Chinese Students Shift from US to Australia, Britain

2024 · VOA Learning English

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Transcript

1. A yearly report on international study shows the number of Chinese students in the United States fell by a small amount last year.

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2. Meanwhile, a growing number of Chinese students are choosing to go to less costly countries like Britain and Australia.

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3. Experts say the cost of studying in the U.S., a struggling Chinese economy, and tension between the two countries are reasons for the changing numbers.

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4. The number of foreign students studying in the U.S.

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5. during the 2022-23 school year passed 1 million for the first time since the COVID pandemic.

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6. That information comes from Open Doors, the yearly report on international study. While the U.S.

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7. to 289,526. China still had more students in the U.S.

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8. than any other country that year. India was the second-largest country to send students to the U.S.

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9. in 2022-23, with 268,923 students.

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10. That represents an increase of 35 percent from the previous year. In the 2021-22 school year, the number of Chinese students in the U.S.

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11. The COVID pandemic saw Chinese student numbers in the U.S.

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12. drop in 2020-21 by nearly 15 percent. That number is about the same as the drop in students from all parts of the world in 2020-21.

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13. Vincent Chen advises Chinese students about studying abroad. He is based in Shanghai.

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14. He said most of the students he advises are still interested in studying in the United States.

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15. However, he also said there are growing numbers of students applying to study in Britain and Australia.

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16. "If you just want to go abroad, a one-year master's degree in the U.K. is much cheaper,” Chen said.

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17. “Many people can't afford to study in the U.S., so they have to settle for the next best thing." Data from the nonprofit U.S.

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18. group College Board Research shows that in the 2023-24 academic year, the average cost for a U.S.

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19. year. Foreign students, including Chinese students, also study in public U.S.

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20. universities. Those schools are generally less costly than private colleges.

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21. The British Council said three to four years of undergraduate tuition in Britain costs as little as $15,000 per year.

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22. The number of Chinese students in Britain was 154,260 in 2022-23, according to the U.K.

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23. Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA.

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24. Australia’s Home Affairs office said in the 2023-24 program year, China was the top foreign country for new students at 43,389, up

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25. Chen gave two other reasons more Chinese students are choosing to study in Britain and Australia: Chinese media's negative image of the United States and concerns about

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26. unfair treatment in the U.S. Bruce Zhang is a Chinese citizen who received his master's degree in Europe after studying in China.

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27. He told VOA’s Mandarin Service that he had such an incident happen to him after he was admitted to a U.S. university’s Ph.D.

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28. program. When he entered Boston's Logan International Airport last year, Zhang said customs officers questioned him for more than an hour about his research.

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29. They asked him if it had any connections to the military. And he said they took his computer and mobile phone for examination.

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30. Zhang was permitted to enter the U.S. for his studies in materials science.

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31. Still, the questioning left him so upset that he has told other Chinese to study elsewhere.

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32. Cui Kai is a study abroad advisor based in the American state of Massachusetts.

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33. Cui said those students who are questioned or denied entry have usually come to the U.S.

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34. for advanced study in an area related to security. Former U.S.

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35. President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10043 in June 2020.

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36. That ruling denied visas to any Chinese student who had studied or worked in an organization connected to China’s “military-civil fusion strategy”. The U.S.

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37. says China has been using students and researchers to get important technology. Under Proclamation 10043, the U.S.

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38. took away more than 1,000 visas given to Chinese nationals and has denied thousands more. Critics say the policy is costly to the U.S.

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39. and is making Chinese students look to universities in Europe and other places. I’m Andrew Smith.

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