Rising incomes in Mainland China have led to an explosion in the number of Chinese people going abroad to study, and over the last few years there has been a particularly rapid rise in short-term programmes such as summer schools. The number of agents registered with the British Council as representing these programmes doubled between 2012 and 2016, while UK student visitor visas issued to Chinese students were up 50 per cent in the 12 months to June 2017 compared to the period a year earlier.

Despite China’s falling youth population, there is little sign that this growth is slowing down. Instead, agents point towards increasing interest in short-term overseas study, which they link to both increasing affluence and greater awareness of these programmes.

In light of this trend, the British Council and English UK have produced a new report on the demand for UK summer school programmes in mainland China. The report is based on both interviews and surveys of Chinese agents and UK summer school providers, as well as discussions with summer school participants and their parents and a review of previously-published research on the topic. It takes an in-depth look at this market, including students’ characteristics, the factors that students and their parents see as important, the way UK summer school operators work with Chinese agents to promote their programmes, and currently unmet demands in the market.

Key findings include:

• The majority of Chinese students going to UK summer school programmes are at the lower or upper secondary school level, but growth is strongest among primary-age students.
• The market is still strongly concentrated in large cities. More than half of the more than 2,000 registered summer school agents are in China’s four Tier 1 cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen), while more than 80 per cent are in the top 20 cities.
• Summer school programmes are mainly booked through agents working with the students’ schools or through after-school language training centres. Over 85 per cent of summer school agents worked with schools and most said that this was their main promotional channel.
• Students’ main reason for attending summer school programmes is to experience overseas culture. In particular, this was seen as much more important than improving language ability.
• Parents are becoming more demanding and sophisticated, and more likely to demand information on programme quality and safety. There is also a trend towards more specialised programmes such as those focusing on sports or drama, rather than traditional programmes focused on language and tourism.

The full report is available for download as attached.

For any queries, please contact siem.china@britishcouncil.org.cn.