Chinese scholarships for vasity students
OVER 600 Chinese universities are offering a lifeline, through scholarships, to students who recently passed Advanced Level examinations but are struggling to get enrolled at local tertiary institutions.
THE scholarships are being organised by the Chinese Company Study in China Admission System (Sicas), which has so far assisted about 500 Zimbabwean students and over 5 000 from Southern Africa to acquire various degrees in one of the world ’s most powerful nations.
The growth of China as a global economic power has coincided with the exponential growth in its universities.
The Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) recently revealed that 38 924 A- level students, represent ing 93,7 percent of the students that sat for the exams, passed.
Thousands of those who passed may require assistance to study for degrees of their choice.
Last week, Sicas International chief executive officer Ms Lulu Zhang said in a statement there has been a number of high quality students from Zimbabwe studying in China.
“With the growing number of applicants to China and high quality students coming from Zimbabwe, Sicas International, which is in 126 other countries representing over 600 universities in China, felt the need to assist students who were interested in studying in China to safely and efficiently get placement into Chinese Universities without the usual hassles like application and visa uncertainties.
“With the set up of our Zimbabwe office, students now have a one- stop shop to assist them with all their application and placement needs,” said Ms Zhanga.
Sicas has also been getting support from various Government departments.
Zimbabwe and China , which is currently the world’s second-largest economy, continue to forge smart partnerships is various fields of cooperation, including education.
The University of Zimbabwe, the country’s premier institution of higher learning, teaches Mandarin through the Confucius Institute at the University of Zimbabwe.
Local students, through scholarships, continue to be enrolled at renowned Chinese universities such as Wenzhou University, Shandong- Jiaotong University and China University of Petroleum.
Sicas Zimbabwe business development head Mr Joy Khosa said local students were eligible to enroll for Bachelors, Masters and PhD programmes in sof tware designing, application development and software engineering, law, international law, economics, accounting, biotechnology, chemical and mechanical engineering. Photo: blog.cucas.edu.cn
The scholarships, which are open to students with nine points and above at A- Level, caters for 100 percent tuition and accommodation for selected universities.
A global educational study called Programme for International Assessment (PISA) ranked China as the world’s best in reading mathematics and science.
It overtook countries in Europe and the United States of America.
China, which has experienced remarkable economic growth over the past three decades, continues to push the front iers of science, infrastructure and economic development.