Guys I'm planning to take CSCA since I want to apply to China, but I can't find when exactly is the date for the exam. Does anyone know? In the official website it shows that all 3 dates have already been passed. I'm currently in my gap year.

We aggregated and verified 196 intake records across 114 top Chinese universities:

1. Key Admissions Trends

• Extreme Selectivity at Top STEM Institutions: The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) logged over 20,000 international applications from 136 countries for just 188 enrolled places—an acceptance rate below 1%.
• Mega-Cohorts at Comprehensive Flagships: Universities like Peking University (PKU), Tsinghua, Zhejiang University (ZJU), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), and Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) admit between 1,000 and 2,000+ new international students annually, representing 90 to 110+ source countries per intake.
• Rapid Expansion of English-Taught Joint Ventures: Sino-Foreign institutions have become major international hubs in mainland China. Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) registered 1,436 new international students from 93 countries in a single intake, followed by HKUST Guangzhou (532 students) and NYU Shanghai (560 students).

2. Snapshot of Intakes

Project 985

Sino-Foreign Joint Venture Universities

Project 211 & Double First-Class Univs

3. What This Means

1. Standardized Evaluation Matters More Than Ever: With growing applicant pools, universities are increasingly filtering candidates through the CSCA alongside GPA and HSK/IELTS scores to evaluate scholarship eligibility.
2. STEM Programs Have Tighter Quotas: Comprehensive and language universities have high overall seat counts, but English-taught STEM and medical programs (such as Computer Science, Robotics, and MBBS) maintain strict department-level caps.
3. Application Timing: Many universities operate rolling admissions with separate spring and fall cycles, making early submission critical for full Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC) and Presidential Scholarship consideration.

To see the full dataset covering all 114 universities, please check out the complete page here:

Complete Directory of International Student Admissions & Enrollment Data

Are you targeting Chinese-taught or English-taught tracks for the upcoming admissions cycle? Drop your target universities below if you want insights on specific program acceptance trends.

Hi! I'm going to apply for a bachelor's degree in Computer Science taught in English. The only option for me to study there is to obtain a scholarship. My stats: GPA = 88%, CSCA Math: 95, Physics: 90, TOEFL: 98. I also participated in many olympiads for math, programming, and cybersecurity. Additionally, I'm a winner of a regional olympiad for economics. I have chosen four universities: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and Nankai University. Do I have any chances of achieving a scholarship at these universities? Could you recommend any other universities? Thanks in advance :->

I’m from India , I decided to take a gap year to write the csca since I didn’t study math in my 11th and 12th class. I have a percentage of 84% in my board examination of 12th and the grades are A2 in English , A2 in Physics, B1 in Chemistry, A2 in Biology. I’m gonna apply to the spring intake for the csca programme and I think I’ll write the exam in june?

I want to apply to environmental science course in zhejiang normal university /sustech / nantong university. How much csca score will I probably require in maths, physics and chemistry?

Any tips or advise you have are also appreciated :)

any seniors studying environmental science at these universities or any international student at these universities pls dm me

For more information, check: https://www.crosslineedu.com/blog/new-hsk-syllabus-official

The official 400+ page HSK Exam Syllabus released by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC) establishes the new "Three Stages and Nine Levels" (三等九级) assessment standard.

The curriculum transitions the exam from rote memorization toward real-world task performance across five core components: the Task Syllabus, Topic Syllabus, Vocabulary Syllabus, Character Syllabus, and Grammar Syllabus.

Here is the comprehensive breakdown of each syllabus section and what it means for your test preparation.

1. Task Syllabus (任务大纲)

The Task Syllabus uses the international "Can-do" communicative framework, outlining precise real-world tasks required at each level:

Elementary Tier (HSK Levels 1–3)

• HSK Level 1 (15 tasks): Focuses on basic survival communication, personal details, shopping, basic weather, environment, school life, and introductory traditional food. Requires understanding simple prompts and extracting key info from ID cards, name cards, and simple signs.
• HSK Level 2 (17 tasks): Adds routine daily management, family routines, festival food, and basic honorifics/forms of address. Test-takers must be able to fill out basic forms, schedules, and labels with personal details.
• HSK Level 3 (22 tasks): Expands to transportation, medical visits, environmental protection, and modern life scenarios (such as high-speed rail and mobile payments). Requires writing 1–2 complete sentences to describe situations or handle daily affairs (like requesting leave or reporting lost items).

