The Zhongkao (中考), China’s high school entrance exam taken around age 15, is increasingly viewed as a make-or-break moment in a student’s academic trajectory. The Ministry of Education intentionally limits regular high school slots to about 50% of middle school graduates, meaning roughly half of all test-takers will “fail” to gain entry to an academic high school.
Those who fall below the cut-off are typically diverted to vocational schools or forced to end formal schooling, options widely perceived as dead-ends for upward mobility. This high-stakes sorting at such a young age has made Zhongkao even more pivotal than the Gaokao (college entrance exam) in the eyes of many parents. As one Sixth Tone report notes, “the zhongkao is far more important than the gaokao now” for determining a child’s future opportunities.
The limited pathways for “Zhongkao failures” have fueled interest in alternative education routes. A 2018 Caixin analysis revealed that because 50% of Zhongkao takers are filtered out by policy, about 30 million teenagers end up in secondary vocational schools (Caixin Global).
Yet vocational education in China carries stigma and quality concerns, leaving many families unwilling to accept it as a fate for their children. In practice, failing Zhongkao often “labels” a student as a failure, with few chances to rejoin the academic track or obtain a four-year university degree domestically.
This harsh reality has parents and students looking for off-ramps from the system. As the Yale Review of International Studies observes, for students who do not pass Zhongkao, “attending a foreign university is their only chance at getting a white-collar job” in the future. In other words, studying abroad (or in international programs) becomes a lifeline for those shut out of China’s mainstream high schools.
Expert Perspectives on Zhongkao and International Pathways
Education observers in China and abroad have increasingly commented on the link between exam outcomes and international study choices. As a long-time China education consultant, I've seen first-hand how an industry of international programs thrives by offering a workaround for those “who might not be able to enter high school” in China. These programs leverage what he calls a “systematic advantage”: getting into a decent foreign university via an international curriculum is seen as “relatively easy, as the competition is much less fierce” than China’s Zhongkao/Gaokao gauntlet.
In other words, a student with average scores in China can potentially gain admission to a reputable overseas university through alternative qualifications (IGCSE, A-Levels, SATs, etc.), a path that circumvents the near-impossible domestic cutoff scores. Other experts echo this reasoning. Zhang Zhanhe, an instructor at Nanjing Institute of Technology, told state media that he chose an overseas college for his child specifically to avoid China’s exams, saying he had little faith she could test into a top local university and that he preferred the holistic admissions approach abroad.
Likewise, educators at China’s booming international high schools observe that parents see these schools “as an alternative to China’s grueling college-entrance exam system and a way to prepare their kids for an overseas education.” In a Sixth Tone op-ed, an international school teacher noted that demand is soaring because families seek relief from the exam pressure – by enrolling in an international program after middle school, students can work toward foreign university entry without ever taking Gaokao or Zhongkao again.
This sentiment is confirmed by reporting from Sixth Tone and Caixin, which highlight how “gaokao refugees” (and by extension Zhongkao refugees) deliberately choose international curricula to escape the one-exam system.
However, experts also caution that this route is viable mainly for those with financial means and academic support; it essentially creates a parallel track for China’s more affluent or internationally minded students, leaving less privileged youth stuck with the traditional path.
Growth of International and Transnational Programs within China
For families who want a global education but perhaps not an immediate move overseas, China now offers an expanding array of in-country international pathways. Over the past two decades, the number of international-style secondary schools in China has exploded. In 1999 there were only 86 schools teaching an overseas curriculum, whereas by 2019 there were over 800 international schools operating in China, according to Sixth Tone.
These include private international high schools (open to Chinese citizens), bilingually taught programs, and international divisions of elite public high schools. Notably, even public high schools have added “international classes” that prepare students for foreign universities – and competition for these seats has grown intense. Whereas such programs used to accept students with relatively lower Zhongkao scores, many now require higher Zhongkao scores than regular local high schools due to the demand from top students aiming to go abroad.
In Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities, it’s not unusual for students who aced the Zhongkao to choose an international/AP or IB track instead of the domestic curriculum, to better position themselves for overseas college admissions. Apart from full high school programs, “foundation year” and transfer programs have proliferated.
These allow Chinese students to complete one or two years of preparatory coursework at home before transitioning abroad. For example, UK universities partner with Chinese institutions on 1-year foundation courses that bridge into bachelor’s degrees. Similarly, many Chinese universities host 2+2 or 3+1 joint degree programs in partnership with foreign universities, in which students spend the first years in China and the final years overseas.
The scale of these transnational education (TNE) efforts is striking: as of 2019, China had around 2,240 Sino-foreign joint programs and institutions, involving over 600 Chinese higher education providers and 800 foreign partners across 40 countries. The UK alone accounted for 205 jointly run programs and 29 joint institutes approved by China’s MOE by 2020. While many programs historically required students to go abroad for a portion of their studies (e.g. the popular “3+1” model), there is a clear shift toward fully domestic delivery. By 2020, 38% of joint programs used a “4+0” model, keeping students in-country for the entire degree, a trend attributed to tighter regulations and families’ desire to minimize risks and costs.
