Application Procedure For Scholarship and Admission of BS, MS, PhD in China
In China, there is almost the same application procedure for applying for any degree Ph.D., Master, or Bachelor for any type of scholarship and admission to any Chinese university. The requirement of application documents changes slightly changes with respect to specific admission applications for example the admission of a Ph.D. degree requires a few more documents but generally, the steps of applications are the same.
Now let’s talk about the application procedure step by step
Step 1 (English Tests Preparation)
In China, only top-ranked universities require English language tests IELTS or TOEFL. Remaining most universities, need an English Proficiency Letter for application of admissions.
Step 2 (Prepare Documents )
In China without the following documents, you can not apply for admission to any degree and for any scholarship, so the second step is to prepare these documents. You can click on the document name to know how to prepare it. Following Documents are required for the application procedure
- Application Form for Chinese Government Scholarship (filled in online);
- A scanned copy of the Passport Information Page.
- Diploma and certificate of highest education (notarized photocopy). An applicant who is a current university student shall submit the certificate of expected graduation or student status issued by his/her university;
- Academic transcripts.
- Certificate of language proficiency. When applying for a Chinese-taught program, an applicant shall provide a valid HSK score report. When applying for an English program, an applicant shall provide IELTS or TOEFL test report;
- Admission documents. Pre-admission letter, or the invitation letter from a prospect supervisor
- A study or research plan written in Chinese or in English
- Recommendation letters. An applicant for a postgraduate program or for academic education as a senior scholar shall submit two recommendation letters from professors or associate professors;
- An applicant for the arts or design program shall provide his/her own works (such as videos and paintings);
- An applicant under the age of 18 shall submit the legal documents of his/her legal guardian(s) in China;
- Foreigner Physical Examination Form
- An applicant shall submit a valid Certificate of Non-Criminal Record (or Police Clearance Certificate)
You can know how to prepare these documents from below given links:
Study Plan (SOP)
Motivation Letter
Research Plan Research Proposal
Reference Letter Recommendation
Contacting Supervisors
English
Proficiency Letter
Physical
Examination Form
Past Degrees & Transcripts
Online Application Form
Academic CV
Passport
Step 3 (Know About Scholarships)
In China, the most famous scholarship is Chinese Government Scholarships (CGS) which are awarded by the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) to international students in Chinese universities affiliated with CSS. Chinese Government Scholarship programs sponsor undergraduates, postgraduates, general and senior scholars.
There are also many other scholarships such as
- Chinese Scholarship council CSC
- ANSO Scholarship for Young Talents
- CAS-TWAS or CAS
- CAS-TWAS President’s Fellowship Program for Doctoral Candidates
- UCAS Scholarship for International Students
- Shanghai Government Scholarship
- University scholarship
- One Belt One Road
Famous Chinese Scholarships
All Scholarships in China
Step 4 (Search Universities)
An applicant shall learn about designated Chinese universities and majors they offer by visiting websites (http://www.campuschina.org) or other means, and identify the preferred scholarship program, designated university, and major.
Before a student starts the scholarship application procedure, he should select some good universities offering scholarships in his program and research field. For university selection, consider the overall repute of the university, research published by the university/department/group in your research field, etc. A university has its own policy to give scholarships in specific programs and subjects. One student selects a university, he can explore the website of the university to know the admission and scholarships schedule, department, and faculty details of that university.
We have made a list of top-rank universities in China along with the required application requirements. The list includes the link of the university website, department website, and other details such as admissions requirements (IELTS), application fee, and deadline of application. The sheet also includes the website link of the supervisor and details of major scholarships in a particular university.
China Top Ranked Universities
Engineering related Supervisors
All Designated Chinese Universities
Step 4 (Contact Supervisors for Acceptance )
The acceptance letter is the most important optional document which is sometimes declared compulsory by some universities. An acceptance letter can be obtained by contacting a Chinese teacher who will agree to accept you in his research group. Students can find some good teachers by finding email addresses from the university website. Students can also search for teachers from, research papers published by teachers. For this, you can search in “Google Scholar” like “Topic + university name“. After you find some good research papers matching your research field, you can obtain the email of the corresponding author and contact him. You can send an email to him in which you will briefly explain your research interest, urge to study in that university under scholarship and want to do research in his group. If he agrees to accept you in his group then he will write an invitation letter /Acceptance Letter for you. The student will attach this letter with a scholarship application. Most Chinese teachers ask for some template of Invitation / Acceptance Letter and later they made a letter for you based on that template. Below you can find how to contact supervisors and also a simple template of Invitation /Acceptance Letter is given which will give you a good idea.
