UK universities see boom in Chinese students
Branwen Jeffreys
21 January 2020
The number of Chinese students at UK universities has soared - rising by 34% in the last five years.
It means China now sends more students than any other country, inside or outside the EU, to the UK.
The 120,000 Chinese students are an important source of income for universities because international students pay fees two to three times higher than UK students.
The government is keen to attract more students to the UK.
But MPs have warned that universities are naive in underestimating the influence of the Chinese government on campus.
- Sheffield students' Hong Kong protest disrupted
- Universities 'undermined by overseas autocracies'
- Free speech promise for UK university campuses
The figures are startling. Since 2014-15, the number of Chinese students in the UK has grown from 89,540 to 120,385, compared with 26,685 students from India.
The University of Liverpool has been one of the most successful in recruiting from China, which now provides almost one in five of its students.
More than a decade ago it was involved in creating a new university in the city of Suzhou, near Shanghai.
Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University runs degree courses which involve students coming to Liverpool for two years.
By the end of the decade, the joint venture is expected to have grown to almost 30,000 students.