Working-class students find low-cost education abroad

With universities and colleges in European and Asian countries providing low-cost overseas study programmes, an increasing number of working-class parents are sending their children abroad, which means that studying overseas is no longer the exclusive privilege of students from rich families, writes Zhao Xinying for China Daily.

According to the Blue Book of Global Talent released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences last year, 34% of students studying abroad in 2010 were from working-class families, while the figure for 2009 was only 2%, People's Daily reported.

However, studying in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, which often costs US$30,000 to $40,000 a year in total, is still a dream for most students from working-class backgrounds. Low-cost programmes in some European and Asian countries, costing no more than 100,000 yuan (US$16,340) per year, have become their first choice, said Zhang Wei, a consultant on Chinese student education in Nordic countries with the Education International Cooperation Group.
Full report on the China Daily site