Summary

The British Council has learned that the Chinese government has requested Sino-foreign joint institutes providing overseas degree programmes in China to expand their undergraduate recruitment for the 2020-21 academic year. This policy is intended to accommodate students who were previously planning to study overseas but are now unable or unwilling to do so.

Joint institutes have been given permission to expand their recruitment to bachelor's degree programmes by 20 per cent over their regular quota, as long as they have capacity to teach these additional students. Students recruited through this plan can be admitted based on the institute's own assessment of their suitability and do not need to have passed China's Gaokao university entrance examination. However, they must hold an offer from a university outside of Mainland China for the current academic year (2020-21).

The new policy applies to joint institutes approved by the Ministry of Education to offer overseas degree programmes in China - including full joint universities ("branch campuses") such as Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University or the University of Nottingham Ningbo, as well as institutes without legal entity that operate as part of a domestic Chinese university.

Update, 16^th September

The new policy has now been officially announced by the Ministry of Education. In addition to joint institutes, a number of individually-approved joint programmes have also been approved to recruit students who had previously been admitted to universities abroad, mainly at the master’s degree level.

According to the announcement, a total of 90 joint programmes or institutes across 19 provincial-regions will be recruiting additional students under this policy. This includes 8 of the 9 Sino-foreign joint universities, 33 other joint institutes, and a total of 49 joint programmes. Among the joint programmes, 45 will recruit master’s degree students, 3 will recruit doctoral students and one will recruit undergraduates.

Although many of the joint institutes and programmes included in the scheme typically award both Chinese and foreign qualifications, students graduating through this policy will only receive the overseas degree and will not be eligible to receive a degree from the Chinese partner.

A translation of the list of participating partnerships is attached.

In addition to this policy, the MoE announcement also said that domestic universities (including those without joint programmes / institutes) will be permitted to sign agreements that allow students admitted to overseas universities to study at these domestic institutions temporarily during the epidemic period. However, the agreements should “guarantee education equality” and the students will not be officially registered as students of the Chinese university.

Analysis by Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst, British Council International Education Services

The Coronavirus epidemic has made many Chinese students reluctant to study abroad for a number of reasons - including worries about infection, dissatisfaction with courses being offered online instead of in-person, application and visa difficulties, and limited availability of flights.

However, many students planning to study abroad have not studied for the Gaokao university entrance examination which controls admission to domestic Chinese universities. This has meant that they were not able to switch to a local degree course. The new policy will allow these non-Gaokao-holding students to start a degree in China this year rather than putting off the start of their studies.

This represents an opportunity for UK universities with joint institutes in China to expand their undergraduate recruitment, as long as capacity is available. On the other hand, universities in the UK may see cancellations from Chinese undergraduates who were previously expected to start their course in September / October 2020 and who decide to study at a joint institute instead.

Sources

1. Ministry of Education: Using Sino-foreign transnational education to solve problems with studying abroad (in Chinese) – http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/s271/202009/t20200916_488189.html

2. List of participating institutions (translated by the British Council) – [Link]

3. In addition, many joint institutes have posted notices announcing newly-available places for students who have been accepted to universities overseas:

Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology: NUIST and the University of Reading (UK) Joint Training Admissions Plan (in Chinese) - https://zs.nuist.edu.cn/info/1007/2081.htm

Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University: XJLTU 2020 Independent Admissions Plan (in Chinese) - https://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/assets/files/admissions/%E8%A5%BF%E4%BA%A4%E5%88%A9%E7%89%A9%E6%B5%A6%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%A62020%E5%B9%B4%E8%87%AA%E4%B8%BB%E6%8B%9B%E7%94%9F%E7%AB%A0%E7%A8%8B.pdf