The "American Dream" is losing its allure for Chinese students.
(Baonghean) - Caught in the middle of the US-China trade war, Chinese students are seeking alternative study destinations – threatening to cut off a crucial source of revenue for American universities.
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| The US-China trade war is one of the reasons why the number of Chinese students choosing to study in the US has decreased. Photo: AFP |
According to several study abroad consulting companies and many parents and students interviewed by AFP, visa delays, concerns about the disruption of research activities, and safety worries have discouraged Chinese students.
According to a survey by New Oriental China, "rivals" in the field of education such as the UK, Australia, and Canada are the countries that benefit the most.
Japan and South Korea—traditional study destinations for China's elite—and regions of Europe, especially Germany and Scandinavian countries with their strong architecture programs, have also seen growth in the number of applications.
The "discouragement" effect began to appear in the middle of last year, after the administration of President Donald Trump reduced the visa validity period for science and technology students from five years to one year in some cases.
"Right now, it's difficult to say for sure whether they will be able to complete their studies," said Gu Huini, founder of the educational consulting firm Zoom In.
More than one-third of the approximately 360,000 Chinese students currently studying in the U.S. are in science, technology, architecture, and mathematics. However, the number of Chinese students in the U.S. fell 2% in March compared to the same period last year. This was the first decline since 2009.
Melissa Zhang, a high school student in Beijing, said she abandoned her plans to go to the US and instead studied German in the hope of being accepted into a robotics program in Dresden. The 17-year-old said, “I wasted a year studying for the SAT. But what’s the point of going to the US if I could be banned from a research lab just because I’m Chinese?”
Ms. Mingyue, Melissa's parent, said that the "American Dream is losing its glamour" for many Chinese students: "If America makes them feel unwelcome, they will go somewhere else... the current generation feels that the whole world is open to them."
