Singapore, Malaysia universities see uptick in Chinese student interest amid pandemic

While students from China see Britain, the US and Australia as top choices for university, travel restrictions and fraying bilateral ties are now a deterrent

Some are turning to Asian institutions but others are holding off as they do not want to have online lessons

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Universities in Britain, Australia and the US are bracing for a drop in the numbers of students from China. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:00am, 22 Jul 2020Updated: 10:24am, 22 Jul 2020

Chinese students who have traditionally aimed for university places in the United States, Britain and Australia are now looking towards Asia, particularly the likes of Singapore and Malaysia, in light of global coronavirus travel restrictions and Beijing’s worsening diplomatic relations with Western countries.

However, experts say this may not be a long-term trend, while some international students are also wary about applying to universities during the Covid-19 pandemic as they would rather not have online lessons.

After This Week in Asia contacted 14 universities in Singapore and Malaysia, three of the five institutions that responded – Curtin Singapore, the University of Malaya and the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) – cited an increase in applications from Chinese students.

Singapore’s Yale-NUS College and Kaplan University Singapore said they had not seen a rise in such applications.

Curtin Singapore received 55 per cent more applications for their July intake compared with the same period last year, while Malaysia’s University of Malaya saw a 33 per cent increase in undergraduate applications and a 130 per cent increase for postgraduate studies.

Fangzhou Jiang, the chief executive officer of university admissions consultancy Crimson Education China, said the travel restrictions imposed in the US prompted Chinese families to “consider alternatives to preparing solely for US university opportunities”.