Is Warwick less appealing to Chinese students?

There has been an anomalous decline of overseas Chinese undergraduates, the Boar reveals. This comes amid reports on the decline of international students at England’s universities.

The Boar investigated the numbers of overseas students in relation to their ethnicity since 2010.

There was little change found in the number of ethnically ‘white’ and ‘black’ overseas undergraduates. Meanwhile, there was an increase of overseas Asian (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi) students from 272 in 2010 to 363 in 2013.

Chinese students

The number of ethnically Chinese overseas undergraduates however fell from 954 in 2011 to 900 in 2013, from 38 percent to 36 percent of the international undergraduate population.

Meanwhile, a counter-trend increase in the number of Chinese overseas postgraduates from 1,085 in 2011 to 1,110 in 2013 helped level out the overall decline of the Chinese student population.

Other statistics revealed that there was little change in the numbers of entrants from mainland China since last year. In 2012, there were 147 mainland Chinese students; this year in 2013, there were 148.

This runs contrary to the 26 percent increase of mainland Chinese entrants last year.

Peter Dunn, spokesperson for the University, suggested that in taking into account China’s two Special Administrative Regions Hong Kong and Macau, undergraduate numbers from China are actually increasing.

He also commented on the increase of overseas Chinese postgraduates: “As the Chinese economy continues to grow and develop more, Chinese students will want to take Warwick’s much valued higher degrees to support their ambitions and skills needs.”

Less appeal to study in the UK

The Boar talked to Evie Zhang, an overseas student from Zhuhai, China.

She explained that postgraduate study is much longer in China – two to three years – so it was unsurprising that there is a higher appeal for postgraduate degrees in the UK.

She also suggested that the cancellation of the Post Study Work (PSW) visa in 2012, which allowed overseas graduates two years to find a job, may have prompted more Chinese people to apply for a postgraduate degree to look for work.

She said: “I have some friends who do a postgraduate degree and get a student visa, but their aim is mainly to look for jobs.

“Once my student visa expires, I can’t carry on looking for a job in the UK unless a company helps me apply for a visa. Requirements for working visas are quite strict, so companies are less willing to do it for me. But I have heard that there is a new one coming out which will last for one year.

“A few years ago, immigration was relatively loose for Chinese people, but now, because of the economic environment, they don’t want as many immigrants to take local jobs away. However, there are still opportunities for highly educated people and richer businessmen with things like the Entrepreneur visa.”

She attributed the decline in Chinese undergraduates to the cost of three years of overseas education and the incompatibility of the Chinese education system with UK university admissions processes.

“Most students who want to study here don’t have the qualifications to get accepted.

She claimed that UK universities did not quite acknowledge the Chinese National College Entrance Examination (NCEE or ‘Gaokao’). “Most students who want to study here don’t have the qualifications to get accepted.

A second-year undergraduate from Sichuan also pointed towards the cancellation of the PSW visa: “Since the British government cancelled the visa, the UK doesn’t seem like a [popular] choice for overseas study.

“Most high school students choose to go to the US nowadays. And the increase in postgraduates is probably because it takes one year [of study].”

Refusing ethnic information

The Boar’s investigation also found that international students were less inclined to provide information on their ethnicity.

18 percent of international students, 737 students, refused to provide information on their ethnicity in 2013/14. Meanwhile, only 3.4 percent of the home/EU student population refused information on ethnicity.

The figure for overseas students is a 10 percent increase from 2011/12, when 668 students, 13 percent of international students, refused to provide information on ethnicity.

Ms Zhang said that she had her ethnic information put down as ‘Chinese’ but suggested: “Perhaps because the majority of home/EU students are in a mainstream ‘white’ ethnic group, they feel more comfortable in identifying themselves to the university.

“International students however may not be as comfortable being classed in a minority ethnic group.”

Top photo: Ann Yip; second photo: Warwick Media Library