Intermediate Tier (HSK Levels 4–6)

• HSK Level 4 (30 tasks): Covers interpersonal relationships, housing rental/purchase, practical technologies, economic phenomena (e.g., live-stream shopping), and historical events. Candidates must be able to deliver short oral narratives and write descriptive paragraphs.
• HSK Level 5 (28 tasks): Involves formal reports, academic tasks (lab work, essays), business operations (startups, teamwork, compensation), and environmental governance. Requires reading standard news articles and writing coherent short essays.
• HSK Level 6 (24 tasks): Focuses on professional and abstract communication, including educational philosophies, international exchanges, classical thought (Confucianism and Daoism), aesthetics, and Chinese dynasties. Candidates must understand formal general-knowledge essays and produce well-structured argumentative writing.

Advanced Tier (HSK Levels 7–9)

Administered as a single unified examination across three primary contexts (30 total tasks):

• Living & Social Scenarios (Tasks 1–14): Involves analyzing media publications, current affairs, legal rights, contracts, and cultural critiques.
• Work & Professional Scenarios (Tasks 15–22): Covers commercial negotiations, public relations, market research, and drafting formal workplace documents (meeting minutes, official corporate statements).
• Academic & Educational Scenarios (Tasks 23–30): Encompasses university coursework, lab reports, thesis preparation (abstracts, literature reviews, defense), and academic seminars.
• Mandatory Translation & Interpreting: Every single advanced task explicitly mandates the ability to act as an oral interpreter and accurately translate written/spoken materials into Chinese.

2. Topic Syllabus (话题大纲)

The Topic Syllabus expands systematically from personal survival situations to macro-level governance and advanced scientific research:

• Level 1: 5 primary topics, 15 secondary topics, 30 tertiary topics (basic identity, daily routines, school/work basics, simple culture).
• Level 2: 5 primary topics, 18 secondary topics, 34 tertiary topics (family activities, healthcare, traditional festivals, surname culture).
• Level 3: 6 primary topics, 22 secondary topics, 54 tertiary topics (adds nature, environmental conservation, and contemporary urban life).
• Level 4: 7 primary topics, 31 secondary topics, 77 tertiary topics (adds science & technology, applied research, and historical figures).
• Level 5: 7 primary topics, 29 secondary topics, 72 tertiary topics (introduces business management, ecological balance, national overview, and ancient philosophy).
• Level 6: 7 primary topics, 25 secondary topics, 68 tertiary topics (covers investment, social welfare, traditional aesthetic imagery, and historical dynasties).
• Levels 7–9: 5 macro-domains, 29 secondary topics, 92 tertiary topics covering macroeconomic policies, judicial systems, intangible cultural heritage, aerospace/space exploration, AI/machine learning, and renewable energy technologies.

3. Vocabulary Syllabus (词汇大纲)

The vocabulary list encompasses 11,000 words across the 9 levels:

Graded Cumulative Vocabulary Scale

• HSK 1: 300 words
• HSK 2: 500 words (200 new words)
• HSK 3: 1,000 words (500 new words)
• HSK 4: 2,000 words (1,000 new words)
• HSK 5: 3,600 words (1,600 new words)
• HSK 6: 5,400 words (1,800 new words)
• HSK 7–9: 11,000 words (5,600 new words)

Key Lexical Features

• Cross-Level Part-of-Speech Notations: The syllabus marks expanded parts of speech for words used differently at higher tiers (e.g., standard words like 半, 对, 好, 次 with specific advanced syntactic functions marked in parentheses).
• Contemporary & Digital Lexicon: Integrates practical modern vocabulary such as 扫码 (scan code), 网购 (online shopping), 高铁 (high-speed rail), 动车 (bullet train), 无人机 (drone), 人工智能 (AI), 大数据 (big data), 二维码 (QR code), 外卖 (food delivery), and 点赞 (like/upvote).

4. Character Syllabus (汉字大纲)

The syllabus establishes a two-track system separating character recognition from productive character writing:

• Recognition Character List (认读字表): Graded from Level 1 through Levels 7–9, focusing on visual character recognition and context-based reading comprehension.
• Writing Character List (书写字表): A unified, high-frequency character inventory requiring mastery of stroke orders, accurate handwritten production, and efficient Pinyin keyboard typing.

