What is the CSC scholarship?

"CSC scholarship" is the everyday name for the Chinese Government Scholarship, a scholarship the Chinese government sets up for international students in higher education and the China Scholarship Council (CSC) administers on behalf of the Ministry of Education. Article 32 of Order No. 42 establishes it in the regulations, and the application guide states that CSC handles the admission, enrolment and administration of its recipients. The scholarship covers both Chinese language (preparatory) study and the major study that follows.

Order No. 42 is published only in Chinese; the English wording below is this site's translation of that text.

What the rules say

Article 32 of the Administrative Measures for the Enrolment and Education of International Students by Schools (Order No. 42) sets out two things: the Chinese government establishes the Chinese Government Scholarship for international students receiving higher education, and it encourages local people's governments to set up international student scholarships of their own. The same article leaves the administration of the scholarship to measures formulated by the relevant administrative department of the State Council.

Article 33 covers the universities. The education administrative department of the State Council entrusts higher education institutions with the training of Chinese Government Scholarship students on a selective basis, and institutions that take on that task shall give priority to recruiting Chinese Government Scholarship students.

The Application Guide for Chinese Government Scholarship states the purpose in its opening lines: to strengthen mutual understanding and friendship between the Chinese and people around the world and to promote China's exchange and cooperation with other countries in education, among other fields. Under Section II it states three things:

• Supporting categories: the programmes sponsor undergraduates, postgraduates, general and senior scholars.
• Duration: the scholarship covers both major study and Chinese language (preparatory) study; the language courses last one year, and the duration of the scholarship for major study conforms to that as required.
• Institutions and majors: designated Chinese universities offer scholarship recipients academic programmes in science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, economics, law, management, education, history, literature, philosophy and fine arts, among others. The guide directs readers to campuschina.org for the list of designated universities and the majors each offers.

Who decides

Three bodies appear in the texts read for this page, each with a different role.

• The Chinese government establishes the scholarship (Order No. 42, Article 32), and the relevant administrative department of the State Council formulates its administration measures.
• The China Scholarship Council, entrusted by the Ministry of Education, is responsible for the admission, enrolment and administration of Chinese Government Scholarship recipients (scholarship application guide, introductory section). The scholarship index that lists the scheme titles is also published by CSC on Campus China.
• The education administrative department of the State Council — named as the Ministry of Education in the application guide's own description of the CSC's mandate — selects the universities that train scholarship students, and those universities give scholarship students priority in admission (Order No. 42, Article 33).

The application guide page carries no publication date and no academic year.

Schemes listed under Chinese Government Scholarships

The scholarships index on Campus China files these titles under its "Chinese Government Scholarships" category, taken from the first page of the list:

• Application Guide for Chinese Government Scholarship
• Guidebook to the ASEAN-China Young Leaders Scholarship
• Youth of Excellence Scheme of China Program Chinese Government Scholarship
• China Link Short-term Scientific Exchange Scholarship Program (2026)
• MOFCOM SCHOLARSHIP-CSC Program (Enrollment Guide)
• Chinese Trade Unions Silk Road Scholarship

The index records the category filter and these titles only. It does not state amounts or deadlines; those appear, if at all, on each scholarship's own page.

What the official pages do not say

The articles of Order No. 42 and the sections of the application guide read for this page do not state stipend amounts, age limits, application steps or deadlines. For those, ask the international student office of the university you are applying to, or the Chinese embassy or consulate handling your application.

Related questions

Who runs the CSC scholarship day to day?

The China Scholarship Council. The application guide states that CSC, entrusted by China's Ministry of Education, is responsible for the admission, enrolment and administration of Chinese Government Scholarship recipients, while Article 32 of Order No. 42 places the administration measures with the relevant administrative department of the State Council.

Does the scholarship include a year of Chinese language study?

Yes, according to Section II(II) of the application guide: the scholarship covers both major study and Chinese language (preparatory) study, and the language courses last one year. The duration of the major study conforms to that as required by the programme.

Which universities can host CGS students?

Article 33 of Order No. 42 says the education administrative department of the State Council entrusts higher education institutions with this task on a selective basis, so the host list is not set out in the regulations themselves. The application guide refers to "designated Chinese universities" and points to campuschina.org for the current list and the majors on offer.

Is the MOFCOM SCHOLARSHIP-CSC Program a separate thing?

It is one of the scheme titles that the Campus China scholarships index files under the "Chinese Government Scholarships" category, alongside the general Application Guide for Chinese Government Scholarship. What each named scheme requires is a condition of that scheme, not of the scholarship as a whole; the index itself gives no amounts or deadlines.

Sources

• Administrative Measures for the Enrolment and Education of International Students by Schools (Order No. 42 of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security) — Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (moe.gov.cn)
• Application Guide for Chinese Government Scholarship — China Scholarship Council (Campus China, campuschina.org)
• Scholarships index (category filter) on Campus China — China Scholarship Council (Campus China, campuschina.org)

Checked 11 October 2026

This page is an unofficial summary prepared from the official pages listed above; it is not legal or immigration advice, is not published by or affiliated with the bodies named, and if the official text or the instructions of the university, embassy or exit-entry office handling your case differ, theirs prevail.