Wang Yuanyuan

    A growing number of Australian universities are preparing to lower the enrollment requirements for Chinese students in the hope of enrolling more high school graduates from the country.

    “At present, Chinese students who want to study for bachelor’s degrees at the University of Sydney have to pass a basic course, but we are now trying to change that. Chinese students have already studied many of these courses at high school and we believe that the Chinese National College Entrance Examination is a good enough measurement of students’ abilities,” said Michael Spence, vice president of the university.

    Spence said more preferential policies should be given to Chinese students. “For example, it is not fair to ask Chinese parents to pay four years of tuition fees in one lump sum when a student first enters the university. Many Australian parents saved their children’s tuition fees through years of hard work,” said Spence.

    Meanwhile, the university recently opened a China Studies Center to focus on issues related to Chinese society. “We are more interested in studying the issues such as how the Chinese Government deals with people’s basic medical care with such a large population rather than focusing on political issues,” he said.