This is the English version of Notice by the Ministry of Education of Regulating Admission of International Students in China’s Higher Education Institutions 教育部关于规范我高等学校接受国际学生有关工作的通知, and there is the Chinese version, In case of any dispute, the Chinese version shall prevail.
Source from: 中华人民共和国教育部 Ministry of Education of People’s Republic of China
Notice by the Ministry of Education of Regulating Admission of International Students in China’s Higher Education Institutions
(Letter No. 12 [2020] of the Ministry of Education)
The education departments (commissions) of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government; the Education Bureau of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; all higher education institutions affiliated to the relevant ministries, and all higher education institutions jointly established by the Ministry of Education and the people’s governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government:
For the purpose of maintaining the fairness of China’s higher education, in accordance with the Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Higher Education Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Nationality Law of the People’s Republic of China and according to the requirements of the Administrative Measures for the Enrollment and Cultivation of International Students by Schools, the following supplementary provisions on higher education institutions’ acceptance of applications from international students for admission into the undergraduate or college programs of China’s higher education institutions are hereby developed:
I. Under Article 5 of the Nationality Law of the People’s Republic of China, a person who has acquired a foreign nationality at birth, both of whose parents are Chinese citizens and have settled abroad or either of whose parents is a Chinese citizen and has settled abroad, shall not have Chinese nationality. Beginning on 2021, in addition to meeting other eligibility requirements, a student applying for admission into any undergraduate or college program of China’s higher education institutions as an international student shall also have held a valid foreign passport or nationality certificate for more than four years, and shall have records of actual residence in a foreign country for more than two years within the last four years (as of April 30 of the year of enrollment). Nine months of actual residence in a foreign country during a year may be calculated as one year subject to entry and exit signatures.
II. A resident of the Mainland, Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan who has applied for admission into the undergraduate or college program of a higher education institution as an international student after he or she has immigrated and acquired a foreign nationality shall meet the requirements of subparagraph I of this Notice.
III. A higher education institution shall strictly examine the nationality status and application eligibility of international students applying for admission. If there is any doubt about an applicant’s nationality status, it shall take the initiative to check and confirm the nationality status of the applicant with the entry-exit administrative department of the local public security authority at or above the level of a district city.
A higher education institution may, on the basis of this Notice, formulate its rules to specify further requirements for the status and eligibility of international students applying for admission.
IV. All provincial education administrative departments shall forward this Notice to all higher education institutions enrolling international students within their respective administrative regions.
V. This Notice shall come into force on January 1, 2021, upon which the Notice by the Ministry of Education of Regulating Admission of Foreign Students in China’s Higher Education Institutions (No. 83 [2009], Ministry of Education) issued by November 16, 2009 shall repealed.
VI. The power to finally interpret this Notice shall remain with the Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education
May 28, 2020