How to Recruit International Students from China?

If you’ve found your way to this page, chances are you’re an international recruitment officer, a university marketer, or a strategist grappling with one of higher education’s most critical questions: how to genuinely connect with and attract top talents from China. Sit back, buckle your seat belt – because we are in for a deep dive.
 
In today’s fiercely competitive world of global higher education, “international student recruitment China” and “university marketing China” have become major buzzwords. According to UNESCO statistics, the annual number of Chinese students studying at higher education institutions abroad reached 1.052 million in 2022, accounting for 15.3% of the global international student population. China is the biggest source of international students, and universities worldwide are eager to attract top talent from this vast pool of students. But when it comes to effective student recruitment in China, passion and enrollment targets are not nearly enough. To truly succeed, you have to genuinely understand the reality and needs of today’s Chinese youth.
 
Having worked in the education industry for over a decade, Jeffery has had a front-row seat to the dramatic shifts in China’s academic and employment landscapes. Right here in this article, we will unpack these trends for you. Our goal is to provide a practical guide for university admissions officers and marketing heads – perhaps like yourself – helping you avoid common pitfalls and get better results.
 

The guide is organised in 3 parts. First, we’ll take a look at the status quo and challenges facing China’s university graduates today. Second, their core motivations for pursuing higher education (including studying abroad). And finally, we’ll present to you some of the most effective strategies and channels that universities should be using. Whether you’re new to the Chinese market or looking to optimise your university’s current strategies, these insights will help you better understand and attract the China students you’re looking for.

Part I: The Status Quo and Challenges as a China Student

Ultimately, what most people truly want is just a happy life. The same goes for the students in China. To them, happiness entails a stable income, a well-respected profession: all of which should have been guaranteed, as long as they are willing to invest at least 4 years of their lives to obtain a university degree…right?

The truth, however, is this: life isn’t so rosy for China students right now.

Long Story Short: They Can’t Get a Job

In recent years, the number of university graduates in China has repeatedly hit record highs, intensifying the competition for jobs. In 2023, approximately 11.58 million students graduated, a number that grew to 11.79 million in 2024. Projections for 2025 forecast an all-time high of 11.86 million new graduates. Let’s pause for a moment to consider these figures. This is roughly equivalent to the entire population of Belgium graduating and entering the job market every single year, and there simply aren’t enough jobs to absorb them all.

Data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics reveals that in June 2023, the urban youth unemployment rate hit a staggering new high of 21.3%. Less than 60% of 2023’s undergraduate graduates were employed six months after graduation. Things are looking so dire that the government temporarily stopped releasing these data. When they finally resumed, they had to tweak their methodology just to make the numbers look a bit better.

Despite these (somewhat sketchy) efforts, the situation continued to worsen, and almost 1 in 5 Chinese youths unable to secure a job. Many of them graduated from very good universities. This would have been unimaginable in the past. But to China students of today, tertiary education is no longer that gold ticket to a good career and a happy life.

So What Do China Youths Do, When Unemployed?

Their strategies are pretty limited. When the job market gets tough, you see a predictable pivot to a few key areas.

For some, it’s about just getting by. They resort to freelance gigs and “flexible employment”, which sometimes is an euphemism for signing up with Didi or Meituan, China’s equivalent of Uber and Uber Eats. It’s an honest way to earn a living, but it’s certainly not what most students envisioned after years of studying.

The more ambitious ones, therefore, aren’t willing to settle. Instead of facing the brutal private sector, they’re spending years preparing for civil service exams. When the economy is volatile, the promise of stability in the public sector—the “iron rice bowl”—becomes more appealing than ever. A recent Zhaopin.com survey found that an astounding 73.1% of students hope to work for a state-owned enterprise or government body after graduation. The worse the job market gets, the more young people crave a sense of security.

