Special treatment not necessary for foreign students

Editor's note: Shandong University has attracted criticism because it recruited "study mates" for overseas students, and having listed "making friends with someone of the opposite gender" as a reason for local students to apply in their recruitment form. Beijing News comments:

As early as 2016, Shandong University had introduced such a system, recruiting one "study mate" for each overseas student. Even though it met with criticism, the university has introduced an updated version encouraging three "study mates" for each overseas student.

That's widely interpreted as an attempt to flatter overseas students. More important, as they list "making friends with the opposite gender" in their recruitment form. Most of the overseas students are males and their "study mates" female, so many accuse the university of helping overseas students get girlfriends.

The university has acknowledged its mistake and apologized. Yet it is not the only domestic university that coddles overseas students. For example, overseas students enjoy better dormitories and better services, such as larger quotes of free electricity, in many colleges, which has naturally irked domestic students.

It is good that domestic colleges are trying to become more "internationalized" by seeking to attract students from overseas, but better conditions are not necessarily the factor that appeals to the top international students.

In order to become quality internationalized institutions of higher learning, colleges should realize that the only way of attracting high-quality overseas students lies in improving their own education quality.

Further, the more internationalized a college is, the more strictly it should treat all students the same. After all, one of the purposes of developing international student education is to promote the multicultural construction of universities, and this means first eliminating the special treatment given international students.