SCHOLARSHIP IN CHINA FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

In order to attract the best international students to study in China and enhance people-to-people communication, the Chinese central government, local governments, Chinese universities and enterprises offer a variety of scholarship programs to support foreign students to study and conduct research in Chinese universities every year.

These scholarships can be broadly divided into five categories.

Chinese Government Scholarship:

It is established by MOE China (Ministry of Education) in accordance with educational exchange agreements or MOUs signed between Chinese government and governments of other countries, organizations, education institutions and relevant international organizations to provide both full scholarships and partial scholarships to international students and scholars. The scheme supports students who come to study in China on undergraduate and postgraduate programs, Chinese language training programs, general scholar and senior scholar programs.

• Dispatching authorities: Applicants shall apply for the scholarship through dispatching authorities, host institutions or the Chinese diplomatic missions.
• Application period: to apply for Chinese government scholarship: from January to March, every year.

Local/Provincial Government Scholarship:

Local Government Scholarships are launched by provincial and municipal local governments in China, which are designed to encourage more outstanding international students or scholars to study at universities in their provinces or municipalities. In general, Local Government Scholarships aren’t so widely available compared with Chinese Government Scholarships. Usually, local governments only set up a few number of scholarship programs for several designated institutions. However, there are maybe numerous universities in that province or city. So it is important to figure out if your target university can provide this type of scholarship.

According to the latest data, 15 Chinese provincial and municipal governments have established a total of 33 scholarship programs for foreign students and scholars in 2018.

Confucius Institute Scholarship:

Confucius Institute Scholarship Program was launched by Hanban (or Confucius Institute Headquarters) in a bid to encourage students, scholars and Chinese language teachers from other countries to study Chinese language in China. This type is also extensively accessible in plenty of universities as Hanban has provided Confucius Institute Scholarships to 149 institutions in 2018. But it only open for applicants who are going to study Chinese Language and Culture, Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages or other subjects related to Chinese language. Moreover, it will require applicants to offer recommendation letters from recommending Institution.

Chinese Universities Scholarship:

Many leading universities and colleges in China have set up their own scholarship schemes for attracting excellent international students and scholars to pursue studies at their universities. Please note that this type of scholarship are in different names at different universities. They are usually named after universities’ name, such as Zhejiang University Scholarship. So please don’t mix it with the Chinese Government Scholarship–Chinese University Program. Applicants need to find specific programs at target University and apply for it through university’s online platform directly.

Enterprise Scholarships:

Some enterprises have set up scholarships to support international students in certain institutions in order to boost international exchange and technological innovation. This type of scholarships have fewest programs but it can increase your chance to get one scholarship if the other scholarship programs at your target university are highly sought after.