The latest batch of approvals includes 16 sino-international educational institutions in China and 30 collaborative post-secondary programs, with commentators highlighting the expansion of partnership institutions beyond traditional Anglophone countries.
“While partnerships with Anglophone countries like the US, UK and Australia remain important, the inclusion of institutions from Germany, France, Russia and others reveals a multipolar internationalisation strategy,” David Weeks, COO of Sunrise International told The PIE News.
“China regularly goes through cycles of opening and then regulating international university partnerships, with the goal of continually growing successful partnerships, while closing those considered ineffective,” Weeks continued.
The most recent round of approvals followed the education ministry’s granting of 113 partnerships this May, the first major batch of approvals since 2022.
According to Charles Sun, founder of China Education International, the ministry did not indicate a timeframe to achieve its goal of eight million TNE enrolments, but with current levels at approximately 800,000, he said it was likely to be a long-term goal of at least 10 years.
While the scale of Chinese TNE is set to expand dramatically, state expectations that universities must reinforce party-building and embed ideological education, while committing to no less than one-third of teaching and education resources remain clear, explained Sun in a recent opinion piece.
His compilation of the new initiatives shows the largest number of partnerships have been established with UK universities, including six joint institutions and three new programs, followed by Russia which has the green light for two institutions and six joint programs.
The expansion has primarily been driven by domestic demand. As the cost of international education becomes increasingly expensive, TNE partnerships are gaining popularity for offering quality international curricula at home with a lower cost.
“The main reason of TNE expansion is still to meet the current needs of students,” Bonard’s China branch director Grace Zhu told The PIE.
“In recent years, many students have been hoping to gain international education experience while minimising the cost of studying abroad,” she said.
Students have been hoping to gain international education experience while minimising the cost of studying abroad
Grace Zhu, BONARD
The expansion also aims to address China’s economic and technological development goals by cultivating a more sophisticated and modern workforce.
This comes as China’s youth unemployment hit nearly 18% in July, the highest level in 11 months, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
“While the majority of TNE partnership programs are primarily designed to serve domestic students in China, many of them adopt bilingual teaching, offer international accreditation, and foster cross-cultural academic communities, which certainly enhance China’s attractiveness as a study destination,” said Weeks.
As alluded to by Weeks, such efforts will likely bring notable soft power benefits, with the initiatives encompassing institutions across Europe as well as new partnerships in regions like South America and Southeast Asia.
As well as the increased geographical diversity of partner institutions, stakeholders have highlighted a broadening of disciplines, with the new programs reflecting the geopolitical landscape as well as China’s domestic resource and human capital needs.
Key areas include digital media, artificial intelligence, robotics, big data, petroleum engineering, health sciences and the arts.
While geopolitical uncertainty and various countries’ restrictions on Chinese collaborations in certain technologies and fields have shaped the expansion, the partnerships also signal China’s drawing on different strengths from around the world.
According to Weeks: “This strategy points to China’s focus on leveraging perceived strengths from different countries, such as fashion design programs with France, musicology with Russia, and vocationally focused programs with German institutions.”
The agreements build on China’s existing TNE landscape of 15 international branch campuses, 333 joint colleges and 2,427 joint education programs.
Within China, the latest approvals were spread across numerous provinces, “signalling a nationwide push for internationalisation beyond traditional education hubs,” said Sun, pointing to the prominence of Jiangsu and Shandong provinces.
The PIE understands that TNE applications are initially screened by provincial education departments, before being submitted to the ministry where the approval rate stands at roughly 80%.
Country breakdown of recently approved Chinese TNE institutions and programs:
| Country/ region | Institutions | Programs | Total |
| UK | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| Russia | 2 | 6 | 8 |
| US | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Finland | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| France | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Canada | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Italy | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Poland | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Germany | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Belarus | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Hungary | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Australia | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Cyprus | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| New Zealand | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Hong Kong | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Brazil | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Thailand | 0 | 1 | 1 |
