The temporary teaching building of the New York University Shanghai located in the East China Normal University





Xu Zhehao, a 16-year-old student in Shanghai, has been thinking of going abroad to continue his higher education ever since the first day he entered high school.

When he heard the news that New York University (NYU) in Shanghai had opened enrollment for its first batch of students for the 2013 fall semester, his parents discussed this option with him.

New York University founded a campus in Shanghai on October 15, the first higher education institution jointly established by China and the US that is qualified to hand out degrees.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students go abroad to receive an education, though for students in Shanghai, a foreign education may be a lot closer than they had imagined.

However, for Xu, this is precisely the problem.

"What fascinates me about leaving home and studying abroad is embarking on an adventurous journey in a foreign country, so I can study side by side with classmates from various countries and backgrounds. This is what I have not experienced yet in Shanghai," Xu told the Global Times.

His mother however, considers New York University in Shanghai a good option, as she could remain close to her son.

The New York University Shanghai

According to the university authority, NYU Shanghai, co-founded by East China Normal University and New York University, is expecting 300 undergraduates in 2013.

Slightly over half, 151 of them, will be Chinese students who have applied via the gaokao, (or national college entrance examination). The rest will be students from other parts of the world.

In total, the university will accommodate an estimated 3,000 Chinese and international students.

"The mix of Chinese and overseas students will make New York University Shanghai a melting pot for cultivating talent," said Yu Lizhong, president of the university.

Yu revealed that the admission of the first batch of Chinese students would mostly center on those from the Yangtze Delta Region, and the criteria would be based on a comprehensive appraisal of a student's overall competence, though more details of admission requirements have yet to emerge.

Students who plan to apply have to submit to the standard American university admission evaluation process as well as an NYU supplement to be considered for admission, according to an application tutorial video posted on the university's website.

In regard to the English proficiency requirements for admission, Li Mei, vice president of NYU Shanghai, said that the university focused more on the students' English communicative ability instead of any test scores and this would be assessed in interviews during the university open day.

Classes will be conducted in English, covering a full range of academic majors.

Before choosing a major, all the students will receive a liberal arts education, and have courses in the humanities and social and natural sciences.

Upon graduation, students will receive degrees from New York University, and NYU Shanghai will grant each of them a graduation certificate and a degree.

A rich kid's education?

The tuition fee for Chinese undergraduates is about 100,000 yuan ($15,987) a year, almost the same as universities in Hong Kong. The tuition fees for other universities on the Chinese mainland usually range from 5,000 to 10,000 yuan.

"The tuition fee is one of the most important factors when students and their families are making decisions about choosing a university, and the high tuition fee will certainly make NYU Shanghai less attractive," Xiong Bingqi, an education expert with the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said on his blog.

Xiong said that while parents and students may be attracted by the student to staff ratio of 8 to 1, he argued that if a student has good English proficiency, an excellent academic performance and his or her family can afford 100,000 yuan a year, then they have no reason not to go abroad directly.

If the family cannot afford the cost, then a better option might be choosing a first-tier university in China, the total cost of which, including living expenses, is within 100,000 yuan a year, Xiong said.

"NYU Shanghai is still a part of our large education system. Its implications for the reform of higher education are limited because students still cannot choose the university he or she prefers when receiving offers from several universities at the same time," Xiong told the Global Times.

In this sense, NYU Shanghai is not too different from other universities that have independent admission tests, Xiong pointed out.

In response, NYU Shanghai said in its official microblog that scholarships would be available to students who have financial difficulties.

"NYU Shanghai is exploring a new model while setting up higher education institutions and cultivating young talents. It's more about quality than quantity. And it is up to the students to choose an education that best suits themselves," Yu Lizhong said in response to questions. 

A Global Network

In 2011 alone, the number of Chinese students going abroad to study rose to 340,000, representing 14 percent of the total number of international students across the world. China now has the largest number of students in overseas schools and education institutions, figures in the Annual Report on the Development of China's Study Abroad showed.

Yang Weichang, the head of the international exchange department at the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, says that China is opening up its education sector in line with promises made to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"The establishment of New York University of Shanghai is the latest evidence to show China is keeping its promise to open its higher education service as part of an increasingly globalized world," Yang said.