In today’s talking points: One Belt, One Road scholarships announced by China; Australia’s top rank university looking to lower proportion of Chinese students; China’s premier calls for enhanced China- EU education relations; China launches first boys only textbook in Shanghai primary school
One Belt, One Road scholarships announced by China
China’s Ministry of Education has announced new scholarships to fund students to study both abroad and in China as part of promoting and collaborating with countries along the Silk Road. The scholarships will fund 2,500 Chinese students per year for the next 3 years and 10,000 international students for the next 5 years to study abroad as part of China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative. The education scholarships will mostly collaborate with Central Asian, South Asian and Southeast Asian students with effort to build education cooperation with these countries.
Read more at: The Pie News
Australia’s top rank university looking to lower proportion of Chinese students
The Australian National University in Canberra has implemented a ‘diversification strategy’ in an attempt to lowers its share of Chinese students enrolled due to the proportion ‘dominating’ international student numbers. Documents obtained by ANU student newspaper Woroni reveal the university has concerns over being heavily financially dependant on Chinese students. Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington stating in a Council meeting earlier this year, that the university needed to ‘mitigate potential risk exposure in the event of a market downturn.
Read more at: Sydney Morning Herald
China’s premier calls for enhanced China- EU education relations
Chinese premier Li KeQiang has this week called for further education advancements between China and the European Union. Li hopes that enhanced education cooperation will provide promising prospects to both China and the EU in terms of economic and social development. Li urged for increased dialogue on education policies and student exchanges in order to deepen relations and enhance strategic partnerships. China and the EU currently have more than 80 educational bilateral agreements, and 131 Confucius Institutes set up around the EU.
Read more at: Xin Hua Net
China launches first boys only textbook in Shanghai primary school
The Shanghai Education Publishing House has launched a gender specific textbook specifically tailored towards male primary school students. The textbook titled ‘XiaoXiao Nanzihan’ touches on areas like the mental health education of males as well as male sexual physiology. The publishing house has said that the students who would be learning from the book would be separated from their female classmates. The textbook is aimed at helping boys more openly discuss some questions that they may not otherwise think of or address.
Read more at: CriEnglish