The prestigious Tsinghua University has recently released a new set of admission requirements for international students, which exempts foreigners who want to study for a bachelor’s degree at the university from all written entrance examinations except fo
The prestigious Tsinghua University has recently released a new set of admission requirements for international students, which exempts foreigners who want to study for a bachelor’s degree at the university from all written entrance examinations except for an HSK Chinese proficiency test.
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Tsinghua is one of the nation’s most inaccessible universities. Only the few dozen students from each province who come out on top in the annual college entrance examination can be admitted.
Some people therefore feel the preferential treatment of international students discriminates against students from China. They argue that the HSK test is just too simple compared with IELTS or TOEFL, English tests that Chinese students are required to take to study abroad. It is their belief that the best way for Tsinghua and other universities in China to attract international students is for them to become more academically competitive internationally, instead of entitling foreign applicants to special treatment.
In response, Tsinghua claims it has not lowered the enrollment threshold for international students, as it requires them to have high overall competence and bases assessment of their applications on more extensive criteria than those of domestic students. Also, the enrollment of international students will not squeeze the quota for domestic students.
Meanwhile, some people believe that by waiving written examinations, Tsinghua means to attract more international applicants so that it can select the best from a larger talent pool. They say the foreign student population at Tsinghua is proportionately much lower than at many prestigious universities worldwide, and the foreign student proportion is an important indicator of a university’s world-class status. Also, it’s unfair to impose China’s model of university student enrollment on international students, who may not be brought up in such an examination-oriented education environment.
No discrimination involved