But here’s the reality: only a small fraction—in fact, roughly 1 in 70—of these hopeful graduates actually land one of these coveted public sector jobs. And for many, becoming a rideshare driver or delivery man just isn’t the future they want upon graduation. So, what happens to the rest?

The answer is: they look to pursue a Master’s degree.

“Graduating Straight into Graduate School”

After all, the economy is cyclical. When they happen to graduate at a time when things look pessimistic, students often choose to pursue a Master’s degree, which hopefully helps to tide things out by effectively delaying their entry into the workforce by a few years

A popular saying has emerged in the last couple of years: “Graduating straight into graduate school.” Indeed, many students begin their intense exam preparation for graduate school before they even receive their undergraduate degrees, with some starting to research relevant courses and programmes at their own and other universities as early as in their penultimate year as a college junior.

According to a report from the China Youth Daily, over 80% of 2024’s graduating class applied for graduate school. The New Oriental’s 2023 Postgraduate Enrollment Data Interpretation Report also states that from 2010 to 2023, the number of graduate school applicants in China increased by an average of 250,000 per year, with nearly 4.74 million applicants in 2023 alone. This is utterly unimaginable to China a decade ago, when graduate studies were more of a niche choice. Now, it is the new normal.

And this leads to another bitter consequence that makes the situation even more unusual – and not in a good way.

Traditionally, it’s a given that there should be more people without a degree than those with one. And within the degree-holding population, those with a graduate degree, like a Master’s or a Ph.D., should be fewer than those with a Bachelor’s. This relative scarcity is supposed to reflect a difference in skill, which in turn leads to a difference in pay. After all, the labour market should follow the law of supply and demand, right?

But in China, a bizarre situation has emerged. Due to the massive enrollment of university graduates frustrated with the job hunting process “flooding” the Master’s programmes, there are now more postgraduates than undergraduates in China.

This is what’s being called “degree inflation”.

The Unending Cycle of “Degree Inflation”

Consider the data from major cities. In Beijing in 2023, for the very first time, the number of Master’s and Ph.D. graduates surpassed the number of bachelor’s degree holders. Out of approximately 296,000 university graduates, more than 160,000 were postgraduates, compared to about 137,000 undergraduates. This trend is also evident in other major cities like Shanghai, and even in China’s top research universities.

This means, in the most economically developed parts of China, we’re witnessing more Master’s students entering the job market than those with a “basic” Bachelor’s. When their salary expectations are not too drastically different, how is the latter going to compete?

This is the grim reality of China’s education system right now. While a Master’s or Ph.D. no longer guarantees a secure future, a Bachelor’s is simply no longer enough. As the number of highly educated individuals swells, the value of those qualifications has degraded, making it even harder for young people to stand out in a crowded market. There’s now a general sentiment in the air: “Now everyone has to get a master’s degree. If you don’t, you won’t find a job.”

And that is, unfortunately, true.

Why This Means Opportunity for Your University

Simply put: China students need a Master’s degree to stay employable. But the problem is, not all of them can get one at home. The law of supply and demand is at play once again: there are far more applicants than available spots.

According to New Oriental’s 2024 Chinese University Student Graduate School White Paper, the application-to-admission ratio for graduate school in 2023 was 5.7:1, with an admission rate of just 16.7%. This means that more than 80% of applicants “run the race in vain,” leaving them to either enter the job market or try again. In fact, some students spend up to three years preparing for their postgraduate entrance exams full-time, just for a single shot at admission.

In response to this phenomenon, China has been expanding its postgraduate education. Since 2020, the number of master’s and Ph.D. admissions has grown annually, with a more than 10% increase in Ph.D. enrollment within two years. On one hand, this expansion is meant to meet the economy’s demand for high-level talent. On the other hand, it serves as an outlet to ease the pressure on undergraduate employment.

Mind you, drastically increasing that expansion rate would be the last option on the government’s agenda, as it would only lead to more “degree inflation”; let’s hope we’ve learnt that lesson. But this also means that such meagre expansion rate is definitely not enough to meet the overwhelming demand.

