Tsinghua University Makes it Easier for Foreign Students to Enroll, Chinese Students Pissed Off

Tsinghua has started a heated debate throughout the country's student population after lowering requirements for applicants that hold foreign passports. This does not come as huge surprise given that it has been the general feeling that Chinese universities have always been fairly easy for foreign students to get into, scoring subsidizes and scholarships along the way.

Starting this academic year, these new requirements drop a previous requisite that students take a standardized written academic exam before handing in their application. A Chinese language test was also required in earlier years but has since been dropped.

The controversy arises from the fact that this new regulation will allegedly make it easier for Chinese students who have obtained foreign citizenship to get into the prestigious university, University World News reports.

"Overseas students must merely provide national school-leaving exam certificates or their grade point average together with an academic ranking certification from their high school, with the university setting a minimum cut-off point for selecting good students," the piece states.

This has really pissed off netizens, many pointing out that Chinese students are expected to undergo years of pressure to perform well in the national college entry examination, the gaokao, while foreign students don't need to fulfill this requirement.

One user on Weibo, Xiaobaozi, writes: "Strict to Chinese applicants and easy on foreigners, even education is that unfair now? As a top university, Tsinghua is so gross too, as long as you change your nationality, you can get in there without working hard. Tsinghua is not as strict as a normal university. So you [Tsinghua] can just look at people and accept them, is it a beauty contest?"

Another user, writes "When you become an Australian, you can just get into Tsinghua. You only need to know 1,800 Chinese characters, 10 years of hard work is nothing compared to Western citizenship."

New regulations seem especially unfair considering how difficult it can be for Chinese applicants to get into universities abroad, with requirements for Chinese students generally more stringent than for local students. But on the other hand, how many foreign students would be able to pass the Chinese gaokao? Perhaps if Chinese universities want to entice more foreign students to come here and enroll, dropping some of these requirements is the only way.

More stories by this author here.

Email: margauxschreurs@truerun.com
Instagram: s.xuagram

Photo: Wikimedia, Weibo