Foreign Fresher Students Offered Scholarship By Fudan

According to Fudan officials, Fudan University would be offering scholarships for foreign freshman students, granting them to take an opportunity to take the general knowledge education with their Chinese peers beginning this fall semester.

The objective of the Fudan foreign freshmen scholarship is to award 14 foreign students who have excelled in the university's entrance exam as well as 10 elite postgraduates.

The winners of the scholarship would be exempted from the first-year tuition that could range from 23,000 yuan to 42,000 yuan each year for undergraduate students and 26,000 yuan to 54,000 yuan for postgraduates.

In addition from September, Fudan plans to combine all of its incoming undergraduate foreign students into the same Fudan college, rather than grouping them by specific colleges, for a one-year general knowledge education together with their Chinese peers.

Professional classes offered by their own college would be taken up by the students only from the second year of studies.

'We are glad to see Fudan's foreign student number continue to grow in recent years,' said Yang Zengguo, deputy director of Fudan's foreign students office. "But the scholarship is expected to bring more elite higher-level degree-program students, rather than short-term language learners.'

Fudan received more than 5,400 foreign students last year, mostly non-degree short-term students from neighboring Asian countries. The foreign student number ranked the highest in the city.

This year, the university plans to enroll 584 foreign undergraduate students in more than 60 departments.

Undergraduate applicants have to write an entrance exam, scheduled to be held simultaneously in Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur on June 3 and 4 this year.

Earlier exams or interviews were not compulsory for foreigners applying for Fudan. All foreign students were admitted based on applications only.