The methodology and criteria used by The Times Higher Education to judge world class universities are across all core missions - teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
The top universities rankings employ 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.
The 13 performance indicators are grouped into five areas:
As you may notice, a high weightage of 30% is allocated to the learning environment in assessing a good and high quality university. This reinforced my emphasis on the importance of wholesome and fulfilling campus life while acquiring knowledge at university.
1st world - Excellent quality of higher education with wholesome campus
In Asia university rankings released by The Times Higher Education (THE) for 2014, Chinese universities improved its performance with a total of 18 universities in the top 100 compared with 15 universities in 2013. The 2014 list reaffirms the excellent quality of higher education produced by these Chinese Universities.
Good and conducive learning environment play a very important role in pursuing a world class degree. Don't just confine yourself in an office like university. These 18 Chinese universities are fully funded by the government. Heavy investment is made in the improvement of teaching and research facilities, academic staff as well as development and beautification of universities. In 2012, a total of USD250 billion was spent by China Government to fund its education. By choosing further education in China, I strongly believe you can have the best of the both worlds at Chinese universities listed by THE.
See for yourself the below pictures of university campuses which paint thousand words about study environment of these Chinese universities.
Peking University
Tsinghua University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Fudan University
Zhejiang University
Wuhan University
University of Science and Technology China
Sun Yat-sen University
Nanjing University
2nd world - Affordable tuition packages
Now look at the below table.
Source - HSBC Report - Australia Most Expensive Country for International Study
International study in China is the 4th cheapest country in term of overall cost among the 13 high performance countries in higher education. For tuition fees, international students study in China paid an average of USD3,983 per annum for tuition fees. For living expenses, China offers the lowest living expenses among these countries with a yearly average cost of USD4,783.
On February 2014, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China announced a total of 356,499 international students were studying in China in 2013. By 2020, the number is expected to reach 500,000. Why international students flocking to China for further education. The obvious reasons are:
1. Affordable tuition package (tuition fees and living expenses)
2. Excellent quality of higher education
3. Wholesome campus with fulfilling campus life
4. And many more, please read my earlier posts on the same subject - Why study in China?
Why not enjoy the best of both worlds from Chinese Universities?
1. Excellent quality of higher education &
2. Affordable tuition package with wholesome campus life