Chinese students bucking trend of falling university numbers

The overall number of foreign students applying to study in the UK fell by 16 percent this academic year, after the previous government tried to reduce student numbers in a bid to curb immigration. The economic problems post-Covid also contributed.

The one exception is the number of Chinese students. Despite the sometimes strained relationship between the UK and China, Britain is the only western country where the number of Chinese students continues to grow.

Xinyung Mo is from Hainan and has been studying in the UK for the past five years. He has just started a Masters degree in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at UCL, University College London.

There are more foreign students than British on his course, with Chinese nationals the largest group. For Mo, one of the main attractions is the length of the course.

"Here you do three years as an undergraduate then one year for a masters full time," he explained. "But in China we do four years of undergrad then it used to be two years for masters, now we are doing three years."

When Mo initially came to the UK to take his A-levels, the biggest challenge was the language. His course was in Newcastle where the regional Geordie accent is one of the most difficult to understand.

Fellow student Yifan Yang arrived in the UK just over a month ago from Henan in China to take the same Robotics and Artificial Intelligence course at UCL. His initial impression is that the education system is friendlier here.

"I think in the UK teachers and students, we treat each other more like friends," Yang said, "so that maybe I can learn more easily and feel comfortable." 

His biggest challenge has been the food. He wasn't familiar with food in the UK and he had difficulty adapting, though now he is starting to discover everything from Italian to Mexican dishes.

Overseas students: The numbers

There's long been a strong demand to study in English speaking countries with prestigious universities. One appeal of the UK is that graduate students can apply to stay and work here for two years after graduating, whereas the U.S. has cracked down on Chinese student visas.

The UK is the only western country where the number of Chinese students has increased since Covid, with more than 154,000 students based in the UK in the past academic year. UCL has the most Chinese students with 9,840, followed by the University of Manchester's 8,645, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

The most recent figures from the British Council suggest that in 2021 Chinese students spent around $7 billion on tuition and expenses. Overseas students are a financial boon for UK universities, where domestic undergraduate tuition fees have been frozen at around $12,000 a year since 2016 while international students pay around $50,000 for the same course.

Mo and Yang are just one month into their Masters program, but they are already making future plans.

"I'd like to work for a few years here, I'd like to learn new things," Mo said. "Eventually, when I think there is no more to learn I will go back to my home place, Hainan."

Yang, by contrast, thinks he will probably go straight home.

"I may go back to China," he said. "I'm very interested in cars, vehicles and I want to apply the knowledge I learn here to build more advanced cars like self-driving or more advanced EV, electric vehicles."

Despite recent strains in relations between the UK and China, universities here are hoping that this will not deter future applications for what has become an important financial lifeline for Britain's academic institutions.