As an increasing number of overseas Chinese students fall into financial hardship due to declining family wealth, many are taking to online to express their grief and seek advice on how to cope with the situation.
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However, in October last year, her parents told her that they had financial problems and could no longer support her financially. At that point, Mr. Zhang had enough money to cover her three months’ worth of rent. She also needs to pay tuition for another semester, she said, but she did not specify how much.
Mr. Zhang is by no means alone. Her experience has become increasingly common.
Since last year, the video has been viewed over 4.58 million times. hashtag There was an announcement on the social media platform “Xiaohongshu”, which is called China’s Instagram, that “study abroad funds have been terminated.” As more Chinese international students fall into financial hardship due to declining family wealth, many are taking to online to express their anguish and seek advice on how to deal with the situation.
A 2023 survey by New Oriental Education and Kantar found that 27% of students and parents pursuing a graduate degree abroad said their financial plans had been affected by the pandemic. This is much higher than the 19% who gave the same answer in 2021 and 2022.
“I didn’t have time to be sad because I needed to earn my tuition and rent as soon as possible,” Zhang told CNBC in Mandarin.
Zhang’s father invested in the pharmaceutical industry during the coronavirus pandemic, but subsequently suffered huge losses. As he watched his assets and investments dwindle, he finally told his daughter he could no longer support her education in the United States and offered to pay for her flight home instead.
Zhang started looking for part-time jobs, such as babysitting or on-campus work, but it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t until a month later that she managed to find a temporary job in another state.
“From November to January, I had to work from 7 a.m. every day,” Zhang said. “During that time, I was exhausted and didn’t have time to study. But at least I was able to earn enough money to cover another semester.”
Chinese parents place great emphasis on providing their children with a good education.
As the world’s second-largest economy grew, it became more integrated with international markets and more parents sent their children to study abroad to gain exposure to the world.
According to the latest data released by the Chinese Ministry of Education, the number of Chinese students studying abroad is 703,500 In 2019, it recorded an increase of 6.25% compared to the previous year. By comparison, 117,300 The ministry stopped publishing that data after 2019.
Jimin Yang, general manager of Shenzhen Botong Management Consulting, an overseas education consulting firm, told CNBC: “Some parents are lawyers, doctors, business owners who want their children to receive the best education possible.” There are experts,” he said.
“Some business owners want their children to study abroad to learn new and forward-thinking ideas, then return home to help grow the family business.”
In 2018, approx. 90% According to China’s Ministry of Education, a higher percentage of Chinese students studying abroad were doing so at their own expense, rather than through scholarships or government funding.
This level of financial contribution means that international students from China have become an important group for US and UK universities to attract.
Mr Yang, who has been in the industry for more than 15 years, said most Chinese parents plan well in advance for their children to study abroad financially. It is extremely rare for a country to run out of funds and be forced to cut funding for a child’s overseas education, he added.
China’s economic recovery after the pandemic has been lackluster, and many Chinese households are feeling the heat.
Michael Bai is a 21-year-old Chinese man who is a second year student studying Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow.
After completing his first semester in December 2022, his father announced that his real estate business had gone bankrupt.
Bai had no choice but to find a way to pay the bill. He tried a variety of jobs to help pay for food, including delivering food, working in a restaurant, selling at a boutique, and making bubble tea.
His father had previously made a fortune investing in real estate, but suffered a major blow as a result of the severe downturn in China’s real estate sector.
“At first things were going well,” Bai told CNBC. But problems with one of his father’s inherited resorts in the southern Chinese coastal city began to surface when it became clear there was not enough investment in hotel maintenance.
Even before Bai left for the UK to study in 2022, losses in his real estate business were already mounting. In the end, he was forced to close down his business.
The Chinese government has cracked down on developers in recent years to reduce reliance on debt for growth, causing a slump in the real estate market. Real estate and related sectors once accounted for about 25% or more of China’s economic output and a large share of household wealth.
According to a recent report from KKR, China’s real estate crisis is far from over and will continue to be a drag on overall economic growth if not addressed soon. KKR expects China’s economy to grow modestly at 4.7% this year, with real estate and coronavirus-related factors pushing economic growth down by 0.7 percentage points in 2025 from 1.4 percentage points in 2024.
Students face financial challenges, made worse by continued increases in tuition fees from popular university destinations such as the US and UK.
recent reports showed that U.S. college tuition will increase significantly from 2023 to 2024 compared to 20 years ago, in some cases doubling.
international student pay more Tuition fees at top UK universities. The British government caps tuition fees to ensure that local students can afford secondary education, and tuition fees paid by international students are an important source of income for universities.
Bai told CNBC that the country has managed to emerge from the economic crisis.
He has since started a business with friends by selling used cars and providing related services, and claimed that this business venture could generate sales of 60,000 pounds (approximately $75,100) a month. .
He said the income from his business was enough to support his studies and he plans to continue working in business after completing his degree.
