More expat students to study in China

Tsinghua University, one of China's top universities, said on Monday it will increase its number of foreign graduate students as Beijing steps up its use of education and other "soft power" initiatives to promote its image abroad.

Tsinghua, alma mater of President Hu Jintao, said it will increase the proportion of foreign students in its graduate schools from 7 percent to close to 10 percent by 2020.

"Top universities around the world without an English-based curriculum have about 10 percent foreign students in their graduate programs, so we're aiming for close to that number by 2020," Wu Yunxin, director of the foreign student affairs office at Tsinghua, said at a news conference.

Tsinghua will have about 1,000 foreign students enrolled in its master's and doctoral programs this year. In 2004, it had 205 foreign students.

Other Chinese universities including Peking University also are recruiting more foreign students as a tuition-paying source of revenue. Others will be offered scholarships.

China, which overtook Japan this year as the world's second-largest economy, has stepped up efforts through education to boost its influence abroad.

In 2009, 240,000 foreign students studied in universities across China, according to the Ministry of Education, a huge jump from 52,000 students in 2000.

Wu credits the growth in foreign students to an improvement in the quality of English-language programs and better facilities and services.

"We've done a lot to improve our facilities and programs to attract foreign students, but we still have room for improvement," he said.

US international graduate students enrolled at Tsinghua this year top the list for the first time - followed closely by the Republic of Korea, which by far has the most students at universities across China compared to other countries.

When US President Barack Obama visited China in 2009, he announced plans to send 100,000 Americans to study at Chinese universities over the next four years. About 18,000 US students studied in Chinese universities in 2009.

Source: China Daily/AP