During the 2015 China Education Internationalisation Seminar, a Ministry of Education official revealed that the Ministry is pushing for foreign universities to accept scores in the country’s Gaokao university entrance examination when admitting students. According to the official from the MoE’s Division of International Education, the Ministry will promote the Gaokao to universities in the US, Russia, and EU countries including the UK.
Gaokao results are already accepted by around 60 universities in Australia, which typically require a “tier one” score to qualify for undergraduate courses. Entrants that meet this threshold do not need to take the one-year preparatory programme otherwise required for Chinese students, although gaokao requirements are normally paired with English language tests. Some institutions in France, Germany, Italy and Spain also accept Gaokao scores, while last month the University of San Francisco announced a pilot scheme to enrol Chinese students on the basis of a tier one gaokao result plus an in-person interview to test their English skills.
The Gaokao currently includes examinations in Chinese, mathematics, English and a comprehensive examination in either arts or sciences, and is taken by around nine million students in June each year. Upcoming reforms will allow students to choose three of six individual subjects instead of a single arts or sciences paper, with the new-format examination being taken by students in 2017 in pilot regions and in 2020 nationwide.
The score threshold for a tier one gaokao score varies by province, but around 11 per cent of candidates nationwide reach this threshold. Although a tier one score is sometimes described as being the requirement to enter China’s top universities, most of the country’s highly-ranked institutions’ cut-off scores are significantly higher than the tier one minimum.
Analysis by Liu Xiao xiao, Education Services Manager and Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst:
Accepting Gaokao scores could be seen positively by the Chinese government, and is also seen as a positive factor by individual Chinese students as this means that they do not have to spend an extra year studying a foundation year or preparing for overseas examinations. A 2009 report by Australian Education International found that Australian universities accepting gaokao scores attracted a higher standard of Chinese students than those which insisted on a foundation year for all Chinese undergraduates, although this may have been partly due to competition between Australian universities rather than external factors.
The examples of Australian universities and the University of San Francisco show that, even when overseas universities take gaokao results into consideration, they are not the only factor controlling admission of Chinese students. In-person interviews or English language tests such as IELTS are also taken into account, while some universities also consider the sub-scores from individual subject components of the Gaokao.