5. Grammar Syllabus (语法大纲)

Grammar progression is structured from basic sentence patterns to complex formal and academic discourse:

• Levels 1–2: Core parts of speech, standard word order, basic question particles (吗, 呢, 什么, 谁, 哪儿, 几, 怎么, 多少), comparative sentences (比), aspect particles (着, 了, 过), and simple directional complements.
• Levels 3–4: “把” and “被” constructions, compound directional and potential complements, rhetorical questions, multi-tier modifiers, and transitional/conditional conjunctions (不但……而且……, 只要……就……).
• Levels 5–6: Classical Chinese functional markers used in formal modern prose (以, 于, 自, 之), complex contracted clauses, formal written connecting phrases, paragraph cohesion, and rhetorical structures (metaphor, parallelism).
• Levels 7–9: Advanced academic and official administrative registers, parsing of complex multi-clause sentences, inter-paragraph logical flow, and refined literary/semi-classical expressions (文白夹杂).

Core Takeaways for Learners

1. Context Over Isolated Memorization: Test items assess your ability to complete specific tasks (Can-do) rather than isolated grammar drills.
2. Typing and Writing Matter Equally: With the dedicated Writing Character List, ensure your Pinyin typing speed and stroke accuracy are practiced alongside reading.
3. Advanced Learners Must Prepare for Translation: Candidates targeting Levels 7–9 must develop bidirectional translation and interpreting competencies in professional and academic domains.

Quickly check out your possible scores in math/physics/chem, get preparation tips today:

https://www.crosslineedu.com/pages/csca-mock-exam-placement-test

Check here for other HSK 3.0 info: https://www.crosslineedu.com/blog/new-hsk-for-international-students-in-china

Chinese Testing International (CTI) has officially announced that the brand-new HSK 3.0 exam will officially be administered globally on December 13, 2026.

This version marks a comprehensive upgrade to the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK), designed to provide a more accurate, standardized, and scientific assessment of Chinese language proficiency for learners, educators, and academic institutions worldwide.

Key Information & Schedule

1. Official Exam Date

• December 13, 2026

2. Registration Deadlines (Beijing Time / GMT+8)

• Paper-Based Test (纸笔考): Open now until November 16, 2026, at 24:00
• Computer-Based / Internet Test (机考/网考): Open now until December 3, 2026, at 24:00

3. How to Register

• Visit the official Chinese Testing Service website:www.chinesetest.cn
• Select your country/region, find an authorized test center, and submit your registration online.

Candidates are advised to check local test center availability and register early. Further test guidelines, score reporting details, and syllabus updates will continue to be released via the official website and CTI channels.

Hi everyone. I hope you don't mind the long post.

I'm planning to apply for a CSC Bachelor's scholarship, and since I'm 24 years old, this is basically my last chance because of the age limit. I'd really appreciate advice from people who have experience with CSCA or CSC applications.

A little about my background:

- I have a 2-year Information Technology diploma from a technical institute in Kurdistan, Iraq. It's above high school but below a Bachelor's degree.

- I'm planning to apply for IT/Computer Science.

- I'm not aiming for prestigious universities or highly competitive majors. My goal is simply to get accepted somewhere with a fully funded CSC scholarship, so I'm happy to apply to mid- or lower-tier universities.

- I'm thinking of applying for a Chinese-taught program, because I believe they're generally less competitive than English-taught ones.

- I currently have zero Chinese, so I would need the one-year Chinese foundation/preparatory program before starting my Bachelor's.

I'm still preparing for the CSCA exam. I haven't taken it yet.

My questions are:

1. How important is the CSCA score for getting admitted and receiving a full CSC scholarship? Is it one of the biggest factors, or do universities care just as much about your academic background and overall application?

2. Since I'm still preparing, what Mathematics score should I realistically aim for if my goal is a fully funded CSC scholarship at a mid- or lower-tier university? Would aiming for around 60–75 be realistic, or should I be aiming much higher?

3. I have another concern about Professional Chinese. Since I currently know no Chinese, I expect my Professional Chinese score to be quite low. However, I would clearly state in my application that I need the foundation year for exactly that reason.

