CHONGQING (The Straits Times/ANN): – When business consultant Sun Shengqiang, 31, decided to stay in China for his masters degree in Business Administration in 2025, he wasn’t just looking to save costs – he was looking for safety and efficiency.
Deterred by media reports of rising anti-Chinese sentiment and a relative’s brush with racism abroad, Mr Sun chose the security of Beijing over the uncertainty of going overseas. He also thought that staying in China for school might be more useful as he plans to develop his career in the country.
“I surprised myself when I chose to stay in China for my postgraduate studies because I’ve wanted to try studying overseas since young,” Mr Sun told The Straits Times.
More young Chinese are making the same choice as Mr Sun to stay in China for their education, a shift from previous generations in the country which saw going overseas for school as a mark of success and prestige.
Official statistics released on April 11, the first since the Covid-19 pandemic, showed that the number of overseas Chinese students stood at 570,600 in 2025. This was 9 per cent down from the four-year average of 629,500 recorded between 2016 and 2019.
An earlier announcement by China’s Education Ministry in December 2020 noted that there were 2.518 million overseas Chinese students between 2016 and 2019.
Professor Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute thinktank in Beijing, told ST that an uncertain international environment, high costs of overseas tuition and improving quality of Chinese universities have made staying in China for school a more attractive option.
The number of Chinese students studying abroad remains “at a relatively high level of over 500,000, though it has declined from its historical peak”, compared with other countries, he said.
Prof Xiong pointed out that “specifically, interest in the United States has dropped significantly due to visa concerns and other factors”, adding that the decreased interest in the US is “the main driver for the decrease in Chinese students going overseas”.
Media reports in the US noted that the number of Chinese students had dropped from a peak of 377,000 students in academic year 2018/2019 to roughly 270,000 in 2023/2024, citing official figures and the American non-profit organisation Institute of International Education.
Still, the US remains the top choice for Chinese students heading overseas, he added.
The drop in the number of Chinese students going overseas is also due to the increasing costs of doing so because of global inflation.
A report in March by New Oriental Group, China’s largest private educational service provider, noted that the annual budget prepared by Chinese families has hit a new high of about 600,000 yuan (S$112,000), up from 507,000 yuan recorded in 2023, largely due to higher costs of living overseas.
The decline in Chinese students overseas had earlier raised concerns that people-to-people ties, particularly with the US, would be further strained and that China was becoming more insular.
The frayed ties were highlighted in 2023 by former US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, who pointed out in a media interview that people-to-people exchanges between the US and China have suffered due to worsening tensions between the world’s two top economies.
The US and China are engaged in a strategic competition that spans technology, trade, military power and global influence.
This has resulted in a closer scrutiny of Chinese students applying for visas to the US, particularly those planning to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Prof Xiong said that the uncertainty of obtaining visas for Stem courses at US universities has discouraged Chinese students from going to America.
He added that as a result of this uncertainty, “Chinese students are pivoting towards Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong”.
The decline in Chinese students overseas had earlier raised concerns that people-to-people ties, particularly with the US, would be further strained. – PHOTO: REUTERS
The intense geopolitical rivalry between the US and China has also led to suspicions of Chinese graduates from American universities, affecting the job prospects of returnees from overseas.
Ms Dong Mingzhu, chairwoman of Gree Electric, the world’s largest manufacturer of residential air-conditioners, said in April 2025 during a shareholders’ meeting that her company will “absolutely not use any overseas returnees” when cultivating talent.
Top state-owned enterprises in China as well as the Chinese government have also traditionally hired from the country’s top universities instead of overseas graduates.
Those who laud the benefits of an overseas degree programme told ST that graduating from a top university outside of China still signals to future employers that they have more international exposure and come from families with more resources.
Some are also drawn to specific programmes abroad that have a different emphasis from those offered in China.
Business owner Guo Yimeng, who is in his 40s, said that he is considering sending his daughter to either Britain or Singapore for her undergraduate studies because he wanted to give her “a chance to stand out from the competition”.
“It’s too competitive in China universities. There is still value in going overseas for an undergraduate degree but only if it is a good school,” he said.
He also thinks that reputable universities outside of China are easier to get into compared with the country’s top schools, particularly Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Mr Guo, who lives in the south-western city of Chongqing, added: “I would like her to have some overseas exposure and, hopefully, enjoy the rest of her education before she starts working.”
A private tutor in Chongqing, who gave only her surname, Zhang, and is starting her postgraduate studies at a university in South-east Asia, said that the course’s structure was what pushed her to study abroad.
Ms Zhang, who is in her 30s, who did her undergraduate studies in business administration in the US, said: “The school I decided on has a good balance between the pedagogy and the subject I hope to teach.” Ms Zhang’s aim is to teach mathematics at an international school in the future.
The other schools she was looking at – in China and in the US – were offering teaching degrees that focused more on pedagogy, and less on deepening students’ knowledge of mathematics.
A move abroad is also “likely to help me gain credentials that China cannot provide”, Ms Zhang said.
She declined to provide her full name or reveal where she is going to further her studies later in 2026, as private one-on-one tutoring is a grey industry in China.
In 2021, the Chinese authorities banned for-profit tutoring to reduce student stress and reduce the costs of raising a child in the country.
Mr Sun, the MBA student, said his current programme “costs less than half” of what he would have spent in Britain, where he almost went. He was also able to continue working, so his income has not been significantly affected.
He said he was also deterred from going abroad for school because a relative of his had faced racism while on an overseas holiday. A local had laughed at his accent and called him names.
Anti-Chinese sentiment grew around the world as the Covid-19 virus, first discovered in China in late 2019, spread globally and China was blamed for this. For example, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation reported 279 anti-Asian hate crime incidents in 2020, up from 158 in 2019.
Mr Sun said: “Who knows whether these racist people would turn violent?”
Furthermore, Mr Sun, who specialises in the pharmaceutical and medical industries, plans to further his career in China, so “it makes sense to attend a Chinese university”.
“My classmates are mostly Chinese, so my network has really expanded a lot, to include bosses of well-known firms. Some of my teachers are also industry professionals and have opened doors for me,” added Mr Sun, who did his undergraduate studies in China.
“If I were to attend a school abroad, my classmates would definitely be more diverse but I’m not sure if they would provide a lot of value for my career,” he said. — The Straits Times/ANN