About 5,000 Ghanaians are currently studying in various universities in China, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Lu Kun, has disclosed, with a call for more to join.
At the China Higher Education Exhibition in Accra on Thursday, he said the country has consistently ranked high among the league of countries whose nationals are studying in China.
He said the quest to deepen people-to-people exchanges between the two countries had been boosted as more than 10,000 students of different levels were learning Chinese in Ghana.
The exhibition, held at the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana, brought together 24 Chinese universities with the aim of helping prospective students know more about their offers.
It was the first exhibition to be organised by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) outside the country and in sub-Saharan Africa since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Lu said the embassy would continue to support the academic pursuit of Ghanaian students in China to help deepen the China-Ghana relations, and build China-Africa community with a shared future.
He urged prospective students to apply for various types of scholarships as the embassy was ready to support more Ghanaians to study in Chinese universities, experience China’s development, learn Chinese culture and make Chinese friends.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 63 years ago, he said, China and Ghana had enjoyed good relations despite their different political systems, economic development and culture.
Mr Lu said the two countries had adhered to the principle of mutual respect, and win-win results to push the bilateral relations to become a model of friendly co-operation.
The Secretary-General of the CSC, Sheng Jianxue, said China received the first Ghanaian student in 1960, and in the past ten years, 2,012 Ghanaian students had been given scholarships.
He said they included 714 doctoral students, representing 35 per cent, and 1,090 graduate students, representing 54 per cent.
He said in the academic year 2021 to 2022, 4,600 Ghanaian students were studying in China.
Touching on why China should be the preferred destination for higher education, he said the country had built a higher education system with highly competitive global standards.
He said the country had gross enrolment rate of 60 per cent while on the 2023 Nature Index Ranking, it was the number one in natural sciences research quality, quantity of scientific papers on high-level international journals and second highest cited papers.
He said the number of Chinese universities on the world’s top 100 list rose from two a decade ago to seven, with 340,000 international students studying in china last year.
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, in a speech, hailed China’s higher education system and urged participants to seize the opportunity for academic excellence.
“Together we have the opportunity to build bridges of understanding, exchange best practices and collectively elevate the quality of education,” he said.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
