As countries kept adjusting their entry and exit policies, the overseas study market gradually staged a recovery in 2023. On May 3, reporters from Beijing Business Today found that consultation volume for popular study destinations including the United Kingdom and Australia surged by more than 100%. The UK remained the most popular application country for five consecutive years.

Among the new wave of overseas applicants, there are not only prospective students with pre-existing study-abroad plans, but also many new candidates who gave up their second attempt at the postgraduate entrance exam or switched from the workforce. Senior consultants at overseas education agencies noted that while the market has rebounded, the number of applicants and their academic quality have risen in tandem, pushing the difficulty of applications to a record high.

Quitting Bonuses for Application Season: Working Professionals Join the Overseas Study Rush

“I resigned early and prepared for applications, even giving up my year-end bonus, just to catch the application window.” Dong En (pseudonym), who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Shanghai in 2020, failed the postgraduate entrance exam and started working. This year, she finally decided to pursue postgraduate studies in the UK. “I already wanted to study abroad right after graduation. However, the pandemic was severe back then, so I chose to sit the postgraduate exam. I ended up entering the workforce. As time went by, I felt my career was held back by my academic background.”

“UK postgraduate programmes feature short durations and are widely recognised in China, which suits my situation well.”

Dong En said that after several years working in a foreign enterprise, she formed a clearer plan for overseas study, with definite ideas about target universities and majors. She applied for general business-related programmes, which will support her future career development.

Dong En is not alone. Beyond the boom of working professionals switching to overseas study, Beijing Business Today reporters noticed that various overseas education fairs held this year have remained bustling, with a steady stream of parents and students coming for consultations.

Latest customer service data from EIC Education shows consultation volumes for mainstream overseas destinations have risen this year. Consultations for Australia and New Zealand jumped by 133% year-on-year between January and February 2023, while enquiries about Canada increased by 110% compared with 2022. The sharp rise in consultations is closely tied to relaxed entry-exit policies worldwide. Statistics indicate more than 80% of prospective international students plan to move forward with their overseas study plans, and the surge in applicants stands out as the most prominent change in the 2023 overseas study market.

High Cost-Effectiveness Wins Favour; UK Remains Popular for Five Consecutive Years

Notably, although the applicant pool has expanded and changed, the most favoured destination has stayed the same. Among mainstream countries, the UK retains its top position for overseas study thanks to its outstanding cost-effectiveness.

Liu Fei, who is busy applying for UK postgraduate programmes, shared her budget with Beijing Business Today. Before settling on the UK, she researched universities in the US and Australia. “Australian programmes usually last 1.5 to 2 years, and most US programmes take more than two years. The one-year taught master’s I am applying for in the UK will cost roughly RMB 400,000 to 500,000 in total. Since I will not study in London, living expenses can be further reduced.” Liu Fei said studying in the US would nearly double her total expenditure. “A two-year programme in the US costs at least RMB 1 million. Australia is cheaper than the US but still more expensive than the UK.”

EIC Education’s customer data shows that enquiries for UK study rose by 43.8% year-on-year in Q1 2023. The UK has remained the top overseas destination for Chinese students for five straight years. 2023 figures show 38.9% of prospective international students selected the UK.

Short study duration and high domestic recognition are the main reasons students pick the UK. According to Wu Meng, senior consultant at EIC Education Beijing Branch, nearly 73% of students choose the UK because its high-quality degrees save 1 to 2 years compared with completing equivalent programmes at home.

Undoubtedly, high cost-effectiveness is the primary draw of UK study, and Chinese students form the largest group of international learners at British universities. Data from the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) shows that over 150,000 mainland Chinese students studied in the UK in the 2021/22 academic year, up 5.47% year-on-year and accounting for 22.3% of all international students, ranking first. Among them, 63,000 were undergraduates and 89,000 postgraduates. UCAS data shows applications from mainland Chinese students have kept rising over the past decade.

Postgraduate Exam Candidates Enter the Fray: Application Competition Grows Tougher

Alongside rising popularity, application difficulty has intensified, and many students describe the competition as fiercer than ever. Take Dong En as an example. The offers she received are mainly from universities ranked around the 100th place in the QS World University Rankings. Yet applicants with similar academic profiles three years ago could secure admission to top 50 global universities. “You really need to apply early for overseas study,” Dong En sighed.

Unlike Dong En, Liu Fei once faced setbacks over her major choice. Holding an undergraduate degree in physics, she wanted to switch to computer science for her master’s abroad. “I initially applied for computer science but received no offers from my target universities. I switched my application to data science and finally got an offer.”

Is overseas application competition truly getting harder? Senior industry practitioners explain that as more working professionals and candidates retaking the postgraduate exam join the pool, the total number and quality of applicants are climbing rapidly. Both Liu Fei and Dong En graduated from Project 211 universities with strong academic backgrounds. Liu Fei even attempted the national postgraduate exam twice. “After two failed attempts, I turned to overseas study,” Liu Fei said.

Liu Wenyong, General Manager of Gaotu Postgraduate Exam Division with years of experience in university training, told Beijing Business Today that for fresh graduates, postgraduate exams and overseas study are not always mutually exclusive. Many students prepare for both despite the heavy workload. “In terms of timelines, the national postgraduate exam is usually held at the end of December, while overseas application seasons generally run until March of the next year. That explains why a group of students start applying for overseas master’s programmes at the last minute, hoping to enrol in September the same year.”

Wu Meng also noted that the three most popular majors for undergraduate overseas applications in 2023 were Economics, Computer Science and general business subjects. For master’s applications, Computer Science and Finance ranked top two, while Computer Science, Education and Economics were the most sought-after PhD majors.

These popular overseas majors overlap heavily with the most competitive majors for domestic postgraduate entrance exams. The 2024 White Paper on Chinese College Students’ Postgraduate Exams released by New Oriental shows Engineering, Management, Medicine and Education were the four largest subject categories for postgraduate enrolment in 2023. Statistics also reveal the proportion of graduates choosing direct employment has kept falling, down nearly 10% over five years. Meanwhile, the share of students pursuing postgraduate degrees at home or abroad, or preparing for the domestic postgraduate exam, has steadily increased, rising by 2.8% and 3.8% respectively.

A senior consultant with years of experience at an overseas education agency told Beijing Business Today that for the UK, the surge in applications has raised admission standards for top universities this year. “UK universities adopt relatively standard evaluation criteria including GPA and language scores. In the past, applicants would receive offers as long as they met the baseline requirements. Now with far more applicants, universities comprehensively assess academic background, practical experience and other factors. That is why students feel the competition is so intense.”

EIC Education research shows that among overseas master’s admissions, 35.9% of admitted students come from Project 985/211 universities and 52.7% from non-985/211 universities. For PhD admissions, 42.7% are from Project 985/211 institutions while only 27.6% are from non-985/211 schools. In terms of GPA, more than 70% of admitted overseas students hold a GPA of 76 or above. Wu Meng pointed out that good academic scores are essential for applicants targeting top universities, but students can also boost their profile through practical projects and academic experience during undergraduate studies.