Students access int’l education opportunities at home with burgeoning Chinese-foreign co-op programs

China has given the green light for the establishment of more than 2,300 Chinese-foreign cooperative education institutions and programs, as indicated by the latest statistics, signifying that "studying abroad without going abroad" now serves as a viable option for Chinese students.

The 2021 China International Education Exhibition recently held in Beijing. (Photo/People's Daily Overseas Edition)

Of all the institutions and programs, the number of Chinese-foreign higher education institutions and related projects (including junior colleges) accounts for about 90 percent of the total, involving more than 200 majors in 11 disciplines. These cooperative endeavors involve more than 800 foreign universities and more than 700 Chinese universities.

The 2021 China International Education Exhibition, hosted by the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE), was recently held in Beijing, with the participation of nearly 300 overseas institutions from more than 20 countries and regions, including the UK, the US, France, Belgium, Canada and Germany.

New Zealand universities have increasingly recognized the significance of establishing deeper and more direct partnerships with foreign universities, said an official from the New Zealand Education International Promotion Bureau.

China-New Zealand educational cooperation has a history of nearly 20 years, and there are now 23 cooperative projects at the undergraduate level and above between the two countries, with the number of cooperating institutions increasing to four, bringing the total to 27.

Irish institutions have also expedited their efforts to establish links and cooperate with China's education-related departments, with figures as of June 2021 showing that there were a total of 96 collaborative institutions and programs between China and Ireland.

As the autumn semester for 2021 approached, China’s Ministry of Education issued a message stating that it would continue to support some of the Chinese-foreign cooperative institutions and programs, as well as those between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, so as to alleviate the difficulties faced by students who are unable to study abroad due to the pandemic.

Compared with studying abroad, Chinese-foreign cooperative education has emerged as a vital direction for the future, which can help to provide quality education resources from abroad that can be fully tapped in China, said Wang Yongli, secretary-general of the CEAIE.

The current pace of growth for the number of Chinese students studying abroad has slowed down, partly due to the increasingly mature development of Chinese-foreign cooperative education, which has allowed Chinese students to enjoy high-quality international education without leaving their country, according to a report jointly issued by the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a Chinese non-governmental think tank, and the Development Research Institute of Southwest University of Finance and Economics.

"Previously, I intended to study abroad. Now I have changed my plan, since the prevention and control of the pandemic is lax in other countries and the quality of education at domestic co-operative institutions is getting better,” said Wu Li (a pseudonym), who has now set her sights on New York University in Shanghai.