More vocational college scholarships needed for overseas students

Shanghai lags behind other Chinese provinces and cities in attracting overseas students to study in local vocational colleges with government scholarships, according to a deputy to Shanghai People’s Congress.

The deputy, Ye Yinzhong, is president of Shanghai Urban Construction Vocational College, one of seven vocational colleges in the city qualified to accept overseas students.

Currently, overseas students attending those colleges can only receive scholarships from the schools, because they’re not entitled to the city government scholarships for overseas students, Ye said.

However, several Chinese provinces and cities, including Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, Guizhou, Henan and Fujian provinces and the cities of Chongqing, Tianjin, Jinhua and Kunming, offer government scholarships for international students.

Those scholarships range from 6,000 yuan (US$925) to 30,000 yuan per year.

As a result, vocational colleges in those provinces and cities are more influential among international students than those in Shanghai, according to a 2019 national higher education quality report.

Three vocational colleges in Shanghai enrolled 52 overseas students in 2019.

Ye said the Shanghai government should offer vocational college scholarships to overseas students, and called for the Ministry of Education to offer scholarships to international students on the national level.

“Without opening up vocational education, the aggregate opening-up of Chinese education is incomplete,” Ye said.