It therefore follows, that many of those who are interested in a Master’s degree but cannot get one in China, will look overseas for an option.

And, if you play the cards right, the programmes at your university may be up for consideration.

Part II: China Student’s Motivations for Studying Abroad

With this complex picture of their challenges in mind, let us take one final moment to synthesise these insights. After all, it is from this place of empathetic understanding that the most effective and authentic recruitment strategies are born.

What we have discussed so far – the immediate headlines of job shortages and degree inflation – are already quite intense. Yet, they are merely symptoms of deeper, more profound pressures, shaped by a complex web of personal duty, familial expectation, and societal shifts.

A Storm on the Horizon: The Demographic Imperative

Looming over the immediate challenge of finding a job is a far larger, generational storm: China’s rapidly ageing population. China’s population aged over 60 has now surpassed 280 million, accounting for nearly 20% of the total, pushing the nation into a deep-ageing society by UN standards (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2023).

For China students, this is not a distant policy concern; it is the lived reality of their future. The legacy of the one-child policy has created the “4-2-1” family structure, where a single child will ultimately bear the financial and emotional weight of supporting 2 parents and 4 grandparents. They are the “sandwich generation”, caught between a deep-seated tradition of filial piety and the harsh economic headwinds that make honouring it an immense challenge. Supporting themselves is difficult enough; supporting an entire family tree can feel like an impossible task.

Too Tired to Compete, Too Pressured to Quit

This demographic reality, combined with a slowing economy, intensifies personal anxiety. China’s GDP growth has fallen from 14.2% in 2007 to just 5.2% in 2023, reflecting a structural slowdown that weighs heavily on young people’s outlook. The era of miraculous double-digit growth, which defined their parents’ generation, now feels like a distant memory. When the economic “cake” stops growing, the competition for a slice becomes a counterproductive rat race. Effort shifts from collective progress to a zero-sum struggle, often at the expense of personal well-being.

This is the source of a quiet desperation among the young. Frustrated and lost, they often find themselves getting caught in an exhausting oscillation between two cultural phenomena: the desire to “lie flat” (躺平, tǎng píng), a term for completely checking out of the relentless competition, and the compulsion to engage in “involution” (内卷, nèijuǎn), the very hyper-competitive, burnout-inducing cycle they deep down wish to escape.

They are, in essence, searching for a third option. For a growing number, an overseas Master’s degree represents exactly that. It is more than a qualification; it is a path forward that can break this deadlock. To connect with China students, you must first appreciate this context. Your message must resonate with their search for a solution and offer a credible alternative to the pressures they face at home.

The Search for Hope: China Students Looking Abroad

This deep-seated need for a breakthrough channels into a clear set of drivers for pursuing higher education abroad.

1. Investing in Themselves

The intense competition at home drives a powerful instinct for self-improvement. The common wisdom, “the more skills you have, the safer you are,” has never felt more relevant. For many China students, pursuing a postgraduate degree is a strategic decision to gain an edge.

While the domestic postgraduate entrance exam is one path, the competition can be too intense, and studying abroad is often seen as an effective way to build a differentiated profile. A degree from a respected international university, combined with language skills and cross-cultural experience, is a valued asset in China’s job market. To China students, it is a conscious choice to invest in oneself, a calculated move to ensure that when they do enter the workforce, they do so from a position of strength. In their own words, “Instead of lying flat, it is better to upgrade yourself.”

2. The Path to a World-class Education

While China has excellent universities, admission to the very top tier—the likes of Tsinghua and Peking University—is incredibly competitive. For many high-achieving students from good family backgrounds, studying at a leading university in Europe, the UK, Australia, Singapore or North America is a viable and more accessible route to a world-class education.

