Education exchanges to tighten China-Australia ties

Educational exchanges between China and Australia have also been highlighted during Premier Li Keqiang's visit.

As CRI's Huang Shan reports, people-to-people exchanges have been playing a special role in creating friendship between China and Australia.

In recent years, China has been the largest source of overseas students for Australia.

Amber Gao, a Chinese graduate of the University of Sydney, is now living and working in Australia.

"Australia in the Southern hemisphere, I feel it's quite interesting to experience a totally different season from China. At first I did not fit into Australian society very well, due to the language barrier. But later I found that there are many Chinese people here, and the requirements for immigration are relatively loose, plus the climate here is particularly good, so I decided to stay here longer. In terms of the quality of teaching, I think professors in Sydney Uni are very responsible and fair, you rarely encounter any teachers who racially discriminate."

Amber Gao [Photo provided by Amber Gao]

Official figures show, in 2016, the number of people-related exchanges between the two countries reached two million, and there were some 260,000 Chinese students studying in Australia.

Now working at a college placement agency based in Sydney, Amber Gao explains why Chinese students' prefer to apply to study in Australia.

"For those students who want to migrate here, usually they'll choose majors such as business, engineering or information technology. And students prefer to apply to Australia's Group of Eight, including Sydney University, Melbourne University and Queensland University. Since these universities enjoy a good reputation worldwide, students believe even if there's no chance to immigrate, with a world leading university's diploma, they can gain extra points to help find a decent job in China."

The Australian government is now actively promoting the "New Colombo Plan", to encourage more Australian young people to study in China and other Asian countries, and therefore to enhance mutual understanding through such two-way interaction.

The Australian Studies Centre of Beijing Foreign Studies University. [Photo provided by Li Jianjun]

Kate Smith, an Australian student now studying at Tsinghua University, recalls what factors drove her to China.

"I think that the quality of education in some universities is definitely on a par with Australia. Obviously in China there are so many universities and there is a real big difference between the lower and the higher. For me the main thing that I wanted to get out of being in China was the Chinese environment, the Chinese language, the Chinese culture, the Chinese point of view. That's something that even if I was at the best university in the world I wouldn't get."

Li Jianjun, Secretary-General of the Australian Studies Association in China, believes bilateral cultural and educational exchanges have long lasting and radiating effects.

"If we want to attract more Australian students to study in China, first we need to enrich the courses, as most of them come to China to learn the Chinese language and culture. In addition, we need to improve the supporting facilities, such as accommodation. We can see that cultural exchanges between China and Australia have never been interrupted, even during the times when the two countries had some political frictions."

According to the 2016 QS World University Rankings, 41 Chinese universities made it into the top 500, with Tsinghua University, Peking University and Fudan University among the top 50.