2023, the new trend of studying abroad
With the arrival of the new year, with the changes in domestic entry and exit policies and the impact of the new crown epidemic on studying abroad, it is more convenient for Chinese students to study abroad.
What are the trends in studying abroad applications in 2023?
How to plan the way of studying abroad for Chinese students?
Interdisciplinary majors are favored
Lu Xiaoan studied computer science as an undergraduate in China. Not long ago, he successfully applied for the master's program in computer finance at King's College London, which is an interdisciplinary subject of computer science and finance.
In recent years, interdisciplinary majors are receiving more and more attention.
Interdisciplinary refers to the integration of two or more different majors, such as computer finance, biostatistics, cultural industry management, etc.
Most interdisciplinary majors are born in response to the ever-changing employment needs of the society, focusing on cultivating students' compound skills and broadening their employment scope and job-seeking competitiveness.
According to New Oriental's "2022 White Paper on Studying in China", the top three factors that international students consider when choosing a major are "what they are interested in", "good employment prospects" and "suitable for their educational background".
Affected by employment pressure, many students take job prospects into consideration when choosing a major.
"I think that studying computer and financial interdisciplinary majors can make you more competitive in employment." Lu Xiaoan said, "As far as I know, the financial industry is gradually realizing digital transformation and increasing investment in the technical field. To quantify the recruitment of traders For example, applicants need to have some understanding of computer science as well as knowledge of quantitative investing.”
According to the 2022 "U.S. Open Doors Report", the top three majors for Chinese mainland students studying in the United States in the 2021-2022 school year are "mathematics and computer majors", "engineering", "business and management", and STEM majors (science, technology). , engineering and mathematics education), business, humanities and social sciences are still the mainstream.
At present, the interdisciplinary majors offered by many overseas colleges and universities are mainly mathematics, computer, business and other majors combined with other majors, which are being favored by more and more Chinese students.
There are more plans for further studies
A few days ago, Kai Tak Education released the "2022 Inventory of China's Study Abroad Market and 2023 Outlook" report.
According to the data in the report, due to the increase in the application threshold of overseas institutions and the increase in the uncertainty of the application results, in the past three years, the proportion of multi-country joint applications in undergraduate and master's study abroad applications has shown a slight upward trend.
Among them, about 50% of the students who went to the United States and Australia to study in the United Kingdom jointly applied to the United Kingdom.
"This year, I applied for business majors in several different universities in the United States and the United Kingdom, hoping to increase the success rate of the application." Li Mingyang is a senior student who is going through the application season. He said: "There are many world students in the United States and Britain. The top-ranked schools, as far as I know, there are many applicants who have outstanding academic ability and language performance. The competition is very fierce. I want to apply to a few more schools, so that there are more possibilities of being admitted, so that Study well."
In addition, Jia Hongyan, deputy general manager of Kai Tak Education Beijing Branch, said that the college entrance examination scores of Chinese students are being recognized and accepted by more and more overseas colleges and universities. Comprehensive education planning.
Taking the UK as an example, nearly 50 universities, including the University of Cambridge and the University of Birmingham, recognize the results of the Chinese college entrance examination.
Germany will allow Chinese high school graduates to directly apply for undergraduate majors in German universities based on their college entrance examination results from 2020. A set of data from Kai Tak Education shows that the number of students applying for German undergraduate programs in 2022 has increased by 5 percentage points compared with the previous year.
The "White Paper on Studying in China in 2022" shows that in 2022, the academic plans of overseas students will be more diversified, and more than 40% of the group will pay attention to multiple pathways for further education and make good preparations.
Among those who intend to apply for undergraduate programs and above, many will also consider Sino-foreign cooperative education programs and domestic branch programs of overseas universities in order to find a development direction that suits them.
Strong willingness to return to China for employment
In September 2022, the Ministry of Education released data showing that since 2012, more than 80% of all kinds of Chinese students studying abroad have chosen to return to China after completing their studies.
According to the "2022 Insight Report on Chinese Students Returning to China for Job Hunting" released by LinkedIn, the number of Chinese students returning to China after completing their studies in 2020 will increase by 33.9% year-on-year, and will continue to grow in 2021. The intention of Chinese students returning to China will increase.
The relevant person in charge of LinkedIn said that the Internet and financial industries have attracted many international students in recent years due to their good development trend.
In terms of city selection, many companies that need international talents set up their headquarters, branches, and joint office areas in first-tier or new first-tier cities, and actively solve problems such as household registration, housing, and schooling for employees' children, thus attracting many returnees.
Taking Shanghai as an example, for returnees who graduated from the top 50 universities in the world, the social security payment base and payment time requirements are cancelled, and they can settle down directly after working full-time in Shanghai; graduates from universities ranked 51-100 in the world , come to Shanghai to work full-time and pay social security for 6 months before you can apply for permanent residence.
In addition, the experience of studying abroad has also become a bonus item for students when applying for jobs.
"Foreign-funded companies and companies with a global background prefer Chinese students. They value the language advantages, comprehensive literacy and global vision of foreign students." said Chen Yijing, Product Operations Director of LinkedIn China.
Zhao Xu returned to China in 2022 after graduating from Wageningen University in the Netherlands majoring in urban environmental management to participate in the autumn recruitment. He has a deep understanding of the relevant requirements of companies recruiting international students.
She said: "International students have an advantage when applying for positions that require foreign languages. Some positions require students to provide IELTS or TOEFL scores. I have prepared for it when I applied to go abroad. In addition, some jobs require proficiency in English. For example, I have applied for A post in a research institute requires daily preparations for international conferences, translation of book information, and writing of foreign language promotional content, etc., which requires certain requirements for the applicant's English proficiency and cross-cultural communication skills, and international students can fully demonstrate their competitiveness."