By Wang Junjie
15/12/2020
HONG KONG – Back in 2017, Faiz Yah applied for a national scholarship sponsored by the Malaysian government. The Yayasan Khazanah Global Scholarship offered him several choices including UK, Australia, and the US.
But he chose China.
“China is cheaper than western countries but better than other Asian countries,” said Faiz, a 20-year-old Malays studying at Shanghai Tongji University, “it is the only rising economy in Asia now.”
A few years ago, only hundreds of Malaysian students would go to China. Until recently, more of them are going there, as the ranking of China’s universities climbs.
China is appealing because of the cheap price and emerging educational reputation. But it also has downsides.
Faiz, for example, heard about the discriminations targeted Muslim in China, while, he is Muslim.
“I do have a lot of concerns, to be honest, I don’t like China before,” this 20-year-old Malaysian recalls the day when he decided to go to China for college studying, his parents doubted this decision.
Malaysia has been an important source for international students since the late 1990s. Over the past 10 years, the country’s economy has been staying strong with an average growth of 5.4%, according to the World Bank.
Malaysian is becoming richer to support their children to study abroad. Today, the middle class in Malaysia takes up 40% of the population, often being called M40.
Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country, has three dominant ethnic groups. Half of the population is Malays, with 20% Chinese and 7% Indians. Most of the Malaysian Chinese will keep Chinese traditional culture, including language education.
However, half of the ethnic Chinese responded that they perceived discrimination, expressing a strong desire to emigrate from the country, according to a research from the University of Oxford.
Ethnic Chinese also contributes to the country’s brain drain. From 2006 to 2016, over 56,575 Malaysians gave up the citizenship, 90 percent were Chinese.
In the past, the majority of Malaysian Chinese would choose to send their children to Taiwan for further education.
“One of the reasons why I choose China over Taiwan is that studying in Taiwan would be easier, less challenging.” Nicole Lim said, she now is a junior student at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, one of the best business schools in this megacity.
“One more thing, China is way cheaper than other countries, if considering the same level of higher education,” Nicole added.
According to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021, six universities ranked in the top 100 from the Chinese mainland, whilst, Malaysia only has one.
Low cost is becoming a major reason for Malaysian students to come to China for college education, not only for ethnic Chinese but also for Malays like Faiz Yah.
Take Peking University as an example, the annual tuition fee for its bachelor's degree is from 26,000 RMB (USD $3953) to 30,000 RMB (USD $4561). The price is just a bit higher than the one studying in Malaysia, for instance, the annual tuition fee at the University of Malaya is around RMB 11594 (USD $1762).
But for some Malaysian Chinese, they left Malaysia for another reason.
For years, the government has a long unfavorable policy targeted Chinese education. The government keep dressing pressure on independent Chinese high schools, until today, public universities in Malaysia still don’t recognize certificates from local independent Chinese high schools.
“What a pity, many talents from this country, all going out,” Huang Shanqing said over the phone, a Malaysian Chinese lived in China for over 8 years. Thus, graduates from Chinese schools just have two options, going to private colleges, or going abroad.
“So we usually just go to Taiwan, because Taiwan has some policies targeting us overseas Chinese,” Huang added.
But now, China is the new destination.
In 2018, there were 492,185 international students studying in China, according to the Ministry of Education of China’s report. Malaysia ranked at 15th, with 9,479 students.
Among the large number of international students, over 63,000 of the students sponsored by the Chinese government scholarships. Those scholarships offered through China’s Belt and Road Initiative, launched in 2013, aiming to build regional connection and economic integration, boost China’s economic and political influence.
Malaysia was one of the most supportive countries to the Initiative. Last month, Malaysia also signed a China-led free trade agreement, the world’s largest one, called Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
China’s rising tech companies also attract international students.
As a social media addict, 20-year-old Nicole dream to get a job at Byte Dance, TikTok’s parent company, based in Beijing. “I am a huge fan of TikTok.” She said. Recently, Nicole also starts a channel in both TikTok and Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), sharing her life and experience in applying for universities in China.
However, many international students like Nicole, are less likely to get a job in China, as the country’s policy requires that only graduates with master’s degrees can apply for a working visa, according to its official paper released in 2017.
Only 235,000 foreigners got work permits in the same year. Also, some top universities did not provide a career center for international students.
Despite that China has 55 minority ethnics, most of the religious activities are not welcomed.
For people like Faiz, China may not be a good choice either. He shared his experience about religious discrimination in Shanghai, “for boys, at least we can wear like locals, so I am not that worried, but for the Muslim girls, they will easily be recognized.”
These years, the anti-Muslim sentiment in China is also on the rise.
