China’s top universities are aggressively recruiting Chinese undergraduates abroad to skip traditional academic pathways and enrol directly into PhD programmes – as the US tightens funding for graduate studies and geopolitical tensions grow.
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It is a move that analysts have said reflects Beijing’s push to lure young academics from the United States.
Fudan University, a prestigious public institution in Shanghai, has quietly offered direct PhD admissions to overseas Chinese undergraduates since 2022. But its latest recruitment drive, announced this month for the 2025 academic year, has sparked heated debate as American universities scale back graduate programmes under financial strain and political pressures.
The initiative, which bypasses China’s typical requirement of a master’s degree or domestic university endorsement, targets students enrolled in the world’s top 100 universities or elite programmes. It is open to 18 disciplines, including cutting-edge fields such as computer science, biomedical engineering and clinical medicine, as well as select humanities subjects.
One Fudun faculty member whose surname is Wang said the university’s initiative was “not common in China” because admissions to doctoral programmes in the country usually required a master’s degree or a recommendation from a domestic university.
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But he strongly supported the move, saying the university was fulfilling its social duty.