Publication of the Focus China

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China is already, and will stay in the years to come, one of the main players of ecological, technological and digital transitions that our societies all over the world will have to deal with.

Bertrand Lortholary, Ambassador of France in China

Higher education in China

With 57 million students and a gross enrolment rate in higher education that has doubled in ten years (from +30% in 2011 to +60% in 2022), higher education in China is massive, and its development is closely supervised by the Chinese power. In 2023, China registered over 3,000 higher education institutions. Selection in higher education by the Gaokao entry exam (admission in the higher education cycle) and admission in Master course is still particularly difficult. However, China also adjusted its higher education massification policy in 2019 to foster professional training.

Since 2015, the “world-rank disciplines and universities development” policy (a.k.a. Shuangyiliu) aims at “creating a top-tier teaching staff, training high level talents capable of innovating, developing the level of scientific research, drawing on a culture of excellence and updating it, and striving to foster scientific promotion”. The programme currently includes 147 universities. It currently works at accelerating the training of medical staff and teaching staff the China urgently needs, promoting the optimisation and allocation of higher education resources, and improving the capacity of higher education to support and lead regional social and economic development.

At the same time, Chinese universities are improving their positions in international rankings. In 2024, five Chinese universities are in the world’s Top 100, vs two 15 years ago. Two Beijing universities lead: the University of Beijing (17th) and Tsinghua (25th), followed by the University of Zhejiang (44th), and Fudan (50th) and Jiaotong (51th), from Shanghai. The first two are also in the Top 3 of Asian universities, respectively 2nd and 3rd.

International mobility of Chinese students

China is the country of origin of 17% of international students worldwide, and 42% of Asian students’ mobilities. Over 700,000 Chinese students leave every year to study abroad, creating a cohort of about 1 million students abroad. The first five host countries for Chinese students are the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and South Korea. The next positions are for Germany and Malaysia, before France, 8th destination.

China is the 3rd country of origin of students with a foreign nationality registered in France in 2022-2023, with 25,600 students (including 59% students), behind Morrocco and Algeria (source Ministry of Higher Education and Research/SIES). In twenty years, the number of Chinese students in France has changed. First, between 2000 and 2010, the number of Chinese students registering in graduate training programmes in France grew exponentially, from about 2,000 in 2000 to about 25,000 in 2010. At the time, France was welcoming up to 5% of all mobile Chinese students worldwide. In the following decade, cohorts welcomed in France staggered, while they increased all over the world: the share welcomed in France decreased to 2% in 2021.

For many years, the first origin of students of foreign nationality registered in a doctorate course in France has been China, ahead of Lebanon and Italy. This mobility contributes to a highly internationalised doctorate level, with 37% of doctorate students in France having a foreign nationality.

Franco-Chinese university cooperation

• This cooperation mainly exists through Franco-Chinese Institutes (IFC in France), a key vehicle of this cooperation. In 18 years, 12 IFCs were created, including one at European scale.
• Cooperation in research between France and China relies on various complementary and structuring instruments such as programmes supporting mobility and joint structures of Franco-Chinese research. Such structures are recognised by agreements signed by French research entities (CNRS, INRAE, universities for example) and Chinese entities (CAS, CAAS, universities, and others). Such structures are pillars of cooperation in science and technology, with 56 Franco-Chinese partnerships in 2023 committing 300 laboratories and over 2,500 researchers. These fruitful collaborations led to more than 800 joint articles and 18 patents over the last 5 years.

High level dialogue about human exchanges

On 23 November 2023, Catherine Colonna, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, has presided with her counterpart Wang Yi the high level dialogue about human exchanges at the University of Beijing. This session, the 6th since the creation of the dialogue in 2014, is part of the continuity of French President Macron’s visit in China in April 2023 and is in line with the joint declaration agreed by the presidents of both countries. The subjects of their discussions were higher education, science and technology, including with the following declarations of intention:

• Declaration of intention in relation with the improvement of cooperation in higher education and research;
• Renewal of the January 2018 memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of health.

These documents complete additional cooperation agreements concluded earlier this year, such as boosting programmes supporting students and researcher mobility such as the Hubert Curien “Cai Yuanpei” partnership and the Young Talents France China programme or the conclusion on 6 September of administration arrangement between both ministries of education in relation with the implementation of the international French baccalauréat - Chinese language section.

In addition to the discussions, Colonna participated in a symposium organised as part of a Franco-Chinese week of education about the 100 years of university cooperation between China and France in the presence of former students from both countries. Colonna, her Chinese counterpart and the Chinese minister of sciences and technology also saw the launch of the French-Chinese centre for carbon neutrality website, which was announced during the State visit in April 2023 and designed to foster scientific and technologic cooperation in the field of carbon neutrality. Both ministers also talked about the preparation of the Franco-Chinese Year of cultural tourism and the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations entity in 2024.