// NATURE NEWS — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
Chinese graduate students are now choosing to stay closer to home
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Hong Kong is expected to have around 35,000 more students from the Chinese mainland enrolled in its higher-education institutions in 2030 than in 2025. Credit: Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto via Getty
Analysis of global higher-education trends indicates that Chinese students are increasingly choosing to stay in Asia to further their studies.
Zhao Junyi is one of many postgraduate students who are rerouting back to Asia after studying elsewhere. Originally from Beijing, Zhao started a four-year PhD programme in planetary science at the University of Hong Kong in September. He’s happy about his choice.
In Hong Kong, Zhao says, he can stay abreast of updates from China’s space programme in an English-speaking, international environment, as well as “connect with the research community and collaborate with colleagues from Europe and the United States”.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China and has a different education system from the Chinese mainland. Therefore, students from the Chinese mainland studying in Hong Kong are thought of as studying ‘overseas’.
Zhao obtained his bachelor’s degree in astronomy earlier this year from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He says he decided against furthering his studies in the United States partly because of the federal government’s cuts to scientific funding. He didn’t go back to the Chinese mainland because only those with a master’s degree can apply for doctoral courses there, whereas Hong Kong doesn’t have such a requirement, he explains.
China’s rapid advancements in space exploration are also a massive draw. Zhao’s current supervisor is analysing lunar samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5 and Chang’e-6 space missions. For Zhao, who grew up as a fan of the Chang’e programme, it is a dream come true to learn about its progress first-hand and to potentially be a part of it himself.
“Hong Kong is so attractive in so many ways,” says Zhao, who is on a university scholarship that covers his tuition fees, rent and life expenses.
Zhao is among a growing crop of Chinese students who are seeking degrees in Asia rather than in the West.