Nearly 380,000 foreign students from over 200 countries came to China to study in 2014, according to the Ministry of Education. The Institute of International Education has revealed that there are about 356,499 international students in the country, making China the third biggest host of foreign students next to the United States and the United Kingdom.

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Fang Jun, the deputy director of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchange at the Ministry of Education, said the statistics does not paint a clear picture of what the true number is. He said that even though the country has been declared third, criteria including mediocre educational quality and international student group structure need immediate reviewing and updating.

The figure shows China's improvements in providing education for foreign students in the past 40 years. The numbers are trending upwards; in fact, in 1978, China has recorded only about 1,900 foreign students, but this number skyrocketed 200-fold by 2014. While there were approximately only 100 universities catering for international students in 1990, the number has significantly to 2,500 today.

However, Fang pointed out some imbalance in the sector. For example, first, international students are mostly arts-based, particularly Chinese language. Other courses such as science, business and engineering comprise only a small percentage of the total population. Second, the number of foreign students studying for a degree or higher is relatively low, accounting for only 44 percent. Most students only come to the country for short-term courses or as exchange students who are only enrolled for a semester or two. This situation, however, is opposite to that of in UK and US, where most foreign students study to obtain a degree. Third, instead of having a diverse range of students, most of them usually come from concentrated regions, with over 70 percent from Asia and Africa. Fang emphasized efforts needed to diversify international students.

According to Fang, affordability is the most important factor for the choice of country among students. He claims that over one-fifth of the long-term foreign academic body in China are medical students and are mostly from Laos, India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Fang explained that, for these students, it is way cheaper and convenient to study in China than in Western countries, as undergraduate levels are charged with an annual tuition fee between 14,000 yuan and 26,000 yuan ($2,100 to $3,600), which is four to seven times lesser compared with UK's 10,000 pounds ($14,500) per year.

While the country is currently focusing on its cultural, geographic advantages and cost-performance, Fang emphasized the need to shift that focus to improving education quality and establishing good reputation.

Tagschina, international students, foreign students, exchange students