Tsinghua University (TSU) is one of the best universities in the world, famous in China and across the globe. It was started in Beijing in 1911, and it’s been giving those enrolled a great education (and a great overall experience of student life) ever since. From amazing employability services to talented, passionate tutors, students can be sure they’ll be prepared for a bright future at TSU even over 100 years later.
TSU is often ranked as the best university in China and one of the best 20 universities in the world. Its courses in engineering and science subjects, especially, are famous on an international level. Over 5,000 international students attend TSU each year, and these students can get a great education in either Chinese or English, studying non-degree programmes, undergraduate degree programmes or postgraduate degree programmes.
TSU wouldn’t have such an impressive reputation without its hard-working, experienced lecturers. Expert academics in their subject areas, these lecturers give students great technical knowledge and practical skills. They know how to get the best results out of their students, supporting them and preparing them for academic and professional successes.
On the topic of supporting students, there are some great support services at TSU. These include many career and employability services. This university is in the top 10 globally for graduate employment, with many alumni now working for leading companies in well-paid roles. This high graduate success rate is partly thanks to all of TSU’s employment services, from job fairs to career counselling sessions.
International students get a lot of unique support from the International Students and Scholars Centre. This centre makes the application and immigration process as simple as possible for overseas applicants and then supports them when they arrive in South Korea.
All students get to enjoy the great facilities at the university, including comfortable study spaces, well-designed lecture theatres and high-quality research centres. There’s nothing a student at TSU will need that they won’t be able to access easily. And outside of the classroom, there are over 200 clubs and societies to join. Every person can find their place at this highly rated, constantly improving institution.
TSU is one of the best universities in the world. This is an undeniable fact confirmed by rankings from multiple organisations. According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022, TSU is the 16th best university in the world. According to the QS World University Rankings 2023, TSU is the 14th best university in the world. With such great rankings and a teaching rating of 88.1 per cent, the teaching quality at TSU is clear.
Lecturers at this university are experts and usually active researchers. This means the learning they deliver to their students is always up-to-date and true to the reality of their industry. Just under 37,000 students are delivered quality teaching by over 6,000 academic staff. All classes are just the right size, so all students can enjoy attention and focus, and nobody is ignored or left behind.
Certain TSU courses are known and respected across the world, including its engineering and computer science courses, which were both ranked first globally in 2020. Materials science ranked sixth, and chemistry ranked seventh. High-quality teaching is the standard across these programmes and all the others on offer.
In 2019, TSU won the Grand Prize in the Chinese Ministry of Education’s Outstanding Achievement Award for Research in Institutes of Higher Education, as well as several other awards. Across labs, study rooms and teaching rooms on campus, TSU teachers give students the skills and tools they need to do their best work and help with important research projects. The university has partnerships with almost 300 other universities across the globe, it’s a centre for innovation and creativity.
For international students, the support offered by TSU is hard to beat. Over 500 courses are available in English, making them accessible to a wider range of people from across the globe. In fact, for this reason and a handful of others, TSU is one of China’s most accessible universities.
Entry Requirements
The entry requirements at TSU depend on an applicant’s chosen course and level of study. Each course will have specific requirements, and generally, students need to have performed well in their previous studies. But there are some overall university requirements as well.
For example, all international undergraduate students need to have good results in their secondary school records (and be educated to the right level). They can prove this with their academic transcripts or certificates, as well as with exam results and international standardised tests. Plus, university requirements ask all students to be in good physical and mental health, with a minimum level of understanding of either Mandarin Chinese or English (depending on their chosen course).
Students should get to know the exact qualifications they’ll need for their course on the individual course page on the TSU website. As an example, students who want to apply for a bachelor’s degree in economics need to have successfully completed their secondary education with high average grades no lower than As or an overall GPA of 70 per cent.
Postgraduate applicants should have previous university qualifications, including at least a bachelor’s degree in a relevant subject from a recognised university or a master’s degree meeting the same criteria if they are applying for a doctoral programme.
The main language of teaching at TSU is Chinese but the university does offer some courses in English, and these are commonly chosen study options for international applicants. Over 500 of the university’s programmes can be studied in English, including 21 master’s degree programmes and eight doctoral programmes, which are delivered fully in English.
Students applying for these courses will need to prove they have a minimum level of English proficiency. If they can’t prove this in another way (through their previous education record, for example), they’ll have to take an English test and get a minimum English score. This score will be different for each course, and TSU accepts a few different English testing methods/score equivalents, but the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is one of the most common.
To give an example, students wanting to study for a master’s degree in law will need a minimum overall IELTS band score of 6, and so will students who want to study the THU-CUHK (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Dual Economics programme.
The student admission process for anyone applying to TSU is easy to follow. For undergraduate international students, there are three basic steps: confirming that they meet the requirements, making an application and attaching supporting documents, and accepting an offer of university admission if one is received.
To apply to TSU online, potential future students will need to make an account, complete the application form, upload their supporting documents and pay an application fee of RMB 800 to submit themselves for admission. Documents required can change between courses and course levels but may include:
During the admission process, applicants should also take the time to think about the cost of tuition and whether they’ll reasonably be able to afford their fees. Tuition fees for undergraduate students range from RMB 26,000 to 40,000 annually. Tuition fees for postgraduate students range from RMB 28,000 to 68,000, depending on the course they’re applying for and whether they’re studying full-time or part-time.
TSU offers financial aid to undergraduate and postgraduate international students. Some funding support options are paid to students by the Chinese government, and others are direct university scholarships. There are different application processes and entry requirements for each award and scholarship, and students should do their research on all available options to determine eligibility and get to know the application criteria.