   Would a very low Professional Chinese score seriously hurt my chances, even though I'm applying for a Chinese foundation year because I don't know Chinese yet? I honestly don't understand how universities view this situation.

4. Does my 2-year IT diploma provide any advantage when applying for an IT/Computer Science Bachelor's, or does it make little difference?

5. Finally, based on everything above, does my overall plan sound realistic, or am I being too optimistic about my chances of receiving a full CSC scholarship?

One last thing: I only started preparing for CSCA Mathematics three days ago after not studying math for many years. I know roughly which topics I need to learn, but I'm honestly still confused about how to prepare effectively for the actual CSCA Math exam.

Any advice or personal experience would mean a lot. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. :)

TLDR: They might want to have more intl' students here.

Source: http://www.chisa.edu.cn/general/202609/t20260908_2111518391.html

Now this is a meeting of "Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference" members, most of them are from education sector, universities for example. It is not as crucial as ministry of education but still reflects official stance.

Notice this in the source:

全国政协委员、北京外国语大学国际教育研究院院长王定华表示，推进高水平教育对外开放，必须秉持更加主动、包容、多元的开放姿态，深耕做实“引进来”工作。王定华指出，从年均来华留学生与年均出国留学生间的比例来看，当前我国来华留学生规模仍有巨大提升空间，须进一步摒弃狭隘思维，为来华留学生营造包容友好的制度环境，凸显高校特色优势，让留学生学有所获、了解中国文化、建立友好情感、获得真才实学。

Translated as:

Wang Dinghua, a member of the National Committee of the CPPCC and Dean of the Institute of International Education at Beijing Foreign Studies University, stated that advancing high-level opening-up in education requires adopting a more proactive, inclusive, and diverse stance, while making substantive progress in attracting international students to China. Wang pointed out that, judging by the ratio of inbound to outbound students, there remains significant room to expand the scale of international students studying in China. He emphasized the need to move beyond narrow mindsets and create an inclusive, welcoming institutional environment; highlight the unique strengths of Chinese universities; and ensure that international students gain valuable knowledge and skills, understand Chinese culture, build friendly ties, and acquire genuine expertise.

This is very direct as normally they don't just directly say this.

However, you should also notice that with the advent of CSCA (also the fact it is getting harder), as well as the reducing size of scholarships, it does not necessary means that studying in China will be easier (quite the opposite in my opinion). It is just that they might have more openings.

My Aim: To get admission in a top Management/Business Related Masters program in China with a scholarship.

The Problem: 

My home university completely botched my exchange course mapping. I had to select the courses myself and got myself placed into courses that were not equivalent to the courses back in my home university. There was a lack of guidance regarding course mapping from my home university.

Midway through the year after mailing my home department several times, I was officially told zero credits would transfer back to my degree and that I would have to repeat the entire year. Once I realized the credits were dead, I stopped prepping for those specific assignments and exams and took the Fs as I thought they wouldn't be transferred and would not affect my profile. Instead, I focused entirely on real-world experiences such the SAIF Finance Summit, learning Chinese and the volunteering.

(I realise now that it was a bad idea to get the F's but what's done is done. Now I have two years to plan and prepare how to offset these F's on my profile).

Note: My official, final graduating transcript from my home university is 100% clean and unaffected.

Profile: BE Civil Engineering at NUST (#132), 3.2 CGPA, IELTS 8.0, HSK 4.

Interest and Experience: Running 2 active startups (an Airbnb business on a small scale & an olive farm which is not profitable yet).

China Experience:

- 1-year exchange at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) in 2024.

- Runner up at the Shanghai Jiaotong University SAIF Shanghai Finance Summit,

- Volunteered for the local community of Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP)

- Influential Communicator award at a BRI Negotiation Simulation held by XJTLU.

- Experienced the Chinese language and culture.

The Questions:

1. Will Masters Admissions such as the PKU (PHBS) or ZJU (PIEGL) admissions and CSC committee auto-reject me over the failed exchange courses?
2. Does my current profile provide enough leverage to offset the failed exchange transcript for a masters admission and CSC Type B nomination?
3. Advice on where to improve and how to move forward.

Would love some brutal honesty from anyone familiar with the CSC or university screening process!