How to Find Supervisors
Email Templates
For Research Supervisors
How to Email Supervisors
Acceptance Letter
From Supervisor
Step 5 (Online Application for Scholarship)
Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) developed an online application system for all students who want to apply for scholarships in Chinese universities. All students need to make an account for online applications on this website (https://studyinchina.csc.edu.cn/#/login).
Deadline:
CSC’s online application system is started in Oct-November and remained open till May-June of next year. CSC-affiliated universities/embassies announced their schedule for receiving applications during this time period. Results are announced in May-July. Successful students join universities from 1 September.
While filling online application please note the following.
- One student can apply to three universities only.
- In the online application, first students are required to enter “Agency Number”. Agency number is a code given to each agency (universities and Chinese embassies). Students can find the agency number of different universities on their website or can google. Other notable things in the online application are academic records, biodata, details of the program to be studied, university, etc. When you enter the agency number of a university, it will become your “First Preference University” automatically.
- If you are applying via embassy then you will write the agency number of the embassy and also write three universities in preference options.
- The study duration will vary from university to university. Check your university program details before filling out the application. e. It is better to fill the compulsory part of the application and ignore the optional part such as “Guarantor name” and “family details” etc.
- Check your university website/international student office for language requirement details. If your university has English language programs then apply for them otherwise you have to apply for Chinese language classes for one-year g. If you are a govt. employee and applying for scholarship independently (net via government office), then avoid mentioning about the job and don‘t write official email/ postal address.
- After completing the online application, submit this and take the print of the application pdf file and also save this to submit to the university. Print (hard copy) of application must have “serial numbers and past numbers at the bottom of each page which often missed due to wrong selection of page size during the printer.
Step 6 (Application for University)
Above mentioned online application process and the preparation for application material is a standard CSO requirement and process. All CSC-affiliated universities have to follow this standard procedure. Besides this standard procedure, some universities have additional requirements like Processing fees, online registration on the university website,s, etc. After completing CSC standard process, students must check that university website to know university requirements.
Deadline:
CSC’s online application system is started in Oct-November and remained open till May-June of next year. CSC-affiliated universities/embassies announced their schedule for receiving applications during this time period. Results are announced in May-July. Successful students join universities from 1 September.
University Fee
The standard CSC application process is free but some universities also demand processing tee which can range from 400 RMB to 800RMB varying from university to university. All details of fee, university bank account, and depositing methods, are given on the university website. The most convenient way is to ask some friend in china to deposit the fee on your behalf and he should mention your name while depositing the fee. Students can also pay via VISA credit cards as well. Western union costs too much when money is deposited into a bank account in another country.
University online registration
Some universities also ask students to fill out a registration form on the university website also other than CSC online application website. Students have to fill out both application forms to fulfill the requirement of the university and CSC
Dispatch of Application to Dispatching Authorities
Nowadays most universities don’t need hard paper applications but still, there are some universities where you have to send all documents and application material. you should confirm this on the university website. This final step is to dispatch the scholarship application to dispatch authorities or agencies. Dispatching authorities or agencies are universities or Chinese embassies where you want to apply. Students applying directly to the university will dispatch scholarship applications to the university while students under the bilateral program will send their application to the Chinese embassy in their country or some higher education institute in their country.
- Final checklist
Take the print of the online CSC application, paste photos, and sign it with a date. Attach above mentioned required documents. Make one complete set of all application material. Similarly, make another set. According to standard CSC procedure, the student is required to send two sets of application material to the university/ embassy. However, some universities may ask for more. You can consult the ISO of universities to know the exact requirement. In the first set, you can attach original Recommendation Letters while in the other sets photocopies are also ok. - University Address
Proper university address is very important in application dispatching. It is better to call/email the international student office to know the address in the following format otherwise, courier service people face problems in delivering the post.
a) Province b) City c) District d) Road/Street (with street/road number) e) Name of office (with office/room number) f) Name of Contact Person g) Telephone number
h) Postal Code ABE. If your university address has the above-mentioned address details on the website then send it to the university otherwise it is risky. - Courier Service Selection
Courier service selection is a very important factor. A number of courier services / postal services are available internationally for china. Government postal services are often cheap but take much time and also don’t have an online tracking system. Others like DHL, TCS, OCS, etc. are expensive but take 4-7 working days. These courier services offer special university/students offers which are cheap. Their normal package is generally expensive. In our opinion, DHL is best because of its own international network (especially in China) With real-time online tracking.