Chinese students flocking to foreign education fair

By Liang Yiwen  2010-10-25

NEARLY 25,000 visitors packed the Shanghai East Asia Exhibition Hall at the weekend to attend an annual international eductaion fair.

As well as Chinese people seeking to study abroad, some foreign students and parents in the city also attended the China Education Expo 2010 to speak to more than 1,000 delegates of 300 institutes from 22 countries.

“We don’t have this kind of education fair in my home country,” said Francesco Bagnis, a sophomore at the University of Pavia in Italy.

Many international schools wish to enter the growing China education market.

Around 210,000 Chinese students studied abroad at their own cost last year, compared with 160,000 students in 2008 and 129,000 students in 2007.

The number is expected to grow to nearly 300,000 this year, according to the event organizers, the China Education Association for International Exchange.

“We found a lot of interest in studying abroad here,” said Andre Pierre Lepage, the international admissions administrator at the University of Ottawa in Canada.

Many non-English speaking EU counties sent their university representatives to the fair for the first time in a bid to attract local students.

Finland made its first appearance at the fair – France sent 34 higher education institutes, its highest ever number.

The number of Chinese students has kept rising in France and they are the second largest group of overseas students group in the country, according to the French consul general in Shanghai.

However, a traditionally popular education destination, Australia, could see a decrease in the number of students from China this year due to the strength of the Australian dollar and the tightening of immigration regulations.

Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=452607&type=Metro#ixzz13LGkiJd