Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
medicine or law may prevent you from picking up a scalpel or gavel back home, one in sci-
ence, finance, or international relations may garner you more kudos. In general, postgradu-
ate courses fare a lot better than undergraduate courses, and Beijing is becoming a popular
destination for students who want a master's or doctorate with a Chinese twist.
There are more than 60 universities and colleges across Beijing, and standards vary
greatly from one to the next, so if you are planning to do a full undergraduate or postgradu-
ate degree, it may work out better to limit yourself to the top-ranking ones, in part because
companies or universities back home may have actually heard of them, and because they are
more likely to be more internationally savvy. Even then, you should still investigate wheth-
er or not your chosen course is going to be worth your time and money in the long run.
Organizations such as the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions
Officers (
www.aacrao.org
) or the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA,
www.ukcisa.org.uk
)
can help you determine how respected the courses are likely to be val-
ued elsewhere.
Chinese universities use the same structure for degrees as the West. Most of their under-
graduate bachelor programs are four full years, master's programs are two or three years,
and doctorate degrees are three years and up. To search online for both degree and non-de-
gree programs, including those taught in English, you can use China's University and Col-
lege Admission System (CUCAS) website (
www.cucas.edu.cn
)
.
Naturally, the vast majority of degrees offered in Chinese universities are taught in
Chinese, though the number of English-taught programs is on the rise. Just a handful of
English-taught bachelor programs include International Marketing at Beijing Foreign Stud-
ies University, Chinese Medicine at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, and Inter-
national Trade at University of International Business and Economics. The servings of
English-taught master's and doctorate programs are even more generous, particularly those
relating to international relations or business.
As an international student, you're immediately going to pay more than a local student,
but even then the difference may be as little as RMB5,000, and in most cases it will still
be cheaper than what you'd pay at a university back home. While the average fee for a
year at MIT will cost around US$40,700, a year at even Tsinghua or Peking University
will cost less than half of that. In 2013, for example, the annual fee for a Bachelor of
