A chase for chinese scholarship

The University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) is one public university, in Beijing China, with Malawian students. It is a vast self-contained campus hosting nearly 17 000 learners including 2 200 from 160 countries.

The campus has a modern library, a 5000 capacity great hall, swimming pool and courts for all sorts of games including a luxurious park for recreation. The campus is installed with high-speed internet – conducive for academic research and learning.

Hostels are self-contained single-rooms in multi-storey buildings which go up to over 10 floors. Each room has a bed, beddings, table, wardrobe, television screen and air conditioner all provided for. This is not unique to this university but many in China; the standard is almost the same. 

It is this level of investment that is making the Chinese tertiary education equally attractive to many in Malawi and the rest of the world. China has been offering competitive scholarships to Malawians and other countries to assert its position as another giant on the global stage.

Previously tertiary education scholarships were mostly coming from the global north but now the Asian giant is a new major player which is competing favorably so much to the advantage of Malawi which banks hope on human capital development as a catalyst to achieve the national vision espoused in Malawi 2063.

“I can confidently say studying in China has surpassed my expectations and has proven to be far more valuable than I initially perceived it. For instance; the academic standards and resources available in my program have been impressive. I have had access to cutting-edge research, knowledgeable professors, and a curriculum that is both comprehensive and practical” said Phillimon Kalambule, a postgraduate student at UIBE studying international finance and investment.

Kalambule, like other Malawians, had a low opinion of Chinese tertiary education before visiting China.   It was just another try for an opportunity, probably having failed to secure other scholarships. It was until he stepped in China, and the university in particular, that he had a paradigm shift of how competitive Chinese universities are.

“The environment is very conducive for learning; accommodation, food…my post-graduate studies promise to be incredibly rewarding, and I now believe it is worth the time and effort. For this, I  express my sincere appreciation to the People’s Republic of China for this lifetime opportunity and indeed my Government for establishing diplomatic relations with China” added Kalambule who has also studied Masters of Business Administration with Jain University of India.

UIBE, established in 1951, has 15 academic schools including a campus in Israel for undergraduate studies in business administration. It offers 1405 undergraduate courses, 875 postgraduate and 109 doctoral courses according to information sourced from university’s website. But this is not even the biggest within the Capital city as others have more than 40 000 student population with thousands of programs and academic staff.

Such expansive institutions include China University of Agriculture (CAU) a school that can immensely benefit Malawi being an agri-based economy. CAU has a student population of about 70,000.

Karen Tembo, a Malawian student at CAU studying Resource Utilisation and Plant Protection under the Science and Technology Backyard Masters program feels confident that with her exposure to China she is likely to make positive impact on Malawi’s agriculture.

“I have had a good experience with Chinese post graduate studies. These people work hard and they amass so much knowledge. With the field I am in I have learnt about so many new technologies and skills that I can take back home” explained Tembo who is currently attached at the International Potato Centre (China Asia Pacific Centre) learning about potato breeding as well as growing healthy potato.

In an interview Malawi’s Ambassador to China Allan Chintedza said they have negotiated for limitless scholarships for those who want to study agriculture related programmes. Chintedza said while the education in China is competitive the interest in Malawi remains low.

Chintedza said: “We still have a colonial mentality that schools in the west are better than China. There is interest but not everybody is applying because of misconceptions about the standard and level of education here in China. I will give you an example, when we came in we managed to negotiate with the China Agriculture University for a masters programme called ambassador’s programme, we advertised in Malawi we only had 12 applications yet with the university were given unlimited number of places”.

According to the ambassador this should have stimulated interest considering that Malawi is dependent on agriculture but in the following year (2023) the number of applicants rose to only 16 and currently they are expecting 30.

“But still it worth noting that we have Malawians in most of the universities. We have Malawians at Tsingua University which is number one in China and that is where President Xi Jimping graduated from. In fact I have consulted Malawian students here and they all find the level of education quite competitive. It is as good as the American education system in terms of competitiveness” added Chintedza who also pointed out that the other stumbling block to these scholarships is the online based application and the requirement for a passport which may not work to economically disadvantaged Malawians.

The ambassador observed that Malawi’s public and private universities combined cannot accommodate all deserving candidates due to limited capacity in relation to demand. More importantly, according to Chintedza,  the cost implication are also a hindrance to many to enroll in universities hence scholarships such as Chinese are truly commendable.

Records from the Malawi Embassy in Beijing show that there is 124 Malawian students studying in China currently mainly in Beijing, Wuhan and Shanghai provinces.

There are various scholarships but with similar conditions. The scholarship include travel expenses, tuition fees, free accommodation and a monthly  stipend amounting to 3000 RMB or about K900,000 at the current exchange rate for postgraduate learners. Other scholarships pay even more than that but not many in number.

According to data from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China there are more than 490,000 foreign students from 196 countries studying in  1004 universities  across 31 provinces. Asia accounts for about 60 percent. Africa has the second highest population followed by Europe and America.