With the increasing internationalization of education, how many foreign students can Chinese universities attract each year? 377054. The figures, given by the ministry of education, grew by 5.77 per cent year-on-year, accounting for 8 per cent of global students. In the past 10 years, the total number of foreign students in China has increased, and China has climbed to the third largest foreign student in the world.
For a long time, China's higher education has been "running" with the developed countries in Europe and the United States. What is the signal of the large number of students studying in China? What is the general trend, main source and direction of studying in China? How should Chinese universities respond?
China education online and study abroad in China have jointly issued the coming to China to study abroad investigation report "for 2014, according to the number of the students has two years in a row growth is slowing, the number of the students in the developed countries is reduced, stagnant growth or negative growth situation, developing countries will share increase, the students are facing new changes.
The number of Asian students coming to China.
TOP10 data source: tsinghua university education research institute, international comparative study on student satisfaction in China
The composition of foreign students in China.
Between 2005 and 2014, the number of Chinese students studying in China has been growing at a fast pace, with an average annual growth rate of 13.19%, according to the report. At the same time, the number of students studying in China has slowed down. Among them, the growth rate of 2013 and 2014 was 8.58% and 5.77% respectively, and the growth rate declined for two consecutive years.
From the perspective of origin, Asia is the continent with the largest number of students from all over the world. In 2014, 225,490 international students came to China to study, and over 1.7 million students came to China in the past 10 years. At the same time, the growth of Asian students in China has been declining for nearly two years, with the growth rate of 2.58% in 2014, the lowest level in 10 years. But the good news is that southeast Asian countries have sprung up to inject vitality into the study market in China.
The report also shows that students in different regions have different needs for studying abroad. Students in developed countries are more focused on language learning; Students in less developed countries are more likely to come to China for degree courses, such as medicine and engineering.
According to Chen zhiwen, editor-in-chief of education in China, the three signals of studying abroad in China are still worth watching: "one is the lack of growth in traditional areas, the South Korea hostage-going, the United States is declining; Second, the emergence of new powers, Thailand is the 3rd, Africa, Europe accelerated; Third, the economy is obviously the leading factor in studying abroad.
"Many people believe that the focus of study in China is to influence the developed countries, and even the enrollment of students in schools is only for American and European students. But from the data, the focus of study in China should return to Asia. Because 'neighbors' can't change, we're more likely to be affected by neighboring countries, not developed countries like the United States. According to Chen zhiwen, studying in China urgently needs accurate positioning.
In 2014, the number of Pakistani students in China was 13,360, an increase of 7.1 times over 2005. Kazakhstan to 11764 the number of foreign students, increased by 15.1 times, largest span in the coming to China to study abroad students powers, "it can be seen that along the countries' One Belt And One Road huge contribution in the study abroad market in China, colleges and universities is an urgent need to think, how to use education to serve the national strategy, and how to make use of this national strategy, promote the development of education itself."
The market is huge, but Chinese universities are still "fishing with carrots"
How should we view the significance of studying in China when many Chinese "vote with their feet" and focus on the background of studying abroad?
"Our country has proposed a new goal of reaching 500,000 students by 2020. Beijing has issued the Beijing action plan for studying abroad, which aims to attract 150,000 international students by 2020. Shanghai has raised the goal of 80,000 international students. According to hong chengwen, a professor at the education institute of Beijing normal university, "the topic of studying in China is not overemphasized."
In addition, in the interview, experts have pointed out that the prime minister li keqiang, in this year's "government work report" referred to "cultivate new economic growth point", specifically mentioned "education consumption", and the vast space is coming to China to study abroad can leverage powerful lever for education spending.
But Chen pointed out that despite the significance and the huge market, the performance of Chinese universities in China is still poor and even lagging behind. "A lot of colleges and universities to attract foreign students with their own preferences, way, there is no real stand in the perspective of foreign students to do the work, the rabbit 'fishing with a carrot' mistakes." Chih-wen Chen said that in reality there are many such extreme example, "such as foreign students to apply for Chinese school never receive any rejection letters, many schools to recruit website in Chinese, and even many enrolled form asked the students to fill out a form in Chinese, a word of English above all have no."