The Chinese Government Scholarship is one of the best options for international students. It is offered either as a full or partial scholarship. The full scholarship covers all tuition fees, as well as on-campus accommodation costs, a monthly stipend and medical insurance. The partial scholarship will cover either one or several of the same aspects. Both scholarships can be renewed each year if the student continues to meet all the scholarship requirements (things like good academic standing).
There are three tuition scholarships offered by the university. Two of them, the Beijing Government Scholarship and the Beijing Government Belt and Road Scholarship, are offered in partnership with the Beijing government. The third is the TSU University Tuition Scholarship.
The Beijing Government Scholarship for 2022 is one of the most valuable options offered. Students studying degrees in law, economics, philosophy, education, literature, history, management, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine or art can apply. The scholarship covers the following amounts for different student study levels:
A great option for PhD students is the Siemens China Scholarship. This will cover funding for any academic or industrial research that the student wants to complete. They will also work with Siemens on specific areas, and they’ll be entered onto the Siemens Career Path, improving their post-graduation job prospects a lot.
TSU was founded in 1911. It has one main campus made up of several buildings in Beijing. On this large main campus, there are over 30 departments and over 20 research institutes/centres/labs. There are also a number of schools, academies and colleges:
TSU lecture theatres, study areas and on-campus facilities are high quality and well designed, but there are also lots of extracurricular clubs, societies and exciting things for students to do on campus when their studies are done for the day. Starting with the academic side of student life, there are three campus museums, a wide range of teaching and research facilities and lots of independent and group study spaces.
There’s also a collection of university libraries (including some course-specific libraries). Every library is its own student activity centre for research and study at TSU, and across them all, there are over five million physical books and printed materials as well as a huge electronic database of digital resources.
When class is over, the university’s famous eating halls are great places to socialise and relax. There are more than 10 on campus. There are also many student recreation centres for those who want to stay active, including two gyms, a swimming pool, tennis courts and several sports fields. Plus, there’s the Student Community Activity Centre, which contains fitness rooms, dance studios and musical instruments that students can practice on.
In total, there are 263 registered student organisations at TSU that put on events on campus and around Beijing. There are also lots of great on-campus and off-campus student accommodation options. For TSU students, the entire campus is a student life centre, and so is the wider city of Beijing, filled with interesting extracurricular and professional opportunities.
TSU offers some great on-campus university accommodation options to international students, including the Zijing International Studio Apartments. These apartments can accommodate 2,000 students and have a range of rooms that come with bedding, furniture, air conditioning and Wi-Fi. Students can get a room with a private bedroom and bathroom or a room with a private bedroom and shared bathroom for RMB 80 daily. Shared double rooms are RMB 40 daily.
Because there is a lot of competition for rooms at Zijing, no student is promised a place. While the university can’t recommend specific off-campus student houses, it can point students to certain useful search engines. Ziroom is the best search engine for international students, and it guides them all the way through finding and securing student accommodation near to TSU.
The average price of rent in Beijing varies depending on the area and how many people someone is living with. If a group of students want to rent a private apartment, they should expect to pay anything between RMB 3,000 and 10,000 monthly. They’ll need to think about the added cost of bills, too, as these usually won’t be included in the cost of the rent.
TSU wants to make sure its students are always physically and mentally healthy, achieving their potential academically and enjoying student life. The key to ticking these boxes for students is a full student support programme covering all the essential student services and student support options.
For example, TSU has a hospital on campus for clinic treatment and hospitalisation services. This hospital treats students and staff, and even when it can’t help, it will always point a student in need in the right direction. There are also many academic services, career services and mental wellbeing services.
For international students, the TSU International Students and Scholars Centre is a great source of student support services. It has lots of information and resources, and it can help with any immigration or academic concerns. The centre also runs a buddy programme, connecting new overseas students with existing TSU students. These students become their student guides and give them language, academic and cultural support to make settling in simple and easy.
As one of the world’s best universities, it’s no surprise that TSU has an impressive history (and present) in the category of graduate employment. The QS World University Rankings for 2022 placed it sixth in the world for graduate employability. Plus, TSU scored a 98.9 per cent ranking for academic reputation and an 87.1 per cent ranking for employment outcomes. It’s clear from those figures that TSU prepares its students well and allows them to access many different job prospects after graduation.
The quality of education is so high at TSU that employers are always pleased with their hires if they once attended the university. TSU graduates and alumni have a reputation across the globe for being innovative leaders, ready to make a positive impact in their industries. Plus, the many employment services provided help students to feel fully prepared for professional life, so it takes them less time to find the perfect graduate job when their course is complete.
There are lots of great success stories that have come out of TSU. One example is Alex Rudnicki's story. Alex was an American student who completed the university’s MBA programme, and he’s now the associate director of JD, China’s biggest e-commerce business. He used the skills and knowledge he gained at TSU to start his career well, and any graduating student could do the same.
TSU career services include career counselling (one-to-one appointments with a career guide to explore career options and plan for the future), employability workshops, job fairs, networking events, online resources and job portals. Essentially, there’s no form of career support that the university can’t offer its students or recent graduates.
International students who want to enjoy an amazing academic and professional future should really think about applying to TSU. The skills they’ll learn at the institution will prepare them for working life in China and across the globe, and TSU’s great reputation will add value to their qualifications. For ambitious, hard-working students from anywhere in the world, there are not many options as ideal as TSU.
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I find the university through browsing the internet. I am very must interested to study in China in geography and environment science. Already I have completed my Masters degree from a reputed University in Bangladesh.
I find the university through browsing the internet. I am very must interested to study in China in geography and environment science. Already I have completed my Masters degree from a reputed University in Bangladesh.