A foreign university does not enter China by itself. It partners with a Chinese university, obtains Ministry of Education (MOE) approval for a Sino-foreign cooperative institution or project hosted in the Hainan Lingshui Li’an International Education Innovation Pilot Zone, and delivers programmes on a single shared campus where students can also take cross-institution courses.
The approval route: partner, then apply to MOE
Foreign institutions cannot directly license a campus in mainland China. The operating model in Li’an is a joint setup with a Chinese university, where the Chinese partner carries the approval filing. Each approved vehicle is published on the Ministry of Education’s China Education Foreign-related Supervision Information Network (crs.jsj.edu.cn).
Two vehicles exist:
- Institution (机构, non-independent legal entity) — a college embedded within the Chinese partner university, able to run several degree programmes under one license. Examples in Li’an include BUPT Queen Mary Hainan College (license MOE46UKA02DNR20222214N, valid to 2036-12-31), UESTC Glasgow College Hainan (MOE46UKA02DNR20222215N, valid to 2035-12-31), and Tianjin University Reading Henley International College (MOE46UKA02DNR20252588N, valid to 2035-06-30).
- Project (项目) — a single approved degree programme, often with a defined foreign study period. Examples include China University of Geosciences (Beijing) × University of Aberdeen Digital Economy (MOE46UK2A20252653N) and Xi’an Jiaotong University × UBC Carbon Neutrality Science and Engineering (MOE46CA2A20262760N).
Each approval specifies the license number, validity period, approved annual enrollment scale and admission years, and the admission standard — in practice, the same standard as the Chinese home campus’s regular Gaokao intake.
The shared-campus model
All partners co-locate on the Li’an campus in Hainan. The dominant delivery format is 4+0: students complete the full programme in Li’an and receive the Chinese university’s graduation certificate and degree, plus the foreign partner’s degree — without a mandatory outbound period. Some programmes add an optional outbound exchange; UESTC Glasgow College Hainan, for instance, offers optional 2+2 or 3+1 paths to Glasgow.
What makes Li’an distinctive is course sharing across partners. The Pilot Zone Regulation (effective 2024-01-01) promotes cross-institution shared courses, credit mutual recognition, and a “one school enrollment, multi-school course selection” model. By the 2025 briefing, 207 shared courses (303.5 credits, 3,733 enrollments) were open; by June 2026, that had grown to 337 cross-institution shared courses. Shared courses affect what enrolled students can study, not how a university gains entry.
What incumbents have done
The Pilot Zone reported, as of June 2026, 30 Chinese and foreign universities (11 Chinese, 19 foreign), 24 approved Sino-foreign cooperative institutions/projects, and 60+ majors. Foreign partners already operating there span the UK, US, Canada, France, Australia, and New Zealand:
| Foreign partner | Chinese partner | Vehicle |
|---|---|---|
| Queen Mary University of London (UK) | BUPT | Institution |
| Coventry University (UK) | CUC | Institution |
| University of Glasgow (UK) | UESTC | Institution |
| University of Alberta (Canada) | BSU | Institution |
| Middlesex University (UK) | MUC | Institution |
| ESC Clermont Business School (France) | BLCU | Institution |
| Northeastern State University (USA) | BLCU | Institution |
| University of Reading, Henley Business School (UK) | TJU | Institution |
| University of Technology Sydney (Australia) | NEFU | Institution |
| University of Auckland (New Zealand) | NEFU | Institution |
| University of Aberdeen (UK) | CUGB | Project |
| Lancaster University (UK) | XJTU | Project |
| University of British Columbia (Canada) | XJTU | Project |
| City University of Macau | MUC | Project |
This spread shows the pattern: a foreign university enters by matching its strengths to a Chinese partner and choosing an institution (broader, multi-programme) or a project (single-degree) vehicle.
Approval scale vs actual enrollment, and renewal risk
Ministry approvals generally exceed 2026 actual intake, signalling headroom. UESTC Glasgow College Hainan’s approved scale was raised in May 2026 to 600 students per year, while 2026 actual enrollment was 273; Tianjin University Reading Henley’s approved undergraduate scale is 330 per year, with 90 enrolled in 2026.
Enrollment-year limits matter for planning. Some approvals are time-bound: MUC × City University of Macau Data Science is approved for 2023–2026; CUC × Michigan State foreign master’s for 2023–2025; and the two Xi’an Jiaotong University projects (UBC, Lancaster) are registered by MOE for “2026 only (one session per year).” Whether they continue beyond those years depends on renewal, which partners should verify before committing.
Sources
- Hainan Lingshui Li’an Pilot Zone 2026 briefing: https://hnxwfbt.hinews.cn/xinwen/show-2960.html
- MOE approved institutions/projects list: https://www.crs.jsj.edu.cn/aproval/orglists/2
- Pilot Zone Regulation (Hainan gov): https://www.hainan.gov.cn/hainan/zchbhnwj/202311/abd9ce4717d140ca8b16a3385bf1b44c.shtml
- BUPT Queen Mary Hainan College approval: https://www.crs.jsj.edu.cn/aproval/detail/3077
- UESTC Glasgow College Hainan approval: https://www.crs.jsj.edu.cn/aproval/detail/3079
- CUC Coventry College approval: https://www.crs.jsj.edu.cn/aproval/detail/3078
- Tianjin University Reading Henley approval: https://www.crs.jsj.edu.cn/aproval/detail/4004