China students are drawn by the reputation for academic rigour, the cutting-edge research opportunities, and the promise of a more flexible and interactive learning environment. This is particularly true for specialised or interdisciplinary fields that may be more developed overseas. The desire for a top-tier education is a powerful pull factor that your institution’s academic strengths can directly address in the admission process and China-facing recruitment campaigns.

3. It’s All About Real-world Skills

Unlike previous generations who may have valued a degree for its prestige alone, today’s China students are intensely practical. They evaluate a Master’s programme on its ability to equip them with tangible, job-ready skills.

There is a clear preference for courses with strong industry links, built-in internship opportunities, and a focus on practical application, particularly in STEM fields. They value the flexibility to pivot to new areas of study and acquire skills they did not have a chance to learn during their undergraduate years. In their eyes, soft skills like cross-cultural communication and advanced English proficiency are not just by-products of studying abroad; they are essential capital for their future careers.

4. The Bottom Line: a Ladder to a Future Career

Increasingly, the first questions a Chinese student will ask about a postgraduate programme are: “Does this course include an internship?” and “What are the employment outcomes for its graduates?” Hands down, the focus on employability is absolute. And this is something you should be ready to answer as you manage the China-facing campaigns.

For this reason, programmes that are closely integrated with industry, have strong partnerships with major companies, or offer robust career support services are exceptionally attractive. If your university provides dedicated career counselling, strong alumni networks, and clear pathways to internships, these are not minor details: they are critical selling points. Highlighting these practical, career-focused benefits will resonate powerfully with a China student who is frustrated with the murky realities back at home and driven by the need for certainty.

In essence, whether they are looking to escape the domestic rat race or to pivot to a new field with better prospects, the underlying motivation for China students is this: the search for hope, for a more secure, promising future.

For the recruitment campaigns of international universities, the key to success lies in understanding these drivers. By aligning your programme’s unique strengths with these specific pain points and aspirations, you can craft a message that not only reaches China students but truly connects.

In our final part, we will explore the practical strategies to put these insights into action.

Part III: Here’s the China Marketing Playbook. No Gatekeeping.

We’ve looked at the background, and tried our best to understand their woes. We now turn to the most important question: what should your university actually do, to attract China students for your Master’s programmes?

The key to effective student recruitment in China is a fundamental shift in perspective: you need to start communicating what the China students care about. It means standing in their shoes, walking in their skin, and presenting your university’s values in a language and context that truly resonates. Only then can you cut through the noise and build a distinctive, competitive advantage.

What follows is not vague theories but a practical playbook based on years of on-the-ground experience in China. We will cover four key pillars: Content, Channels, Credibility, and Communication.

Content Strategy: Speak What They Care About in Their Language

First, let’s talk about your message. Many overseas universities make one of two critical errors in their content for China. The first is simply translating their English content, resulting in awkward, official-sounding language. The second is listing generic strengths, with little specific relevance to the audience.

Needless to say, this approach will not take you very far. To truly capture the attention of China students in recruitment campaigns, your content must be built on a foundation of targeted topic selection and genuine empathy.

1. They Are Looking for a Future, So Talk to Them About One

Your content must directly address the core pain points and aspirations we have already discussed. A Chinese student is not primarily concerned with when your university was founded, or the credentials of your faculty. These are all important, helpful information, sure. But at the end of the day, they want to know if an education with you will secure them a better future.

Your content topics should readily reflect this. Instead of a generic article about your business school, write one titled: “Why 95% of Our Finance Graduates Land Jobs at Top Firms.” Instead of a simple welcome message, create a video series: “What Is Working in London Really Like? A Day in the Life with Our Chinese Alumni.” For the millions anxious about the domestic entrance exam, such targeted articles will be far more effective than any general overview.

2. Localisation Is King. Machine Translation? Big No-no

Your tone and style must be localised. This does not mean you should litter your posts with unprofessional internet slang. It means writing in a natural, approachable, and personal way that avoids stiff, official language, while retaining the gravitas appropriate for a university. Address their concerns directly and create a dialogue.

