HSK - Awards?

[Harvey]

Hello everyone,

I just heard from a friend today that if you pass level 8 in the HSK exam you can be sent to college in China for half a year for free.

Is this true?

Could anyone point me to a good English language webpage explaining what the HSK is and what it is all about?

Thanks,

Harvey

[Jive Turkey]

I've enquired about the HSK scholarships before. The folks at Hanban don't give too many details. However, I'm pretty certain that you don't have to get an 8 to get a scholarship. The way they explained it, they budget money for every country every year. It all just depends on how many people apply from your country in any given year and how good they are. If memory serves, they give scholarships for half a year and one year. They may also give scholarships for shorter periods and I think they do give some scholarships for over a year. You can only use an HSK scholarship at one of about 10 designated universities. Universities on the list include BLCU, Renmin University, Beijing Normal, Huadong Normal, Nanjing Normal and a few others. I found this a bit strange. BLCU, Nanjing Normal and Huadong Normal seem to have relatively good programs, but there are other universities that seem to offer better programs than those of Renmin U, etc., but these universities aren't on the list. Also, in order to apply for an HSK scholarship, you must take the HSK in your home country. You cannot take it in mainland China, HK, Macau or a third country and then use those results to apply. I think all of it goes through the PRC embassy in your country. There is some information linked to the Hanban website, but I think all of it is in Chinese. They were quick to answer my questions via e-mail, but that again was in Chinese. I don't know how responsive they would be to enquiries made in English or other languages.

[roddy]

Try Chinese Embassy websites - they sometimes have some info (ie Iceland) on the scholarships. Failing that, whoever arranges the HSK in your country.

Its not an automatic award based on your HSK grade - it's a scholarship which you can only apply for if your HSK grade reaches a certain level. I looked at it briefly a couple of years ago, but never went into any detail as I wasn't planning to take the HSK out of China.

As for general HSK info, search on here in the Textbooks and Resources forum.

Roddy