中国学生英国留学趋势

The number of students from China applying to British universities has outstripped those from Northern Ireland for the first time.

A record number of applicants from outside the EU – 81,340 – have applied for UK higher education courses starting this autumn, figures reveal.

This is an increase of 8 percent compared with the 75,380 students who had applied by this point last year. The total number of applicants from the rest of the EU has also risen by 1 percent to 50,650.

The Ucas university admissions agency revealed on Thursday it had received almost 20,000 undergraduate applications from students in China this year (19,760, up from 15,240 in 2018), compared with 18,520 from Northern Ireland. The real figure will be higher as not all Chinese applications are made via Ucas.

The Ucas figures for overseas applicants found the next biggest cohort was from India, with 6,210 – up 5 percent on this time last year.Within the EU, the biggest number of applications came from France, at 5,330. There were 4,060 from the Republic of Ireland.

The number of students from Chinese mainland studying in UK higher education has more than doubled in the last decade. Commentators say however that recent tensions between China and the US are further benefitting British universities as Chinese students look at destinations other than America for their studies.

Welcoming the figures, the universities minister, Chris Skidmore, said: “International students bring huge cultural and economic benefits to the UK. These figures show we are making good progress in our ambition to open up world-leading higher education to anyone who has the potential to benefit from it and I’m confident that we can go even further.”

The Ucas figures also revealed an increase in the number of British 18-year-olds applying for places, up 1% on last year to 275,520 despite a 1.9% fall in the overall 18-year-old population of the UK.

China is already the biggest source of international students at British universities. In 2007-2008, there were 43,530 Chinese students in the UK, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa). Ten years later the total went up to 106,530, of which 60,460 were postgraduate students and 46,070 undergraduates.

Clare Marchant, Ucas chief executive, said: “The global appeal of UK higher education has never been clearer, with record demographic-beating application rates in England and Wales, and the steep rise in international applications, especially from China.”
The University of Manchester has the largest population of Chinese students in Europe. With about 5,000 Chinese students out of a total of just over 40,000, about one in eight students are Chinese.
“The university is well known in China,” said Richard Cotton, director of student recruitment and outreach at Manchester. “It’s partly because of the football,” he said.
But there are challenges. Currently Chinese students are concentrated in a limited number of subject areas, such as accounting and finance, economics, business studies and electrical engineering. As a result, they often end up studying in classes full of other Chinese students and socialising together when classes are over.
Tao Wang is a politics PhD student at the University of Manchester. He likes the diversity of the city, but there are difficulties too. “In the politics department, next to my desk is a Greek student, next to him is an Italian, and then a Briton, a Romanian, a French [student] and so on. Some of my best friends are from Nigeria, Mexico and Thailand. The diversity is the real beauty of Manchester that I truly love.”
“The challenge for me as a Chinese student is security,” he says. “There are too many robberies. Rumours are that students from China are particularly targeted by robbers. This might be because of the stereotype that Chinese students are crazy rich.”
The university is also developing research to try to find ways to encourage greater integration between Chinese and British students. “Students from both the UK and China are interested in each other,” says Wang, “but it looks like they don’t mix much. There is a cultural barrier.”
Chinese students are often in more expensive, purpose-built student flats, while British students live in shared houses. And according to Wang, the two groups socialise in completely different ways. “Chinese students like doing homework together, having a hotpot at home, singing karaoke, going shopping – for some, for luxury goods.
“British students particularly enjoy alcohol in pubs with loud music. I’ve heard complaints from my Chinese friends that they couldn’t make many local friends because they just didn’t like pubs.”

中国学生申请英国大学的人数首次超过了北爱尔兰学生。

数据显示，申请今年秋季学期英国高等教育课程的非欧盟国家学生人数达到创纪录的81340人。

与去年同期的75380名申请者相比，这一数字增长了8%。来自欧盟其它国家的申请者总数也增加了1%，达到50650人。

英国高等院校招生办公室周四（7月11日）公布，今年已收到近2万份来自中国学生的本科入学申请（从2018年的15240份增加到19760份），而来自北爱尔兰的申请为18520份。来自中国的申请量实际上更高，因为并非所有的中国学生都通过该机构申请入学。

英国高等院校招生办公室的数据显示，排在中国之后的是印度，申请人数比去年同期增加了5%，达到6210人。

在欧盟内部，申请人数最多的是法国，共有5330人。爱尔兰有4060人。

在过去10年里，在英国接受高等教育的中国大陆学生人数增加了一倍多。然而，评论人士表示，最近中美之间的紧张关系正使英国大学进一步受益，因为中国学生将目光投向美国以外的留学目的地。

英国大学部长克里斯·斯基德莫尔对这一趋势表示欢迎，他说：“国际学生给英国带来了巨大的文化和经济利益。这些数字表明，我们在向任何有潜力从中受益的人开放世界领先的高等教育方面取得了良好进展，我相信我们可以走得更远。”

英国高等院校招生办公室的数据还显示，尽管英国18岁的人口总数下降了1.9%，但英国18岁的入学申请人数仍在增加，比去年增加了1%，达到27万5520人。

中国已经是英国大学最大的留学生来源国。根据英国高等教育统计局的数据，2007年至2008年，英国共有43530名中国学生。十年后，这一数量增加到10万6530人，其中研究生60460人，本科生46070人。

英国高等院校招生办公室首席执行官克莱尔•马尚特说：“英国高等教育的全球吸引力从未像现在这样明显，英格兰和威尔士的申请人数打破了历史纪录，国际申请人数大幅上升，尤其是来自中国的申请。”

在欧洲，曼彻斯特大学的中国学生人数最多。在4万多名学生中，约有5000人来自中国，占到了八分之一。

曼彻斯特大学招生与推广主任理查德•科顿说：“曼彻斯特大学在中国很有名，足球是原因之一。”

但中国学生在国外留学也面临着挑战。目前，中国学生集中在有限的几个学科领域，如会计与金融、经济学、商科和电气工程。因此，他们经常在满是其他中国学生的课堂上学习，下课后一起开展社交活动。

王涛（音）是曼彻斯特大学政治学博士研究生。他喜欢这个城市的多样性，但也面临着困难。他说：“在政治系，我旁边坐着的是希腊学生，他旁边是意大利学生，然后是英国学生，罗马尼亚学生，法国学生等等。我的一些好朋友来自尼日利亚、墨西哥和泰国。多样性是这座城市的真正之美，也是我喜爱这个城市的原因。”

“作为一名中国学生，我面临的挑战是安全，”他说。“抢劫太多了。有传言说，来自中国的学生特别容易成为劫匪的目标。这可能是因为人们对中国学生的刻板印象，认为他们特别有钱。”

曼彻斯特大学还在研究，试图找到鼓励中英两国学生更好地融合的方法。王涛说：“来自英国和中国的学生都对彼此感兴趣，但他们似乎没有太多交集。他们之间存在文化障碍。”

中国学生通常住在更昂贵的、专门建造的学生公寓里，而英国学生则住在合租的房子里。据王涛说，这两个群体的社交方式完全不同。“中国学生喜欢一起做作业，在家涮火锅，唱卡拉ok，去购物，还有些人会买奢侈品。”

“英国学生特别喜欢在音乐嘈杂的酒吧里喝酒。我听到我的中国朋友抱怨说，他们不喜欢去酒吧，所以没法交到很多当地的朋友。”

（来源：英语点津）