The Chinese Ministry of Education has announced that because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Gaokao, the national university entrance exam taken annually by 10 million students, will be rescheduled from its original date in June to July.
The exam will take place on 7 and 8 July, except for Hubei Province, the epicentre of the outbreak and Beijing, which will be able to set their timetables in accordance with local circumstances.
Since February, when school classes around the country were cancelled, students have been waiting for gao kao news, and the ministry said it had yet to decide if the exam should go ahead. Now that a date has been set for July, university admissions for the academic year 2020-21 are not expected to get too seriously affected.
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Academic institutions in Peking, Tsinghua, Renmin, and Shanghai Jiao Tong will no longer allow non-Chinese applicants to sit on their entrance exams. Some replaced the exam with an online interview, and the criteria for language and qualification remain.
Peking University wrote on its website, “To protect the safety of the majority of students, the school agreed to cancel a written test connection for a foreign student entrance exam program for 2020.”
“The school will conduct remote interviews for applicants who meet application criteria.”
Nevertheless, the movie has brought to the fore the argument surrounding Chinese universities’ preferential treatment of international students. Universities in China have also faced criticism for offering better accommodation for international students and allowing lower entry grades than for local students.
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A retired professor at Lanzhou University surnamed Cai said attracting students from overseas to China is part of a long-running CCP strategy that uses education as a means of soft power.
Students studying in China under its Belt and Road Initiative enjoy generous living expense stipends and no tuition fees besides free lodging. The idea is to train pro-China people in the next generation and establish friendly relations with their countries.
The most massive numbers came from South Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, and India. The borders of the country are closed to all non-Chinese nationals except for individual foreign business executives.
Top Universities in China
| Ranking | University Name | Tuition fees |
| 1 | Tsinghua University | International tuition 28,000 CNY |
| 2 | Peking University | International tuition 28,000 CNY |
| 3 | Fudan University | International tuition 34,000 CNY |
| 4 | University of Science and Technology of China | Varies |
| 5 | Zhejiang University | 42,800 Chinese Yuan |
| 6 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | 5,000 and 12,000 USD/year |
| 7 | Nanjing University | 5,200 yuan to 6,380 yuan |
| 8 | Sun Yat-sen University | 504,500 Rupees/year |
| 9 | Wuhan University | 256,000 Rupees/year |
| 10 | Harbin Institute of Technology | 2,912 USD/year. 4,076 USD/year. 2,500 USD/year |
