‘The University of China’ – a documentary exploring how UK universities’ financial objectives is impacting Chinese students’ UK university experience
- Liza Kaminov, Freelance producer and broadcast journalist
- Isaine Blatry, Freelance broadcast and multimedia journalist
- Zi Wang, Reporter for the Business Insider
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UK universities attract a large number of international students with the promise of academic excellence. One particular group of students is being admitted at a record speed, bringing large amounts of income to UK universities. These are students coming from China. In 2019, there were over 120,000 Chinese students coming to study in the UK, bringing £3.7 billion into the country through tuition fees, travel and living expenses. A report released in 2021 by King’s College London and the Harvard Kennedy School raised concerns about the UK universities’ increasing financial dependence on Chinese students. Based on the report findings, we decided to examine this issue from the Chinese students’ point of view. Travelling across the country to different universities, interviewing over 40 Chinese students and sending Freedom of information requests to over ten universities, we set out to film a documentary. Our goal was to shed more light on the impact of the UK universities’ financial dependence on the Chinese students’ university experience.
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Liza is a quadrilingual (French, Russian, Mandarin, English) journalist currently working for France 24 and AFP news agency. After obtaining a TV Journalism MA from City University of London she has produced and reported in the People’s Daily Online documentary series ‘Our China Stories’ and covered the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis for the AFP Moscow bureau. In her free time, Liza is a keen musician, enjoys writing poetry and developing more documentary ideas.
Isaine is a trilingual (French, Korean, English) journalist who has lived in Europe, Asia and Australia. Having achieved an MA TV journalism at City University of London, she was awarded BJTC Finalist 2021 for best TV report and is now a freelance broadcast and multimedia journalist at BBC, Sky News, PA and Reuters. In her spare time, Isaine enjoys writing, reading, photography and travelling.
Zi is a reporter covering media and advertising for Business Insider. He focuses on the intersection of new technologies and marketing, such as how marketers and advertisers approach the metaverse, web3, and NFTs. He previously graduated with a Master’s degree in TV Journalism from City University, London and worked in media agencies and ad tech startups.
