Good news came early this year for international students who are scholars of the Chinese government. An increase in the students' financial support is in the pipes. An undergrad scholar who usually receives an average of 1,400 yuan a month would now receive up to 2,500 yuan, more than a thousand yuan from last year.
Ministries of Finance and Education recently released a notice announcing that undergrad scholars will receive 66,200 yuan ($10,700), master's 79,000 yuan and doctoral 99,800 yuan every year. Scholars enrolled last September are covered by the new policy.
The new policy is an adjustment to ease the scholars struggling against increasing prices and costs of higher learning.
With the new financial package policy comes a new standard which divides scholarship into three types, depending on what is being majored and the level of study.
Undergrad students whose majors are either philosophy, economics, law, liberal arts and management will receive 59,200 yuan for one whole academic year. This is broken down as follows: 20,000 yuan for tuition; 8,400 yuan for accommodation; 30,000 yuan for living expenses; and 800 yuan for medical insurance.
Before the policy, the tuition for undergraduates taking liberal arts amounts to 26,000 yuan per year. Those taking masters ranged up to 30,000 yuan, while doctoral students pay 34,000 yuan.
Science and engineering scholars were charged up to 30 percent more, while medicine, arts and physical education are up to 50 to 100 percent more.
Isabella Greene is a student from America who is currently enrolled at Beijing Foreign Studies University on a scholarship studying the Chinese language. From a monthly living allowance of 1,700 yuan, she will now receive 3,000 yuan from the new policy. She was one of the scholars who was very happy upon hearing the news.