What is China’s Study Abroad Preparatory Program/Preparatory Institute (出国留学预备班 chūguó yùbèi bān/出国留学预备学院 chūguó liúxué yùbèi xuéyuàn)?
Since the economic reform launched in 1978, China’s economy and society have been set on a fast development lane aiming to catch up with the developed world. In today’s China, studying abroad in western English-speaking countries is no longer a small number of elites’ privilege. Sending children to UK boarding school or American private liberal arts college has become increasingly popular among Chinese middle-class parents. In response to the rising market demand, Study Abroad Preparatory Programs and Institutes came into play and have ever since influenced and shaped the nation’s intellectuals’ life and career.
To understand what is Preparatory Programs/Preparatory Institutes and why they exist, it is necessary to first get to know the people they seek to serve. According to JJL Overseas Education, one of the well-known study abroad consulting agencies in China, the total number of Chinese students studying abroad reached 0.54 million by the end of 2016 and more than half of the applicants fall into the higher education spectrum with 30.47% of them applying for undergraduate studies and 27.26% of them graduate programs. People who tend to pursue higher education make up a remarkably large piece of market share, thus attract businesses from public and private segments to compete against one another by offering products and services tailoring specifically to the needs of this group with age varying from 19 to 24.
Compared to the younger K-12 education pursuers with relatively lower English proficiency requirement, people of this group demand a more effective training in their English skills, particularly in tackling the standardized tests required by most institutions in English-speaking countries, such as TOEFL and IELTS, along with other entrance examinations, for instance, SAT for college applicants and GRE for graduate students. Growing up in an education system where students’ qualifications are mainly evaluated by grades and class ranks, people of this group are happy to receive guidance on supplementary application materials including reference translating and personal statement writing.
Hundreds of organizations are vying against each other in these niche segments, XThink, for instance, a private organization specializes solely in graduate school applications and does not involve standardized exams tutoring or language training. Meanwhile, there are plenty of others working on integrating those niche segments and providing a streamlined process for parents and students.For example, New Oriental, one of China’s largest and most famous educational organizations, initially set out to focus on the GRE and TOEFL exams in the 90s, later expanded the company to offer services on college applications and other fields. New Oriental launched its Study Abroad Express Programs in 2005. The Express Programs offer courses related to various standardized exams that are deliberately designed in a classroom setting similar to Chinese traditional K-12 system, and usually with lodging and meal services included. Some parents have grown fond of Express Programs because they provide a strict study environment and in some cases guarantee results along with the tuition-refund policy.
Another example is IvyGate International, an agency with a special focus of ivy-league universities in the US. IvyGate provides integrated services ranging from SAT tutoring to personal statement essay crafting to mock interviews with former admissions officers from prestigious American universities.
While the sector of private organizations is rife with competitions, public universities work with the government are appealing to students with authoritative reputation and programs built on their rich resources and a broad network with both domestic and foreign institutions. Study Abroad Preparatory Institute is one of these programs championed by many national universities and the Ministry of Education (MOE) of China. For instance, Southwest University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) in Sichuan established the Study Abroad Institute (SAI) in 2009 as one of their core projects partnered with the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) under the MOE. SAI promotes programs named “1+3” and “2+2” for students interested in studying in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, and Singapore. As the name suggests, students admitted to the program will first spend one to two years at SAI’s campus inside SWUFE studying for standardized exams. After passing the language tests, students will take courses such as Principle of Microeconomics and Advanced Mathematics made available at SAI and required by the partnering institutions they are interested in applying overseas. In addition to these curriculums, SAI’s programs encourage students to apply for internships and offer information orientations that prepare students for the culture and lifestyle of the countries in which they will be studying. According to SWUFE, 87 students of the class of 2010 at SAI applied for foreign universities and the admission rate reached 100%.
Because SAI of SWUFE collaborates with foreign universities verified by MOE whose names enjoy general popularity among Chinese society, students graduated with diplomats from these universities are mostly acknowledged by employers back home. Furthermore, SAI promises students’ admission to its partnering universities with minimal to none course credit loss during the transition, which convinces parents and students that honing English skills and taking credit-transferable courses at home will be an economical approach for it costs a lot less than how much it would otherwise have been if starting straight abroad.
The Renmin University of China is another prestigious higher education institution that promotes its Study Abroad Preparatory Institute with similar structure and philosophy to SAI of SWUFE.
Generally qualified students who meet most of the requirements except for English proficiency can also consider conditional admission that is made available at many foreign universities. When it comes to strategizing study abroad plans, Chinese students often draw comparisons between conditional admission and Study Abroad Preparatory Programs/Institutes. The former does not only transition students smoothly to the life of a foreign culture with language courses but also helps expedite the process by providing students with the real context.
Aside from the Study Abroad Preparatory Institutes and conditional admissions, students are presented with another amazing option that is dual or joint-degree programs accessible at many schools under Chinese universities. Despite the existing partnership between SAI and the foreign universities, in 2011, the School of Law of SWUFE unveiled the Baruch-SWUFE 2+2 BBA Program, a dual-bachelors degree program with Baruch College of the City University of New York (CUNY), which allows students to begin their degree by spending two years at SWUFE, then matriculate at Baruch College for the last two years of the program to complete their BBA degree.
Dual or joint-degree programs as such stand out to students because of its low tuition and living costs as well as the benefits of having two bachelor’s degrees granted by recognizable universities overseas and at home that is likely to add value to students’ resumé and career hunt. Additionally, students admitted to dual or joint-degree programs tend to come across as more academically competent than students at Study Abroad Preparatory Institutes for they have often undergone a harsher academic evaluation such as one of the world’s most notoriously tough entrance examinations — Gao Kao.
