A visitor gets information at a French education organization's booth at an international exhibition in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in March.[LANG CONGLIU/CHINA DAILY]
Chinese students in France, who number about 35,000, constituted the majority of international students studying there in 2013, figures from 19th China International Education Exhibition Tour last month in Beijing showed.
French Ambassador Sylvie Bermann said she hopes the number will grow to 50,000 in the coming year.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of formal diplomatic ties between China and France in 1964. To mark the anniversary and also to attract more Chinese students, the number of France Excellence scholarships awarded by the embassy will increase to 50 from the usual 30, Bermann said.
"I noticed that not only is the number of Chinese students increasing－those who choose on their own to study in France－but more government departments are setting up exchange programs with universities in France," said Zhao Chen, who completed his master's degree in France in 2012.
Mu Yi, a 22-year-old student in Beijing, described her reason to study as very simple: the free tuition in public schools, and mastering French as her second foreign language.
"Too many people speak good English at the moment," she said.
Mastering a second foreign language beyond English is getting increasingly popular in today's job market in China. Jin Mengfei, 25, a student who majored in French for six years and now works in an international education company in Beijing, said she feels the use of the language is increasing.
"Most of my university classmates later landed jobs in the foreign affairs area of the government," she said. "In my university class of 40 people, about 20 percent went to France for further education. Especially this year, much of my work is related to Sino French ties because of the diplomatic anniversary year."
Even at private institutions that do not wave student tuition, the number of Chinese students is increasing.
Jin Peng, who is in charge of Chinese student admissions at L'ESC Rennes School of Business in Rennes, France, said that the number of Chinese students remained at around 70 in 2007. There are more than 100. Most of them are working on master's degrees, Jin said.
The school opened its full line of courses to foreigners in 2009, creating a comparatively easy choice for most Chinese students. International student tuition costs about 13,000 euros ($17,990).
"The French government has been carrying out a series of measures to encourage more Chinese students to study in France, such as streamlining its foreign talent visa applications. This allows foreign experts to stay in France as long as five years," Jin said.
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