International scholarship makes recruiting Chinese students top priority

The Rhodes Scholarship, a century-old scholarship program founded at the University of Oxford, regards recruiting Chinese students as the top priority in its mission to become more global.

The Rhodes Scholarship, founded in 1903, has been supporting outstanding students from all over the world to complete their postgraduate studies in Oxford.

The Rhodes Trust launched scholarships for China in March 2015, with the first batch of Chinese students starting their studies at the university in 2016.

By making itself better known to schools in China, the Rhodes Trust hopes it can create more opportunities for Chinese students and become more global.

Last Thursday, 15 Rhodes Scholars from eight countries, including four from China, shared their experiences with hundreds of hopeful high school and college students at ShanghaiTech University, in an aim to encourage more Chinese students to apply for the scholarship.

Chinese students are very supportive to each other just like a family, Kiss says, adding that they are wonderful cultural ambassadors of their home country.

This year, Chinese Rhodes Scholars celebrated the Spring Festival with about 60 scholars from other countries. They held workshops to teach others how to make traditional Chinese paper cuttings, write Chinese calligraphy and make Chinese knots.

Although Chinese students only account for a small part of all Rhodes Scholars, we wanted to share Chinese customs with students from other cultures by celebrating Chinese festivals, said Mao Xiao, a Rhodes Scholar and organizer of this year's Spring Festival celebrations at Oxford.

Mao applied for the Rhodes Scholarship in 2017 and is now studying at Oxford. She is one of 16 Chinese students that were admitted by the Rhodes Trust in the past four years to study subjects like genetics, theater and politics.

"In Rhodes' multicultural community, I have learned a lot by communicating with students from other cultures," Mao said. "I got to know different values, noticed the divergences between them and learned to bridge such divergences."

In recent years, an increasing number of Chinese students have gone abroad to study. The population of Chinese students in London has increased by 89.6 percent since 2011 to the current total of 21,350.

The Rhodes Scholarships will start recruiting in June this year.

The trust looks forward to recruiting more Chinese students who demonstrate academic excellence, strong leadership and an interest in learning about other cultures.