News & updates · · 2 min read
Engineering is now the most popular field for international students in China
More than a quarter of all degree-seeking international students in China study engineering. Here is where they are concentrated.
Engineering accounts for 27.8% of degree-seeking international students in China, the largest single field, according to Ministry of Education figures for the 2024–2025 academic year. That reflects both the strength of Chinese engineering faculties and the practical orientation of many scholarship applicants.
The concentration is uneven. Mechanical, civil, electrical and electronic engineering dominate at Tsinghua, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Xi'an Jiaotong, Harbin Institute of Technology and Beihang. Computer science and software engineering are concentrated at Tsinghua, Peking, Zhejiang, UESTC and the HIT Shenzhen campus. Chemical engineering clusters at Tianjin, Zhejiang and Dalian University of Technology.
Chinese-taught engineering programmes are the norm at undergraduate level, requiring HSK 4–5, while master's and doctoral supervision is widely available in English — which is why the postgraduate cohort skews more international than the undergraduate one.