Coming to China to study in a web application platforms based on samples of 6000 students, according to data of nearly 90% of study for a degree course students choose the professional English teaching, May 2014 courses in English teaching of Chinese universities accounted for only 15% of the total recruitment of students colleges and universities. On the construction of college English recruitment website, the survey of 100 colleges and universities shows that 93% of college websites open for more than 10 seconds. 86 percent of websites have errors; 34 schools, students cannot find English recruitment website.
"The teaching language based on Chinese is the main reason for the improvement of the overseas students' scale, and the living service has a distance from the requirements of students coming to China." Hong wrote that teaching and service are still two short boards that affect the education study in China. In addition, the main body of the scholarship to study in China is still very monotonous, the government will sing a monologe, and the private or enterprise funds are seldom involved in the business of studying abroad. If the policy is in place and private funds are involved, the scale of scholarships will increase, and education in China will also encounter a new period of rapid development.
"The quality of teaching is still the main reason why students apply for school choice in China." Chih-wen Chen has stressed that although the school had obvious advances in recruitment of students and teaching in China, but most of the university services and products still cannot meet the demand of students, "top 50 Chinese universities applications accounted for nearly 80% of total applications, ordinary university admissions."
Providing high-quality education products is key.
In the face of the globalization of education, how should Chinese universities respond?
"With the declining enrollment of the college entrance examination, the survival of Chinese universities is facing a serious challenge. But studying in China can be an important source of growth. An international student earns two to three times as much as domestic students. Chih-wen Chen thinks, should be in the context of students falling to examine the meaning of coming to China to study abroad, "to attract more foreign students, is the need of the development of universities, also is the inevitable choice of colleges and universities to improve quality."
He stressed that would move to China to study the market, the domestic colleges and universities should construction as soon as possible in English as the language of professor of curriculum system, set up mixed schooling degree courses for students in the developed countries, and change the backward present situation of informatization construction.