Enrollment in transnational programs has climbed accordingly. In the 2018/19 academic year, about 78,175 students in China were enrolled in TNE courses leading to foreign university credentials – up from roughly 49,680 students just five years earlier. These include students at the nine MOE-approved joint venture universities (such as Nottingham Ningbo, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool, Duke Kunshan.) as well as those in hundreds of joint degree programs.
The growth of these in-country options reflects both the strong demand for international credentials and a “study local, get global” approach for families hedging their bets. By pursuing a foreign degree curriculum within China, students who struggled in the domestic system can still earn an overseas diploma, often with the possibility to transfer abroad later if they meet requirements.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend, with more students opting for local TNE programs when travel was restricted. In short, China’s international education boom isn’t only happening via student exodus; it’s also unfolding on home soil through collaborative programs and international schools.
Regional Destinations: Hong Kong, Macao, and Beyond
Hong Kong and Macao have emerged as popular destinations for mainland Chinese students seeking alternatives to mainland universities. Hong Kong’s universities in particular enroll large numbers of mainland Chinese each year. In fact, mainland Chinese now comprise about 3/4 of all non-local undergraduates in Hong Kong. In the 2024–25 academic year, Hong Kong’s eight public universities admitted 5,582 non-local first-year students, 74% of whom were from Mainland China.
This mainland influx has grown rapidly – the total non-local intake jumped 48% in one year – highlighting Hong Kong’s role as a nearby international education hub. As of 2020/21 there were roughly 13,600 mainland Chinese studying at Hong Kong’s publicly funded universities, a number that continues to rise under expanded quotas. (Hong Kong recently doubled the cap on non-local students from 20% to 40% of enrollments to further internationalize campuses.)
Many of these students are Zhongkao and Gaokao leavers who use Hong Kong’s admissions (which can accept Gaokao scores or other credentials) to access a Western-style education closer to home. Macao’s universities have also attracted mainland Chinese, though on a smaller scale. Institutions like the University of Macau have traditionally admitted students from China based on either Gaokao or alternative qualifications (such as international exam results), making Macao a backup option for students from Chinese international schools.
However, a new policy shift in 2024-25 is tightening this route. After admissions scandals involving forged exam scores, Macao’s top universities announced they will no longer accept mainland applicants who did not take the Gaokao. The University of Macau, for example, will “suspend the admission of non-[Gaokao] students from the mainland from the 2025 academic year.” This move has caused concern among China’s middle-class families who had been sending kids to international high schools and then on to Macao’s universities as a way to bypass the Gaokao, as per Ground News.
With that loophole closing, students may face pressure to either sit for the Gaokao or look further afield. Education consultants note that Macau’s ban could push more families toward overseas universities, as those who avoided China’s exams lose one of their convenient local options.
Beyond Hong Kong and Macao, other transnational education avenues continue to flourish. Mainland-based joint universities confer foreign degrees (e.g. Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou grants University of Liverpool degrees) and enroll many students who chose them over the Gaokao route. And of course, traditional study abroad at the undergraduate level remains significant – China still accounts for the largest share of international undergraduates in the US, UK, Australia, and many other countries (Nature).
What is changing is how and when Chinese students enter the global education circuit. Increasingly, the pivot comes right after Zhongkao, when a student’s score may dictate “Plan A: local high school” or “Plan B: international path.” As one Chinese commentator put it, “Young people increasingly are their test scores” in China (Caixin Global) – but for those who don’t make the cut, the world’s education markets are offering ever more alternatives.
Sources
- Li Xin, “Zhongkao, Not Gaokao, Now the Make-or-Break Exam, Parents Say,” Sixth Tone, Jun 26, 2023 sixthtone.com
- Philip J. Fang, “One Test Labels 30 Million Students as Failures. That Should Change,” Caixin Global, Sep 3, 2018 caixinglobal.com.
- Yale R. Int’l Studies, “What Chinese International Students Reveal About Modern China,” 2022 .
- Jinghua Qian, “More and Younger: Outbound Mobility Among Chinese High School Students,” WENR, Apr 2017 .
- Griggs Education, “How to Get to Top Colleges After Failing Zhongkao?” (Blog), Jul 15, 2022
- Global Times, “Richer Chinese students skip gaokao and apply for overseas universities,” Jun 2016 globaltimes.cn.
- Ying Tianyi, “The Problem With China’s English-Only Schools,” Sixth Tone, May 21, 2021 sixthtone.com
- The PIE News, “More China TNE programs adopting fully in-country model,” Jul 2020 .
- WES Research, “Transnational Education: Sino-Foreign Cooperative Universities in China,” Aug 2018 .
- William Yiu, South China Morning Post, “Are Hong Kong’s universities attracting enough students…?”, Mar 10, 2025 .
- Statista, “Hong Kong: Non-local university students by origin (2020/21),” 2022 .
- Tony Atkinson, LinkedIn post re: Macau Gaokao policy, Dec 2024 .
- VOA Chinese, “Macau universities will refuse to admit [Mainland] students who did not take the college entrance exam,” Nov 2024 .
