One year in Beijing, paid for down to the laptop. Tuition and fees, room and board, flights to and from Beijing at each end of the year, study tours inside China, course books and supplies, health insurance and a personal stipend. There is no application fee, and the programme covers the cost of getting to interview.
The age rule is the one that quietly excludes people. Candidates must be at least 18 and not yet 29 on 1 August of their enrolment year, which for the class of 2028-2029 means 1 August 2028. Someone who would otherwise qualify but turns 29 before that date cannot apply, however strong the rest of the file.
Any undergraduate field is welcome, and the programme says so explicitly. What it asks instead is that the applicant explains how a year studying China develops their leadership within whatever field they came from.
Two windows run each cycle, split by citizenship rather than by residence. Chinese citizenship holders apply in the earlier one, March to May, and everyone else applies April to September. Mixing them up costs a year.
The degree takes a single year, opening with a mandatory orientation in late August and closing with graduation the following July, so the whole commitment is shorter than most master's programmes.
The admissions pages and the frequently asked questions were checked on 16 September 2026, when the class of 2027-2028 window had closed.