Doan Thi Kim Dung from Vietnam: a scholarship aimed at going home

The reasoning behind the choice

Dung's application had a clear logic that is easy to overlook: she is from Bac Ninh, a northern Vietnamese province with a high concentration of Chinese enterprises, and she chose business administration because that is the knowledge her local economy actually demands.

This is the "return plan" pattern that appears repeatedly in successful scholarship accounts. Assessors are funding a future, and an applicant who can describe what they will do with the degree — in a specific place, for a specific reason — is easier to fund than one who describes the degree alone.

What the award covers

The Chinese Government Scholarship she received covers tuition, accommodation and medical insurance, and pays a monthly living stipend. It is tenable for the full duration of the programme but is renewed annually, so recipients must continue to meet academic performance conditions.

The Chinese embassy in Vietnam presented admission letters to 34 Vietnamese CSC recipients for the 2025/26 academic year. China has also expanded short and mid-term training programmes for Vietnamese students alongside the degree scholarships.

The bigger picture in Vietnam

Around 24,000 Vietnamese students were studying in China at the time of the embassy event — roughly double the number five years earlier. Vietnamese officials cited world-class universities, quality of education, affordable tuition and the opportunities the degree creates as the drivers.

A second Vietnamese recipient in the same cohort illustrates another route: Do Gia Hien began with a one-year exchange programme in China in 2023, was struck by how far artificial intelligence and robotics had developed, entered a national science and engineering competition on his return and used the result to secure a place in computer science at Harbin Institute of Technology.