China’s globetrotting students are getting back on the road

QIN YIBO is half way through a science degree at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. But she has not been in the country since early 2020 when it closed its borders to prevent the spread of covid-19 (she was back in China at the time). Instead the university has arranged for Ms Qin and other stranded students in China to take up residence on campuses in their own country while they continue their studies remotely. Ms Qin has thought about transferring permanently to a Chinese university, but she still plans to return to New Zealand when it eases its border controls.

Ms Qin is relatively lucky. She has enjoyed seeing parts of her country that she had not visited previously. She spent the early months of this year at a university in Heilongjiang, a north-eastern province with bitter winters. Then, for a change of scenery, she moved to a campus in Fujian in the balmy south. Many thousands of Chinese students who had not yet enrolled at universities abroad when the pandemic began have found their plans upended by covid-related travel restrictions. Universities in the West have lived in fear that young Chinese, whose tuition fees are a lucrative source of revenue, would give up the dream of studying aboard.