Prestigious Chinese University Removes English Graduation Exam

Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), a prestigious university located in the capital city of Shaanxi province in China, has removed English proficiency exams as a graduation requirement.

In a statement released on Wednesday, September 20, the university said that students would no longer be required to pass a national standardized English exam or any other English exams to earn their bachelor’s degrees, Erudera.com reports.

According to media reports, the announcement sparked reactions in social media, with many individuals applauding the decision and urging other universities to follow.

In a Weibo post, a Chinese influencer with 6 million followers, said that as China continues to develop, English proficiency does not have the same level of importance. He argues it is now the time for foreigners to start learning Chinese, the CNN reports.

“English is very important, but with the development of China, English is no longer that important. It is also the turn of foreigners to learn Chinese,” he said.

“Those who feel they need English should continue to learn it. Those who feel that they do not need English, do not need to waste so much energy learning it,” he went on.

Most Chinese universities have required students to pass a nationwide standardized test for many years. The first time the requirement was introduced was in 1987; nonetheless, it was never adopted as a policy by the Chinese government.

A similar action was taken in Shanghai in 2021. Back then, authorities in the city ordered elementary schools not to continue holding final exams in English in an effort to ease the academic pressure on students.

Xi’an Jiaotong University is one of the oldest universities in China and operates under the direct administration of the Chinese Ministry of Education.

The institution was established in 1896 as Shanghai-based Nanyang College. It changed its name to Jiaotong University in 1921. Today, XJTU has 44,325 full-time students, including 20,958 undergraduate students and 21,383 postgraduates.

With a 120-year history, the university also attracts many international students from different countries. In 2019, some 3,000 international students from a total of 141 countries chose to pursue education at Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Currently, there are nearly 2,000 international students at the university.

According to the data published by Essential Science Indicators (ESI) in November 2020, 15 disciplines at XJTU have been listed among top global academic institutions in the rankings.

Additionally, three of these disciplines have secured the top spot among 1,000 similar programs, while the engineering discipline was also ranked at the top, out of 10,000 competing disciplines.