More international students come from Asia than from any other region in the world. Thanks to Campus France's efforts, Asian students represent nearly 20% of foreign students who come to France to study.
Asia, the world's leading source of students studying abroad
Nearly 50% of all students studying abroad around the world come from Asia. That represents nearly two million people, and 50% of them are Chinese or Indian.
Among the countries which send the most students abroad, China is first followed by India, while South Korea occupies the fourth rank. In 2020, 40% of the 200 million 25- to 34-year-olds graduating from an institute of higher education in a country in the OECD will be from China or India.
The importance of higher education in Asia
Education is the most expensive item in their budget, and in Asia is often considered an investment in the future by Asian families. In fact, traditionally in Asian cultures, one generation's fate is based on the ability of the next to provide for their needs.
The cult of progress, the spirit of competition and the hyper economic development prevailing in this region also contribute to making higher education a quasi-religion. A family's future and honour are sometimes linked to the success of a single student. The situation is even more marked in China due to the one-child policy.
Asian students thus attach great importance to the recommendations of their elders, be they family or professors. The promotions are therefore aimed at all of these people in order to encourage mobility for Asian students, who still remain mainly individual and self-financed.
Asia is receiving more and more foreign students
Over the last few years, Asia has been seeking to become a leading destination for students from around the world and more particularly for those from other Asian countries. As an example, in 2016 China welcomed 442,000 international students, 11% of whom had received scholarships from the Chinese government.
This policy of building an Asian knowledge zone is being implemented through the Share project, which was designed using the European programmes of equivalence and mobility as a model. Currently limited to members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Share project encourages intra-regional mobility through a system of university credit transfers and scholarships. Campus Asia is also developing a programme of university exchanges between South Korea, Japan and China.
The international university community has assessed this inversion of the ratios and is doubling efforts to continue to attract Asian students. In many American universities, Asians represent more than 50% of foreigners enrolled in the undergraduate programme, compared to France, in which only 20% of international students in institutes of higher education are from Asia.
What Campus France does to bring Asian students to France
A major challenge for Campus France is the development of its presence in Asia, a region where student mobility is mostly individual and self-financed.
Over the last few years, the Campus France offices located in Asia have increased their promotion of French higher education: student fairs, recruitment campaigns, European fairs, presence on the social networks, activities for and mobilisation of the France Alumni network, etc.
Check the list of promotional operations to learn the details and conditions for enrolment, and see all of the operations organised in the Asia-Pacific zone in 2017 below.
- Campus France's Asian October: the 7th and 8th in Vietnam, the 13th and 14th in Taiwan, from 19th to 29th in China and 27th to 29th in South Korea;
- French Science Day and PhD Workshop in Beijing, from November 17th to 19th;
- the Knowledge Summit in Delhi, December 8th and 9th.
Campus France, partner in government scholarship programmes
The liberal-inspired policies of Asian governments generally pass the cost of education onto the families rather than have the state finance it. As a result, there are few government scholarship programmes in Asia -but there are a few nonetheless, and Campus France is a partner in them.
For Pakistani students
Managed by Campus France since 2009, the Higher Education Commission's (HEC) scholarship programme is financed by the Pakistani government. Since the programme was launched, nearly 180 Pakistani students have been able to study a Master 2 or Doctorate in France in economics-management, medicine and engineering sciences.
For Malaysian students
Since 2000, Campus France has been coordinating the Malaysia programme through which more than 300 Malaysian students have been trained in engineering sciences in France, mainly in Instituts Universitaires de Technologie (IUT - University Institutes of Technology). Over the last few years, this programme has also been extended to political science and corporate management programmes.
For Vietnamese students
For more than fifteen years, Vietnam and France have been co-financing the MEF (Ministère de l’Éducation et de la Formation) programme, in the name of the Ministry of Education and Training. This is a collaborative doctoral programme involving a consortium of research institutes and organisations. In 2017, nearly 300 scholarship recipients benefited form it, and it has been renewed until 2020 by the Vietnamese authorities.
Short stays for Asian students
Campus France is encouraging the development of short stays reserved for Asian students. They help disperse the clichés which tarnish the reputation of the French system of higher education, such as the cost of tuition, the linguistic barrier and the lack of clarity.
These short linguistic or themed stays, such as those organised by the France Excellence summer schools, are aimed at a wide audience, from A-level to Doctoral students. They are an effective and concrete way to answer questions concerning the low profile of French universities in this part of the world.
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CollectionDossiers PaysUpdatedDecember 2015
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