China’s Education Development Plan for the 15th Five-Year Period (2026-2030) was issued by the State Council — not the Ministry of Education alone — under file number Guofa [2026] No. 19, dated 22 June 2026 and published on 29 June 2026. The published version carries an explicit note that it is an abridged text.
That note matters. Everything below is stated as “the published text does not contain X,” never “the plan does not contain X.”
Outbound study: one sentence
Within the section “Expanding high-level opening up in education,” Article 21 contains exactly one clause on studying abroad:
Improve the full-chain service system for studying abroad; carry forward the tradition of studying abroad in service of the country.
Two things follow. First, there is no restrictive language at all — no quotas, no destination lists, no discouraged fields. Second, the emphasis sits on the service chain: pre-departure, in-country, and return, rather than on the volume of outbound students.
The same article adds:
Deepen international exchange and cooperation in basic research. Support high-level research universities in initiating or participating in major international science programmes and facilities.
Encourage high-level foreign universities of science and engineering to establish cooperative education in China.
Carry out international training projects for outstanding talent.
Note the qualifier on inbound partnerships: science and engineering, and high-level. Business-school partnerships are not part of that sentence.
Study in China: brand and capacity
Article 22 sets out the inbound agenda:
Strengthen the “Study in China” brand and capacity building.
Strengthen the international Chinese language education brand
Carry out overseas school-running in a regulated and orderly manner.
On partners:
Consolidate and develop exchange and cooperation mechanisms with Europe, the United States and other countries; deepen cooperation with neighbouring countries, countries jointly building the Belt and Road, and Global South countries
On what China intends to share:
Share Chinese standards and Chinese solutions in vocational education, basic education, engineer education, artificial intelligence education, teacher development and other fields
Article 23 places this within multilateral structures:
Make good use of multilateral platforms such as international organisations, and deepen cooperation within the frameworks of UNESCO and other international organisations, as well as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and other multilateral mechanisms. Further strengthen China’s leading role in key areas such as education for girls and women, digital-intelligent education, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education.
Transnational education
Outside the opening-up section, one line in the governance chapter carries weight for anyone running or joining a joint programme:
Optimise the management mechanism for Chinese-foreign cooperative education.
No process, no review cycle, no deadline is given in the published text.
Domestic capacity: where the numbers are
The only quantified commitment relevant to student flows is domestic:
Steadily advance the expansion of high-quality undergraduate provision, support the construction of new campuses for “Double First-Class” universities, and increase undergraduate enrolment at “Double First-Class” universities by more than 100,000 places.
Alongside it:
Build a number of new-type research universities, expanding high-quality undergraduate enrolment and postgraduate training in an orderly way, mainly in science, engineering, agriculture and medicine.
Steadily raise the proportion of undergraduate enrolment and the share of postgraduate-level education in the higher education student body; vigorously develop professional degree postgraduate education
And in vocational education:
Steadily increase the number of vocational undergraduate institutions and expand enrolment.
For families in China, this is the clause that actually changes the calculation: the domestic alternative gets larger over the plan period.
Field selection: a mechanism, not a list
The plan does not publish a list of priority subjects for students. It sets out how the domestic catalogue will move:
Encourage and support universities to deploy urgently needed disciplines and specialities in an extraordinary manner, and upgrade traditional disciplines and specialities
Innovate the management mechanism for the catalogue of disciplines and specialities, and shorten the adjustment cycle
Strengthen articulated bachelor-master-doctoral training in basic disciplines, interdisciplinary fields, and areas of strategic urgency
Strengthen the linkage between employment outcomes, enrolment plans and talent training, and implement a red-and-yellow-card warning system for graduate employment
That last one is the most usable: it creates a public, recurring signal about which domestic fields are absorbing graduates.
On artificial intelligence, the plan’s own words are about education itself — “advance artificial intelligence education across all stages of schooling” and an “AI plus education” initiative — not a designation of AI as a priority field for study abroad.
Regions
Support Hong Kong and Macao in leveraging their unique strengths to serve the building of a strong education nation; support Hong Kong in building an international innovation and technology centre; support Hong Kong and Macao in becoming hubs for high-end international talent.
Advance the construction of the Hainan International Education Innovation Island.
Support Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in accelerating the creation of world-class regional higher education centres.
Claims that do not appear in the published text
The following circulate widely in secondary coverage. None of them can be located in the published document:
- a percentage increase in Chinese Government Scholarship places or funding;
- any count of new AI or quantum centres of excellence;
- memoranda with the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank (UNESCO, BRICS and the SCO are named; these two are not);
- any HSK or language requirement tied to the plan;
- visa provisions, or automatic credit recognition with Australia, the UK or Canada;
- a deadline for reviewing Chinese-foreign cooperative programmes;
- household registration, social-insurance or “pre-registration” arrangements for returning graduates — these belong to provincial and municipal human resources authorities;
- a named list of priority industries such as integrated circuits, quantum information or advanced materials — that language belongs to China’s national economic and social development plan, a different document.
Practical reading
For an international student considering China: the direction is supportive and explicit, but every operational detail — admission standards, tuition, scholarships, language requirements, visas — is set by institutions and by the relevant authorities in annual announcements, not by this plan.
For a student in China considering going abroad: the plan neither restricts nor promotes outbound numbers. What changes is the domestic comparison set.
For a university partnerships office: the two operative sentences are the encouragement of high-level foreign science and engineering universities to run cooperative programmes in China, and the intention to optimise the management mechanism for such programmes.
Source: 《教育发展”十五五”规划》 (Education Development Plan for the 15th Five-Year Period), State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Guofa [2026] No. 19, issued 22 June 2026, published 29 June 2026 on the State Council portal and the Ministry of Education portal; the published version is marked as abridged. All quoted passages are translations of the published Chinese text. Verified 15 August 2026.