Chinese students have an increasingly ¡°open attitude¡± when applying to university, with many now focusing on institutions¡¯ teaching quality and student satisfaction scores, according to the director of the British Council in China.

Carma Elliot said that there had ¡°traditionally been a strong preference among Chinese students for ¡®elite¡¯ institutions, but there was now a more open attitude to the widest range of options available¡±.

Speaking to Times Higher Education during the British Council¡¯s UK-China Education Policy Week (14 to 20 March) in Beijing, Ms Elliot said that this trend of Chinese students ¡°further scrutinising¡± all measures associated with university performance ¡°plays to the UK¡¯s strengths¡±.

¡°Where individual institutions sit in the rankings has always been important. But there has been a bigger move towards the quality of the institution, looking at the statistics around satisfaction and the teaching quality,¡± she said.

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¡°I think that¡¯s a really positive move because the UK comes out really well in that respect.¡±

Data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency earlier this year showed that the number of Chinese students starting courses at UK universities was static between 2013-14 and 2014-15, as numbers from?India, Nigeria and Malaysia declined.

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In addition, in 2015, more than 70,000 UK study-related visas were granted to applicants from mainland China, an annual rise of 10 per cent,?.

¡°The key thing is that the number of Chinese students going to the UK is maintained,¡± she said, adding that although the country was still the second most popular destination for Chinese students going overseas, it needed to continue to provide ¡°a good offer within a competitive environment¡±.

¡°In the longer term, I think the market will only become increasingly competitive and that competition will come from China itself,¡± she said.?

She added that traditional joint degree programmes between universities in the UK and China are ¡°easing off¡± in favour of ¡°more strategic, thematic partnerships¡±, such as the SWJTU-Leeds Joint School based in Chengdu ¨C a collaboration between the University of Leeds and Southwest Jiaotong University ¨C which will offer a UK-Chinese engineering curriculum from September 2016.?

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¡°What¡¯s interesting in the past year alone is that some of the UK institutions that have had long-term links with China, with universities like Fudan and Shanghai, are now moving their cooperation,¡± she said.?

¡°Increasingly that¡¯s the trend we will see.¡±

She added: ¡°There is a review under way of some of the early joint programmes, not just from the UK, but more widely around transnational education and its delivery in China.

¡°Some of the early movers into China and some of the early joint programmes may or may not continue to be relevant [depending on whether they] fit in with China¡¯s own economic needs or employment needs and so on. The UK within that has a very strong position. We have a quarter of all joint programmes with China and many of them are highly recognised.¡±

ellie.bothwell@tesglobal.com