Localisation also doesn’t equal to translation. And, despite all the development we see in AI, machine translation is not going to work. You may not be able to tell the difference if you are not proficient in Mandarin/Chinese, but it’s glaringly obvious to the eye of a native speaker. Investing in a solid, professional human translation is crucial.

We have seen the websites of reputable institutions that use jarring, nonsensical machine translations. This immediately undermines their credibility and makes them seem unprofessional and unreliable. It comes off as “not caring enough” to put more effort into the content they put out there. This would severely damage your brand image in China.

3. Stories Are More Powerful Than Taglines

In today’s information-saturated world, generic programme descriptions are easily ignored. High-quality, original, and in-depth content is what stands out.

Instead of just listing facts, tell stories. Conduct in-depth interviews with your current Chinese students and alumni, and share their journeys in long-form articles. If possible, invite a Programme Director or a Dean to write an open letter to prospective Chinese students, explaining how the course is specifically designed to help them succeed. This type of content, rich with personal narrative and genuine insight, shows that you are truly invested in communicating with them, not just marketing to them. While doing this, you can naturally weave in important keywords like “international career opportunities” or “hands-on internship,” which helps with search engine visibility without sounding robotic.

4. Engage with People to Make Your Content Relatable

Your content must be visually engaging and, above all, relatable. Use photos, infographics, and short videos to make your points more digestible and powerful. A simple chart showing the career destinations of your graduates is more convincing than a dense paragraph of text.

When choosing visuals, prioritise authenticity. Instead of another perfectly manicured shot of an empty campus lawn, show the smiling faces of your current Chinese students at a society event, in the lab, or exploring the city. Short-form video is particularly powerful—consider creating a “day in the life” vlog with a Chinese student or having a professor record a short welcome video (a simple “你好” or “欢迎” can go a long way).

In short, your goal is to make the student feel, “This is relevant to me,” not just, “That looks nice“. The core of your content strategy can be summarised in one sentence: make your story relevant to the China student. Answer the questions they are asking, address the concerns they have, and do it in a way that feels comfortable and familiar to them. Strong content is the foundation of everything that follows; get it right, and you will build a reputation that marketing slogans alone never can.

Channel Strategy: Meet Them Where They Are

What’s the point in creating good content, if it never reaches your audience? The next step is to deliver your message on the platforms where Chinese students actually spend their time.

Let us be perfectly clear: expect some cognitive overload here. Because China’s internet is a completely separate ecosystem.

Due to the “Great Firewall”, the platforms you know well in the West—Google, Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and WhatsApp—are all inaccessible. To succeed in reaching the Chinese audience, your university must “go native” and build a presence on China’s dominant social media channels. This is the only way to establish an official source of information, build brand awareness, and connect with China students.

Here are the essential platforms where your university needs to be.

1. WeChat: The King of Chinese Apps

It can be difficult to explain to a non-Chinese person just exactly what WeChat is. Because there’s nothing like it in the West. Let’s put it this way: when Elon Musk took over X/Twitter in 2022, he wanted to rebrand the platform and create an all-inclusive “everything app”. And where did he get the inspiration from? You guessed it: WeChat.

Sometimes referred to as a “super app” or “mega-app”, WeChat allows users to carry out multiple functions without having to leave the app. For example. WeChat is primarily an instant messaging app like WhatsApp or Line, sure, but it is so much more. It has its own social media functionalities, as well as short videos, e-commerce, payment and banking. Think of a WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Amazon and PayPal all-in-one. In fact, it can even function as a really convenient RSS reader (we’ll get more into that later).

So, WeChat is basically the operating system of daily life in China. Its monthly active users stand at 1.385 billion as of March 2025. And, mind you, the whole of China has a population size of 1.4 billion people. It would be an understatement to say “everyone in China uses WeChat”. The more accurate description is that it would be quite impossible, for a Chinese person, to live without.

