About 20,000 students and parents crowded into the Shanghai East Asia Exhibition Hall on Saturday to learn more about overseas study opportunities at the 2006 China Education Expo.

 

Many of the schools and students taking part in the event said it was too packed, giving students little chance to talk one-on-one with university officials.

 

For the first time ever, a group of 13 universities from northern Europe took part in the event. The schools from the Barents Euro-Arctic Region, which includes the northern part of Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia, put up booths in the exhibition hall to recruit international students with free tuition and low cash requirements.

 

Students with a good command of English only have to show they can cover living costs ranging from 300 euros (US$378) to 800 euros a month, far lower than the cash requirements needed to study in many other developed countries. Many students have been denied visas to study in America or other countries because they can't prove they can cover their living expenses while in school -- a fact the northern European schools are hoping will help them attract students.

 

"We are here to put us on the map, telling students that we also deliver high quality English-language courses," said Harri Malinen, international relations director at the University of Lapland in Finland.

 

This year's fair also attracted the largest Japanese delegation in the event's history, with 22 universities taking part, according to the China Education Association for International Exchange, which organized the event.

 

"There are too many people. A foreign teacher was always surrounded with crowds of inquirers and even lookers-on," said Zhou Fei, a student at Shanghai University.

 

Jeff Streeter, culture and education consul at the British Consulate General in Shanghai, noted that since all information about schools attending the fair is available online the fair has been very successful at raising the visibility of universities taking part.

 

(Shanghai Daily October 23, 2006)