I was born in China. When I was still in primary school, I went to Canada along with my parents and later became a Canadian. So, I can be said to be a foreigner of Chinese descent. Now, I am a junior student at Nanjing University, majoring in Computer Science & Technology. Since I am Chinese by ethnicity, almost no of my schoolmates can distinguish me from local students, and regard me as an overseas student.
It seems to me that studying in China is much cheaper than in Canada. The tuition for international students at this University is about RMB 23,000 a year, far less than the figure of around RMB 30,000 – 50,000 a year back at my home in Canada.
Besides, living expenses at Canadian universities, including rent, water/electricity fees, meals, buses, and textbooks, come in at about RMB 2,000 – 5,000 per month. Tuition fees and living costs in the U.S., generally speaking, are the same or a little lower than those in Canada.
In Nanjing University, student dormitories are rather good. A room for two students costs RMB 500 a month or so. Yet, they are in short supply and are made available to only a limited number of lucky guys.
When it comes to courses, overseas students are not required to take many courses, for example, English, Physical Education, Military Theory, Moral Education, Summary of Mao Zedong’s Theories, Policies & Current Situation, etc. There are also no military training and CET-4 or CET-6. But on the other hand, there are also many compulsory courses for overseas students, including Advanced Chinese, Overview of China, and so on. They are also required to pass the HSK Tests. The graduation requirements for overseas students are similar to those for domestic students.
Many foreign students can only scrape through these courses for all the students. Even having completed their high school education in China, foreign students enrolled based on the CCEEOS are not a match for their Chinese peers in terms of learning achievements.
Teachers tend to treat all students, regardless of their nationality, in the same way in almost all aspects, such as attendance rate, assignments, academic papers, and exams. For example, if you score 58 points in an exam, the teacher won’t lower the criteria, and let you pass the exam just because of you being a foreign student. It doesn’t work to appeal to good relationships with teachers. Such a case reportedly occurred with an SK student. Not being a Chinese language major, he failed all the exams in the first semester.
