INSIGHT

The past week has brought two welcome developments for US-China education exchanges. Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met on November 15th for what Biden described as “some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had” and including a commitment to increasing non-governmental exchanges. In the runup to the meeting, Chinese state media struck a more conciliatory tone toward the US. Meanwhile, IIE released the 2023 Open Doors Report that showed that Chinese enrollments in US universities held steady for the 2022-2023 academic year. These signals of stability come as welcome news among US international admissions offices seeking to chart a recovery of student enrollments from China. All of this and more will be covered in Sunrise’s upcoming webinar “The 6 Key Trends in China that will Shape Recruitment in 2024”.

China is home to a massive private university counseling sector, with at least 20,000 firms advising students in the world’s largest study overseas market. The number of new Chinese agencies is growing, with 148% more agencies established in 2023 than 2021. These new entrants in the market will accelerate decentralization in the Chinese recruitment agency landscape. Agencies have been more resilient than other education firms, as newly established firms across the broader education sector decreased by 67%. A more fragmented agency space will raise the stakes for vetting trustworthy agencies. The Chinese agency business model is evolving as agencies respond to new regulation and global technological disruptions such as the “direct admissions” trend, the impact of AI on admissions, and the shifting role of application submission platforms.