions on the topic of Joint Programs in Sept, we realized a mist still shrouds the space of Transnational Education (TNE). Hence, we decided to run a special edition to consolidate what major concerns have been observed and share our knowledge and understanding with our readers. A special thanks to Mike Yu, guest speaker of the webinar, former Director of International of BOSSA, for his continuous insights and contribution to this topic …Continue reading

China International Education Overview: Jan – June 2020 Report

Published July 2020: CHE’s Half Year / Annual Report is designed the help industry professionals gain quick insight into China’s international education sector, including policy updates, study abroad trends and data, joint programs, R&D, donations, training and online education, and education investment, to help them to make the best strategic decision …Continue reading

MOE: No Longer Pushing the Quantity of Inbound International Students

With 500,000 international students in 2019, China has become the 3rd largest study destination in the world, taking 8% of internationally mobilized students, only behind the US (22%) and the UK (11%). China has had a consistent 5% annual growth on international student numbers for close to two decades. Like many other “KPIs” in the administrative system, China has been using the word “quantity” to conduct an internationalization movement in its university campuses since 2003. In order to …Continue reading

COVID-19 Updates

Published May 2020: By the end of April, 14 out of the 34 provincial-level administrations in Mainland China already had students returning back to campus. Another 9 provinces returned to on-campus life shortly after the May 1st holidays. Hong Kong also announced that most of its K-12 students will start to return to school between late May and mid-June. A number of International universities’ china campuses are sticking to their policy of “no face-to-face learning” for this semester, such as Suzhou Liverpool and Ningbo Nottingham …Continue reading

COVID-19 Updates

Published April 2020: While many countries in the world have hundreds or thousands of new cases daily, China’s official figure only has double digits of new cases daily, with almost all of them being identified at international arrivals. Chinese media estimates that 1.4 million Chinese students are stranded across the US, UK, as well as less desired regions, some of these students are still under 18. Many of these students have found they don’t have appropriate local support or medical coverage where they are. In addition to China’s strict inbound quarantine policy (up to 14 days at the designated aircraft landing city and the city where …Continue reading

Obedience – a Path to Freedom

Published March 2020: After the outbreak in China, Korean cases picked up in late February. Despite the Government’s requests to cancel public gatherings, the leadership of a religious sect decided to ignore this advice, claiming “We are not afraid of the virus. God is on our side!”. Within a couple of weeks, the nation’s infectious toll reached 4,000, with over 2,800 cases within this particular sect. The Korean government are now suing the sect’s leaders for homicide, causing harm and violating the Infectious Disease Control Act. On March 2nd, The 88-year-old leader and founder of the sect Lee Man-hee knelt down in front of multiple TV cameras to apologize to the whole nation …Continue reading

Epidemic Special

Published February 2020: Based on a paper published by the UK medical journal LANCET, the first known Corona Virus case appeared in Wuhan, Hubei province on Dec 1st. The journal studied 41 of the earliest cases in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital. However, the presence of the virus was not known to the Chinese public until late Dec – many people learned about this highly contagious “SARS like” new virus from unofficial social media posts generated by eight medical staff. On Jan 2nd, Chinese national TV announced this information was a “false statement and causing a social disturbance”; it urged people “not to believe such “rumours”” and confirmed that all eight rumour spreaders had been punished in accordance of the law…Continue reading

What You Need to Know About Digital Marketing in China

Published November 2019: Outright blockage of a website is rare: only 10,000 of the world’s 329 million domains are blocked in China. The good news is that it’s unlikely your entire website is blocked. The bad news is that nearly all of your social media accounts are invisible in China since the majority of Western social media platforms are blocked, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. More often, a page on a website is blocked in a particular place for a certain amount of time. Many of these more granular decisions are automated through AI and algorithms. Chinese users commonly find a website “broken” due to the site not working well in China …Continue reading