What does this mean for your marketing campaign? It means China students are here. Their parents are here. And other schools, your competitors, are here. WeChat is not optional. If you’re serious about establishing a long-term presence in China, it is a must-have.

When it comes to attracting China students in a recruitment campaign, a few functionalities are of particular importance:

WeChat Official Account:

This is your official blog and newsletter. “Blog? Who reads blogs these days?” — Well, the people in China really do. WeChat users subscribe to Official Accounts, and it kind of works like an RSS reader. WeChat is where they catch up with the daily news and current affairs. Official Account articles are often the first thing they read every day.

For a University in the West, the go-to way to retain relationships and connect with students, parents or other stakeholders is often email newsletters. This unfortunately does not work in China, because the Chinese population do not use email. If you ask your friends from China, they’ll tell you that many of them do not even have a proper email address. Therefore, WeChat Official Account is the marketing pathway to go if your university wishes to stay connected to prospects and alumni alike.

Your WeChat, in a sense, also acts as your de facto Chinese website. Because – you may have sensed the pattern by now – people in China access the internet through their phone much, much more than via a desktop PC or a laptop. Therefore, mobile applications such as WeChat, which are more native and better integrated with their mobile phones, are dominating China’s tech scene.

Your WeChat Official Account is where many China students and their parents will look for authoritative information. If they cannot find you on WeChat, they will have to rely on unofficial (and potentially inaccurate) online chatter. You should aim to publish in-depth Chinese articles regularly; 1 article per week is a good start. Your followers receive a notification for each new post, making it a powerful tool for building a loyal audience.

WeChat Channels:

Your short video platform within the WeChat ecosystem. Your Chinese, WeChat equivalent of TikTok. Given how popular video contents are these days, universities are often using Channels to engage with the China audience.

WeChat Moments Ad

Moments is the WeChat equivalent of Facebook and/or Instagram. This is where you spend time and attention scrolling through the feeds to stay connected with friends, family, colleagues, and everyone else you know. And for marketers and advertisers, attention is all they need. Just as Meta makes billions from Facebook ads, Moments Ad is also a cash cow for Tencent. Jeffery has run lead awareness and conversion campaigns via Moments Ad, and it works wonders. You can check out past cases here:

There are many other functionalities embedded within the WeChat ecosystem, such as WeChat mini-programs, etc. But this should be enough just to get you started. Let’s move on to the next platform.

2. RedNote (Xiaohongshu): Where Gen-Z Discover and Talk About You

Think of RedNote (Xiaohongshu) as a powerful blend of Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, and, to a certain extent, Google. What makes RedNote stand apart from other Chinese social networking alternatives, is its abundant, authentic user generated content, thanks to a strictly regulated community culture that encourages genuine sharing over vested marketing and promotion.

With over 200 million monthly active users, it is where young Chinese people discover, research and share about everything under the sun. From skincare brands to study destinations, RedNote’s got you covered. They use it as a search engine (which explains the Google comparison earlier) to find authentic, peer-to-peer reviews of universities and specific courses from other Chinese students.

Essentially, this is where the conversations happen. And you should be a part of that.

As a part of your China student recruitment campaign, your university should have an official account on RedNote to share relevant, visually appealing content. Vibrant campus life, check. Guides for new international students, check. Programme highlights, dean’s messages, inspiring alumni stories, check and check.

The key to success on RedNote is authenticity. Avoid hard advertising and instead adopt the tone of a helpful mentor/senior sharing genuine advice and stories. Make sure your content is light, informative, helpful and engaging. At the end of the day, it’s worth the effort, because a well-managed RedNote account could be one of your primary drivers for brand building and lead generation when it comes to China students. And of course, you can run recruitment ads too.

