Foreign universities that have set up campuses in China with local colleges admitted more students in 2015 because they are becoming a popular education option among the country's growing middle class.Wenzhou-Kean University, a college founded by Kean University in the U.S. state of New Jersey and Wenzhou University in the eastern province of Zhejiang, has admitted 500 undergraduate students this year, up from 300 last year.The university said it received an "explosive number of applications."Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, which was set up by CUHK and Shenzhen University, doubled its number of admissions this year to 626.Several other similar colleges, including NYU Shanghai, founded by New York University and East China Normal University, have also admitted more students this year.Kan Yue, an associate professor of education research at Zhejiang University, said these types of colleges are popular with students from less privileged families because they provide good education at affordable prices.Tuitions for Chinese students attending good universities abroad run from 200,000 yuan to half a million yuan, but the foreign-partnered colleges in China charge as little as one-fifth of that.The popularity of the universities has prompted administrators to raise recruitment criteria.CUHK, Shenzhen raised the minimum score necessary on the national college entrance exam by an average of 16 points this year.Wenzhou Kean University raised the scores for applicants from the eastern province of Shandong, where many students were applying, by 20 points.
