Chinese Students in Thailand: Cash Cow, At a Cost

[ChC1]

Southeast Asia is a step stone to many Chinese students. That includes Thailand and Malaysia.

 

The reason is for anyone who wants to study in US/UK/Australia, one has to pass English test or US high school test for overseas students (not sure all the names now maybe some posters here can help me out). The problem is that some of the tests are very limited in Greater China region. So pupil with resource would take the tests in Thailand and Malaysia instead. 

 

Some students, that do not have the resource, but wants to prepare for a post graduate degree in Anglo-Saxon countries, choose the route of undergraduate degrees or even diploma degrees in countries like Thailand and Malaysia. Often, with less academic ability they can get into better universities in countries like Thailand and Malaysia, still way ahead of the Chinese universities they can get into with their Chinese high school exam scores. You have to remember there are millions high school students graduate every year. There are only top 112 universities that great students can go (known as 211 project in China). That is about 400,000 fresh students. For students that ranked 400,000 and outside, or even outside 100,000 that wants to attend a world top 200 university, or have a slight chance to be accepted by great US/British universities, their only chance is to get into a better ranked university overseas.  (here I used a simple example, but there are more complicated one depends which province the student is based. For example, the top university Peking University may only wants 30 students from Henan province so if you are in the fringe of being top 30, your dream of Peking University is dead for sure just because you are not from Peking)

 

Then we go back to the English test earlier. So these middle tier students, that may fail their entry exam to a top 100 universities in China, while have the ambition to study in Anglo-Saxon world with a better quality university, Thailand and Malaysia are the best choice. First is the low cost. Studying in Thailand for 4 years undergraduate is cheaper than one year in UK. Second the is the opportunity to practice English where it is difficult to do in China. Third is the almost unlimited opportunities to take the English exam. Fail once? Try again within a short period. Unlike in China, you fail once, the next available slot might be 3 years later.

 

To say it simply, it is complicated for Chinese students. It is tough for them too. You have millions fellow students to beat in order to get into a 2-1-1 university, and even if you can afford to go overseas, there are many obstacles to go through. Hence there are many British and Australian university set up camps in Malaysia to meet this market. 

[Maestro]

Removed some troll posts and the replies to them.

[Nabby]

23 hours ago, candide said:

The Chinese system is very selective, so there aren't really low-level universities

There are plenty of low-level Chinese universities that they could have got into. Next will come the Confucius Institutes and censorship of class content by the Chinese embassy. Once you let the Chinese in, it's over.