3. Other China platforms to consider

Depending on your resources, you can also explore other major platforms. Douyin (China’s version of TikTok) is perfect for short, engaging videos. Weibo (similar to X/Twitter) is useful for official announcements and public interaction. Bilibili (China’s YouTube) is the home of long-form video, ideal for posting lectures, webinars, or in-depth campus tours.

A word of caution: it is better to manage one or two channels excellently than to manage five poorly. For most universities, WeChat and Xiaohongshu offer the best return on investment and are the essential starting point. Only expand to other platforms if you have the budget and a sustainable content plan. An official account that sits silent and unmanaged does more harm to your brand image than having no account at all.

To conclude, establishing an official presence on China’s key platforms is not just a marketing tactic for your university; it is a necessity. It allows you to truly engage with China students during the admissions season and control your own narrative rather than leaving your reputation to scattered, unofficial online comments.

However, it is crucial to understand that China’s internet is highly regulated. Registering official accounts requires a verification process, and all content must comply with local laws and regulations. To navigate this complex landscape smoothly and ensure full compliance, we strongly recommend partnering with a local specialist (like Jeffery Group).

Once these platforms are established, you will have built the essential bridges to communicate directly with your future students, setting a firm foundation for all your recruitment marketing efforts in China.

Building Credibility: How to Be Seen and Trusted in China

So, you have created brilliant, empathetic content and established your presence on the right channels. The next step is to amplify your message and build a reputation that makes your university a trusted choice for prospective students and their families.

This requires a two-pronged approach: proactively building your profile through Chinese media, and ensuring you are highly visible and reputable when someone searches for you. This is about building brand awareness and, most importantly, credibility in the Chinese digital space.

1. Advertorials: Leveraging on China’s Most Respected News Brands

Advertorials are great for establishing credibility. It can be in the form of a news story, an in-depth interview. It is more powerful than a traditional advertisement, as it feels more objective, more credible, and is more likely to be read and shared.

Your university should collaborate with China’s most respected media outlets to publish these editorial-style pieces. Imagine a headline like, “How XX University’s New Programme is Preparing Chinese Graduates for the Global Tech Industry”, featuring your institution appearing in an authoritative outlet like People.cn or China Daily Online. Essentially, you’re leveraging on the well-established brands of Chinese news outlets to provide a powerful endorsement that you cannot get elsewhere.

The key is to provide genuine value in your articles; avoid overt blatant self-promotion, and instead share insightful stories or useful information. Once published, be sure to share these articles across your own channels to maximise their impact.

2. Be seen on Baidu

In China, Baidu is Google. It is the dominant search engine, and what appears in its search results is, for all intents and purposes, your university’s digital first impression. There are two things you should take note when it comes to Baidu.

First and foremost, of course: search engine optimisation. Just as Google SEO is essentially today’s digital lifeline, when someone searches for “XX University fees” or “XX University rankings,” you’d want your official website and positive articles to appear at the top, not a random collection of forum posts. Create dedicated pages on your Chinese website that target these common search terms. A smart Baidu SEO strategy, including keyword optimisation and building links with other reputable sites, is critical. Furthermore, have a presence in the broader Baidu ecosystem, such as answering questions about your university on Baidu Zhidao (its version of Quora).

Another thing that may be interesting to consider is: Baidu Baike. This is China’s Wikipedia. When Chinese students hear of a university for the first time, they may look it up via Baidu. Out of the various results, they’d gravitate towards reading the Baike page first. An outdated, incomplete, or non-existent entry is a red flag that raises doubts about your institution’s legitimacy. You must create and maintain a comprehensive Baike page with your official history, key programmes, notable alumni, and other essential facts. Think of it as your official, authoritative reference point.

Ultimately, this work is about cultivating a positive online ecosystem for your brand. When a student researches your university, you want the overwhelming impression to be: “This is a legitimate, well-regarded institution.” For universities that are not yet well-known in China, leverage your associations can also be helpful to building initial familiarity.

