Chinese universities raise tuition fees

Universities in China are hiking up their tuition fees for this coming academic year.

East China University of Science and Technology raised tuition fees by 54% to 7,700 yuan ($1,082) for freshmen majoring in science, engineering, and physical education, and by 30% for liberal arts.

Shanghai Dianji University announced a 40% raise in tuition for science and engineering, while students majoring in management, economics, and literature will have to pay 30% more compared with a year earlier.

In April, Shanghai raised tuition for the academic year starting this fall for the first time in over two decades. The limit for the standard tuition fee for liberal arts is 6,500 yuan ($913) per student each year; 7,000 yuan ($983) for science and engineering; 7,400 yuan ($1,039) for medicine; and 13,000 yuan ($1,827) for the arts. It also urged all public universities to roll out various support policies, including rewards, loans, aids, and exemptions, and withdraw 4%–6% of their business income in full every year to subsidize students.

“Chinese universities charged similar tuition fees for a long time, as long as two decades. Therefore, the current move is justified to a great extent, in comparison with both their own history and with their peers in many other societies,” Rui Yang, the dean of education at the University of Hong Kong, told The China Project.

Meanwhile, the provinces of Sichuan and Jilin also raised tuition for different majors, with as much as a 41% increase in Sichuan, according to local government statements.

“Chinese tuition is still very cheap by global standards, and this increase won’t have that much social impact, considering it’s still middle-class urban parents who send their child to college,” Jiāng Xuéqín 江学勤, a Beijing-based writer and educator, told The China Project.

China’s push for “world-class” universities

Chinese leader Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 reiterated calls that “world-class universities and strong disciplines with Chinese features” should be a “top priority” at a Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee study session on May 30.

For decades, the Chinese government has aspired to develop an elite educational system on a par with Western schools, as part of a broader push to help modernize its industries and meet its “national strategic needs.”

These efforts have been kicked into high gear in the decade that Xi has been in power. Project 211, an education initiative launched by the Chinese government in 1995, has now funded over 100 Chinese universities with the purpose of elevating them to international academic standards by the end of the 21st century. Project 985 was launched three years later to build on the best candidates under Project 211, and now includes 39 universities.

In 2015, the Chinese government rolled out the “Double First-Class” initiative, a tertiary education development initiative aimed at developing elite Chinese universities into world-class institutions by the end of 2050.

Meanwhile, China’s total enrollment rate in higher education reached 57.8%, with 44.3 million students on campus in 2021, ranking first in the world. That compares with the 38% of 18- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. who enrolled in some form of higher education from junior college on, as of 2021. The number of college graduates in China is expected to reach a historical record of 11.58 million this year, China’s State Council said in April, an increase of 820,000 compared with the previous year.

“One issue in China, however, has been that good universities are public and they charge little while private institutions of poor[er] quality charge much more. Even with this hike, good universities are still substantially cheaper than private ones whose quality is problematic,” Yang told The China Project. “This is also an issue of fairness and equality, but it seems to be lingering in the years to come.”

According to a 2022 white paper titled “Youth of China in the New Era” published by China’s State Council, from 2012 to 2021, more than 820,000 students from rural and poor areas were enrolled in key universities through special enrollment plans. The Chinese government has also continued to offer subsidies to pay off student loans. Over the years, the limit of the loans per person has increased to 12,000 yuan ($1,686) per year for junior college and university students, and 16,000 yuan ($2,249) per year for postgraduate students.

Cash-strapped local governments

But China’s dreams of building elite universities come as the finances of local governments are squeezed under mountains of debt, driven by three years of sweeping COVID-zero policies, a cooling housing market, and an economic slowdown.

An analysis of the 2022 financial results of 2,892 local government financing vehicles (LGFV) released by Rhodium Group on June 1 showed a decline in overall cash positions, from 8.7 trillion yuan ($1.22 trillion) at the end of 2021 to 7.8 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion). Most of the top 20 cities in China are facing worse conditions than last year: Given 205 cities with available financial data in 2022, half were making interest payments of 10% or more of their fiscal resources, suggesting difficulty in managing debt servicing costs.

The strained finances may make it more difficult for local governments to offer support for university students, whether it be through direct funds to universities or financial aid for its students. The education ministry’s expected budget expenditure for tertiary education in 2023 fell 3.7% to 102.6 billion yuan from the previous year, according to a report from the ministry.

However, the average tuition fees for a master’s program in Chinese public universities range between $2,500 and $10,000 for each academic year. Private universities usually have higher tuition: While most courses cost under $30,000 per year, some M.B.A. programs charge over $40,000 per year.

“Overall, Chinese universities charge little, and even after the increase, they still charge little compared with international and private ones in China,” Yang said.