Study in China
What it is actually like to study in China — cost, language, academic culture, safety, work rights and daily life — written for international applicants rather than for marketing.
China runs the largest higher education system in the world. It hosted 380,000 international students from 191 countries and regions in the 2024–2025 academic year, of whom 205,000 were pursuing degrees. The attraction is not one thing but a combination that is difficult to find elsewhere: research universities that now rank inside the global top twenty, tuition and living costs that are a fraction of the United States, the United Kingdom or Australia, and a job market that specifically rewards people who understand China from the inside.
The trade-off is real. Chinese-taught programmes require years of language preparation. Bureaucratic processes are document-heavy. The academic culture is examination-driven and more hierarchical than in Europe or North America. And the quality gap between the top institutions and the rest is wider than in most national systems. Understanding those trade-offs before you apply is what this site is for.
Tuition typically ranges from CNY 20,000 to 50,000 per year for bachelor's and most master's programmes, with MBBS at CNY 45,000–80,000 and research degrees frequently funded in full. University dormitory accommodation costs CNY 5,000–20,000 per year. A student budget including food, transport and insurance runs from CNY 2,100 per month in cities such as Wuhan, Xi'an, Changchun and Chengdu to CNY 7,000 in Beijing and Shanghai.
English-taught programmes exist but are concentrated in specific universities and fields: engineering at Tsinghua, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Zhejiang and the joint institutes; business and economics at Peking, Tsinghua and Renmin; public health, China studies and computer science at master's level. Chinese-taught programmes require HSK 4 for postgraduate and HSK 5 for undergraduate study at competitive universities. A year of intensive Chinese before your degree opens the entire curriculum rather than a few hundred programmes, and it is the single highest-return preparation an applicant can make.
International students may work part-time or intern off campus only after at least one academic year, with school approval and an annotation on the residence permit, generally capped at around eight hours per week during term. After graduation, working in China requires a Z visa and a work permit obtained by the employer, with a points system that rewards a Chinese degree and higher qualification level.
Costs, campuses and lifestyle in the cities that host international students.
China's capital hosts the largest concentration of top-ranked universities in the country — and the highest rent. Here is what Beijing actually costs and how to choose where to live.
China's most international city, with the country's largest concentration of English-taught programmes outside Beijing. Here is how to budget and where the campuses actually are.
Southern China's largest student city, with the country's biggest African and Southeast Asian student communities and the lowest living costs of any tier-one city.
A city that barely existed in 1980 is now the hardware capital of the world and hosts campuses of five major Chinese universities.
One of China's most liveable cities, home to its largest university by international enrolment and to Alibaba's headquarters.
A former imperial capital with an unusually high ratio of students to residents, and two universities inside the global top 150.