This is a long-term investment in your brand’s “invisible asset.” Over time, you will see the density and quality of positive information about your university increase across the Chinese internet. This is invaluable, because Chinese students and their parents are meticulous researchers. They will search for everything they can find online before making a decision. Your job is to ensure they like what they see.

Communicating with China Students: From Awareness to Conversion

This is the final, crucial step in the recruitment journey. You have captured a student’s interest with great content on the right platforms. Now, how do you convert that interest into a successful application?

Static web pages and downloadable brochures are not enough. In a market that values service and responsiveness, timely and personal interaction is essential. The key is to lower the barrier to communication by using the tools and formats that Chinese students use every single day.

1. Go Live: Your Most Powerful Conversion Tool

While in-person events have their place, online information sessions can reach prospective students across the entire country. Chinese students are very accustomed to attending virtual lectures and seminars.

The platform of choice is Tencent Meeting (known internationally as VooV Meeting). It is the standard for business and education in China, requires no VPN, is accessible via a mobile WeChat Mini Program, and has a familiar interface. Announce your session on WeChat and Xiaohongshu, and allow students to register with a simple link or QR code.

Your session should feature programme details, insights from professors, and stories from successful alumni, followed by a live Q&A. A face-to-face interaction, even a virtual one, does more to build trust and resolve doubts than any static webpage ever could.

2. If They Can’t Add You on WeChat, You’ve Already Lost Them

We cannot stress this enough: you must have a one-to-one chat channel on WeChat. The best tool for this is WeCom (Weixin Work), the official, business-grade version of WeChat. It allows your admissions staff to connect with students using a verified corporate identity, without the limitations of a personal account.

Your WeCom QR code should be prominently displayed on your website and social media. For a student, adding an admissions officer on WeChat to ask a quick question in Chinese is the most natural and convenient thing in the world. It is infinitely less intimidating than drafting a formal email in English.

Think about the user experience. A student gets excited about your university on Xiaohongshu, adds your WeCom account, and gets a friendly, helpful response within hours. Their enthusiasm is high, and they are likely to apply. Now imagine the alternative: they fill out a web form and get an automated email two weeks later. By then, their passion has likely cooled. In today’s digital world, instant communication is a competitive advantage.

3. The Little Things Are The Big Things: Localise Your Support

Small details in the later stages of the application process can make a huge difference. Using familiar technology shows that you understand and respect your applicants.

Conduct online interviews using Tencent Meeting or WeChat, not platforms like Zoom that may require students to use an unstable VPN. Provide Chinese-language guides for navigating your application portal or for complex processes like applying for a visa. Once students have been admitted, create a dedicated WeChat group for them to connect with each other, ask questions, and prepare for their journey together. This thoughtful, end-to-end support makes them feel truly welcomed.

4. Your Best Ambassadors Are Already on Campus

One of the most effective and lowest-cost strategies is to activate your network of current Chinese students and alumni. Their voices are incredibly credible because they offer an authentic “student’s perspective.”

Involve them in your live info sessions. Encourage them to share their experiences on social media. You can even facilitate private, informal chats between them and your most promising applicants. WeCom even allows you to certify them as official “Campus Ambassadors” to assist your admissions team. Time and again, we have seen that these student volunteers are the most persuasive and powerful advocates a university can have.

Conclusion: From Transaction to Trust

Winning over Chinese students in today’s market requires more than just a good reputation; it requires a great experience. From the very first moment they discover you, their journey should feel convenient, efficient, and genuinely welcoming.

By investing in an empathetic, localised strategy—from the content you create and the channels you use, to the credibility you build and the communication you offer—you do more than just recruit a student. You build a relationship.

A student who has a positive and seamless experience from their first enquiry to their first day on campus is likely to share that story online, becoming a powerful advocate for your brand. This creates a virtuous cycle, where happy students attract the next generation of talented applicants. This is how you build a sustainable and successful recruitment programme in China.