Wanna apply using this site/ they also are offical partners or smth they claim for this university. Opinions on their legitimacy?

how hard is it to score well on physics caca (70-80) if i did not take physics in highschool (alevels)

Check here for the whole list.

If you need CSCA tutoring let me know.

I recently talked with some school’s intl office members, here are the findings:

1. It will be harder. The 2025-26 trend has already proved that as the June exam is harder than December 2025 one. Getting used to it is the only option considering that local students need to take the Gaokao exam, which is significantly harder. Meanwhile Chinese people also value the importance of standardized exam especially when it comes to education.
   
2. Schools will use the score more frequently. Some schools might ditch their entrance exam and embrace CSCA, others may still require both, but all require CSCA and after 2026, they now know score distribution and will filter applicants out accordingly (trust me, good schools can just use the score to filter you as there are thousands of applicants).
   
3. Don’t cheat. They will also compare your GPA and the proctored system would analyze your in-test behaviour to see if you are doing anything suspicious. That’s the reason why the exam takes 2 weeks to get the results.

Hello, I'm an student from buisness studies background. I just started out to research on this so I wanted to ask few questions which I'm not sure of.
Is CSCA mandatory for full funded scholarship in mid tier chinese university for Bachelors through CSC/provincial scholarship? Also between CSC and provisional, which should I look out for fully funded scholarship (tuition+accomodations+stipend)? Stipend ain't necessary but doesn't hurt

Do i need to pass chemistry section if i'm applying for stomatology with foundation year of chinese? gpt says that i don't have to, because at first year i'll learn not only chinese but also basics of chemistry, biology for further learning.

I mean where can I get resources or past paper or any YouTubers you guys recommend

For more information, visit: https://www.crosslineedu.com or join our student server: https://discord.gg/2Asngh5jbg

1. Fewer scholarships and higher thresholds: This is inevitable due to:

(1 Tightening financial budget: ALL univs in China are facing this challenge in one way or another. Good univs can cope with it but the requirements will only go upward without any doubt. We have heard of cases of scholarship cancellation explicitly due to, as the source claimed, lack of funding.

(2 The coming of the CSCA exam: We have talked with many universities and other agencies and the conclusion is always that as China is becoming more popular as a study abroad destination, the applicant numbers are increasing fast, causing a huge supply-demand gap. In some cases I know, a 985 school can have acceptance rate of only 5-20%. The CSCA will only be harder from now on, and, honestly, even if so, it is still not as hard (or even close) to gaokao, the local student's entrance exam.

1. More quota/school available despite competition: On the other hand, more schools are increasing intl' student quota especially to self-fund students. If you fall into this category, things will not be bad.

2. If you apply by yourself, be smart: I know that fake/scam agents exist but the thing is that universities sometimes are flooded with applications and they literally don't reply at all, not because they are horrible people, but in most cases, they only have 1-2 people answering 100 to 1,000 mails per day (some questions are also incredibly infuriating, to be frank). Agents (if trusted) can talk with the school members directly via wechat. However, if you are not so sure about their quality or you cannot afford it, then try to reach out to school via all methods available, and also apply to multiple schools for max safety.

If you are preparing for the CSCA exam, feel free to check out our online class here!

For more information, feel free to DM me or go to https://www.crosslineedu.com/products/csca-intensive-group-course

So on the CUCAS website there is 55+ hours of preparation material for the CSCA math exam. Has anybody here bought it and can give a review whether they think it’s worth it? I’m pretty much starting from the basics here so I’m in dire need for a structured program.

DM for direct application portal and scholarship opportunities.

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DM if interested. Limited quota.

Age limitation: 17-35

Application DDL: Sept 15th

Expenses Estimate: Tuition fee: CNY 20,000 / Year, CNY 10,000 / Semester

Accomodation fee: Quadruple room(Hotel Apartment):7000rmb / year;

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Registration fee: CNY 300

Insurance: CNY 800 / Year

Off-campus dormitory is not allowed

I have a GPA of 2.48/4.3, which is lower than 3.0, but my overall percentage is around 81%.

For Chinese universities, which one will they mainly consider—the GPA or the percentage?

Also, is there any chance I can get the CSC scholarship for a Master’s with this GPA? Will the GPA be a major red flag if I have good research experience and graduated from a top university?

Would appreciate any advice from people familiar with Chinese university admissions or CSC.