China Expands Financial Aid, More Scholarships for Low-Income Students

China has made changes to its student financial aid program, aiming to offer support to distinguished students in the country and those from low-income households to help reduce their educational costs, officials from the Ministry of Finance have said.

At a press conference in Beijing on Saturday, Vice-Minister of Finance Guo Tingting revealed plans by the Chinese authorities to improve student financial aid policies, China Daily reports. According to the same, the initiative focuses on two main goals, which include helping students in need and rewarding excellent ones.

The National Scholarship - scholarships allocated to students from poor backgrounds but whose academic performance is excellent, increased from 8,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan annually for students pursuing undergraduate degrees.

As the China Daily reports, the average national grant for undergraduate students also changed this fall, increasing from 3,300 yuan to 3,700 yuan annually.

Additionally, at the beginning of the fall semester, more students qualified for the National Scholarship. Figures show that a total of 120,000 undergraduate students received the scholarship this year, up from 60,000 previously.

At the same time, the number of master’s recipients increased from 35,000 to 70,000, whereas PhD students who won scholarships increased from 10,000 to 20,000.

Official data from the Ministry of Education shows that more than 47 million students were enrolled in different higher education institutions in China last year. The number grew by 1.08 million compared to the previous year, or up 2.32 percent yearly.

More than 10 million students were enrolled at universities, colleges, and vocational schools in the country,

China is already a popular choice for international students, attracting half a million every year. In 2019, it became the top study destination in Asia, a report from the Centre for Global Higher Education revealed.

Besides attracting many international students, China is also known as the biggest contributor of international students to top study abroad destinations, like the United States and the United Kingdom.

In the 2022/23 academic year, 289,526 Chinese students studied in the US. However, the number slightly decreased from the 290,086 in the previous year.

Students from China account for the largest group of international students in the United Kingdom as well. In 2021/22, a total of 151,690 Chinese studied in the UK. According to Statista, an international data-gathering firm, the number of Chinese students in the UK increased to more than 154,000 in 2022/2023.

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