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Colleges and universities in the United States are still a popular study destination for Chinese students, with around 266 thousand choosing to take courses there in the 2024/25 academic year. Since academic year 2020/21, the number of students from China is dropping, and China is now the second largest source of international students  in the U.S. education market, accounting for 22.6 percent of all incoming students.

The education exodus

Mathematics and computer science courses led the field in terms of what Chinese students were studying in the United States, followed by engineering and business & management programs. The vast majority of Chinese students were self-funded, wth the remainder receiving state-funding to complete their overseas studies. Tuition fees can run into the tens of thousands of U.S. dollars, as foreign students usually pay out-of-state tuition fees.

What about the local situation?

Although studying abroad attracts many Chinese students, the country itself boasts the largest state-run education system in the world. With modernization of the national tertiary education system being a top priority for the Chinese government, the country has seen a significant increase in the number of local universities over the last decade. Enrolments in these universities reached almost 40 million in 2025, and a record of more than 11 million students graduated in the same year, indicating that China's education market is still expanding.