"At the present stage, the quality of overseas study products is improving gradually, but it is still a long way from providing high-quality education products." Hong chengwen, points out that from the perspective of higher education system flexibility, can accept transfer credits can free conversion, college students abroad, domestic credit and the credit is still a lot of restricting factors such as being able to get through using.
高等教育国际化浪潮日益高涨，中国高校每年能吸引多少来华留学生？377054。这个由教育部近日给出的数字，同比增长5.77%，占全球留学生份额的8%。而过去10年间，来华留学生总人数的不断增长，中国攀升为世界第三大留学生输入国。
长期以来，中国高等教育一直在“跟跑”欧美发达国家，庞大的来华留学数字折射出怎样的信号？来华留学的总体趋势、主要来源和流向是什么？中国高校又该作出怎样的应对？
中国教育在线和来华留学网日前联合发布的《2014年度来华留学调查报告》显示，来华留学人数已连续两年增速放缓，发达国家来华留学人数呈现增速下降、停滞或者负增长局面，发展中国家则占比增加，来华留学正面临新变化。
亚洲来华留学生人数
影响学生申请来华学习择校因素TOP10 数据来源：清华大学教育研究院《来华留学生就读满意度国际比较研究》
来华留学生的构成
报告显示，2005至2014年间，来华留学生人数增速一直保持在高速增长通道上，年平均增速为13.19%。与此同时，来华留学人数增速出现放缓趋势。其中，2013年和2014年增速分别为8.58%和5.77%，连续两年增速下降。
从生源上分析，亚洲是全球大洲中来华留学生人数最多的大洲，2014年共有225490位留学生进入中国学习，近10年累计来华学生数超过170万。与此同时，亚洲来华留学生增速近两年连续出现下滑，2014年增速仅为2.58%，为10年最低水平。但好消息是，东南亚国家异军突起，为来华留学市场注入了活力。
报告还显示，不同地区的学生对于留学服务的需求也各有不同。发达国家学生更偏重语言学习；欠发达国家学生则更倾向于来华攻读学位课程，如医学、工程等。
中国教育在线总编辑陈志文认为，来华留学的3个信号仍值得关注：“一是传统地区增长乏力，韩国徘徊、美国下降；二是新生力量崛起，泰国跃居第3，非洲、欧洲加速；三是经济显然是来华留学的主导因素。”
“很多人认为来华留学的重心是影响发达国家，甚至有学校招生只喜欢要欧美学生。但从数据来看，来华留学的重心应该回归亚洲。因为‘邻居’不能改变，我们更能产生影响的是周边国家，不是美国等发达国家。”陈志文认为，来华留学迫切需要准确定位。
他给出这样一组数字：2014年，巴基斯坦来华留学生人数为13360人，比2005年增加7.1倍；哈萨克斯坦来华留学生人数为11764人，增加了15.1倍，在来华留学生源大国中跨度最大，“可以看出，‘一带一路’的沿线国家在来华留学市场中贡献巨大，高校迫切需要思考，如何用教育为这一国家战略服务，又该如何利用这一国家战略促进教育自身的发展。”
市场巨大，可中国高校仍在“拿胡萝卜钓鱼”
在众多国人“用脚投票”，将关注点放在出国留学的背景下，我们应该如何看待来华留学的意义？
“我国提出了‘到2020年，留学生规模要达到50万人’的新目标；北京颁布《留学北京行动计划》，提出到2020年吸引15万留学生；上海提出了8万留学生的目标。”北京师范大学高等教育研究所教授洪成文认为，“来华留学是怎么强调都不过分的话题。”
此外，在采访中，还有多位专家指出，李克强总理在今年的《政府工作报告》中提到“培育新的经济增长点”时，专门提及“教育消费”，而来华留学的巨大空间正是能够撬动教育消费的有力杠杆。
但陈志文指出，尽管意义重大、市场巨大，可中国高校在来华留学上的诸多表现仍然不佳，甚至滞后。“很多高校想当然地用自身的喜好、方式吸引来华留学生，没有真正站在外国留学生的角度来做这件事，犯了兔子‘用胡萝卜钓鱼’的错误。”陈志文说，现实中存在很多这样极端的例子，“比如外国学生申请中国学校从来接不到拒信，不少学校在用中文网站招生，甚至很多入校表格要求留学生用中文填表，上面一个英文单词都没有。”
来华留学网申请平台上一个基于6000名留学生的样本数据显示，接近90%攻读学位课程的学生会选择英文授课的专业，可2014年开设英文授课课程的中国高校仅占总招生院校的15%。而在高校英文招生网站建设上，该网针对100所高校进行的调研显示，有93%的高校网站打开时间超过10秒；86%的网站，有错误出现；34所学校，学生无法找到英文招生网站。
“以汉语为主的教学语言是影响留学生规模提高的主要原因，而生活服务离来华学生的要求也有距离。”洪成文认为，教学和服务仍然是影响来华留学教育的两大短板。此外，来华留学奖学金的主体仍然很单调，政府唱独角戏，民间或企业资金很少参与到来华留学事业上。如果政策到位，民间资金参与进来，奖学金规模增加，来华留学教育还将遇到新的快速发展期。
“学生申请来华学习择校因素中，教学质量仍是主因。”陈志文则强调，尽管学校在来华招生和教学上进步明显，但大多数高校服务和产品仍不能满足学生需求，“国内排名前50的高校申请人数占总申请人数的近80%，普通高校招生不足。”
提供高质量的教育产品是关键
面对教育全球化的浪潮，中国高校究竟该作出怎样的应对？
“随着高考报名人数的不断下降，中国高校生存遇到严峻挑战。而来华留学恰能成为一个重要的生源补充，一个国际学生带来的收益是国内学生的2~3倍。”陈志文认为，应在生源下降的大背景下再审视来华留学的意义，“吸引更多来华留学生，是高校生存发展的需要，也是高校提高质量的必然选择。”
他强调，要撬动来华留学市场，国内高校应尽快建设以英文为教授语言的课程体系、针对发达国家学生设立混合学制的学位课程，并改变落后的信息化建设现状。
“我国现阶段，留学产品质量虽然逐步提高，但是离提供高质量的教育产品这一目标还有距离。”洪成文指出，从高等教育制度灵活性来看，学分是否可以自由转换、高校能否接受转学学生、国内学分与国外学分能否打通使用等仍是很大的制约因素。
但他仍然倡导，中国大学应摆脱“跟跑”欧美的困境，培育“世界高等教育第三极”，“我国高校的努力方向至少有三点：一是提高教师对外汉语教学水平和以英语为主的外语教学的水平；二是加大本土教师的培养和培训；三是改善僵化的高校教学管理体制，优化高校行政服务，减少高校教师因为行政化而带来的过度的管理负担和有效时间的消耗。高校教师忙不到教育教学这个关键点子上，专业水平和语言水平不能迅速提高，来华留学教育发展就会受到制约，世界高等教育中心向亚洲的转移速度将慢下来，需要的时间也将更长。”
