Yenching Academy Scholarship

The Yenching Academy of Peking University is a SOAS partner institute offering a great opportunity for SOAS students and recent SOAS graduates: a two-year interdisciplinary Masters in China Studies at the top university in China.

The first year of the program is fully funded, including round-trip airfare, tuition, housing, and living expenses. Students who maintain good academic standing and choose to remain in Beijing for the second year are eligible to apply for another year of full funding.

Deadline

The deadline for applications is 9:00am (UK time), Thursday 27 November 2025.

How to apply

SOAS students and alumni must apply through SOAS. To apply, fill out the following application form and email it to sci@soas.ac.uk before the deadline together with the necessary application components. The references can be sent directly by the referee or by the applicant to sci@soas.ac.uk.

If you are from Mainland China or the Chinese Regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan (HMT), there is a different application process, detailed separately on this page.

Nominated applicants

Applicants that are successfully nominated by the SOAS China Institute to Yenching Academy will be notified by email on Thursday 4 December 2025 and will then be required to submit their applications through the Yenching Academy online portal by midnight (UK time) on Sunday 7 December 2025.

Yenching Academy will consider the nominated candidates for finalist interviews and will contact them directly to schedule an online interview from December 2025 to March 2026 if they are successfully shortlisted. Offers of a scholarship will be made by around April 2026. 

Only SOAS students or recent SOAS graduates are eligible to apply via the SOAS China Institute. Applicants should have:

• A minimum of a bachelors degree in any field or currently enrolled on a degree programme awarded no later than 31 August of the year in which they wish to enrol.
• An outstanding academic record.
• Strong interest in interdisciplinary study of China.
• A record of extracurricular achievement, community engagement, social responsibility, and leadership potential.
• English proficiency.

The Yenching Academy does not have a strict age cutoff for applicants, but to date, no person over the age of 29 has been admitted to the programme. The average age of students entering the program is 23.

Yenching Academy also welcomes candidates who already have another masters degree, in addition to those holding just bachelors degrees or are currently enrolled in their final year of their bachlors degree.

Applicants are required to submit the following components together with their completed application form to the SOAS China Institute at sci@soas.ac.uk:

• Personal statement (750 words or less).
• Statement of research interest (maximum 1500 words, excluding citations):
  • Should include key research question(s), background to study and/or summary of literature, and study design that could reflect your academic training. You do not have to make this proposed project your masters thesis topic. The Admissions Committee just wants to judge how you formulate and write about academic topics.
• CV (maximum two pages).
• Official transcript(s).
• Diploma(s) or Certificate(s) of Enrolment.
• Two letters of recommendation using the Recommendation form: Peking University will only accept recommendation letters written by full professors or associate professors (or equivalent titles, so Senior Lecturer and above). The references can be sent directly by the referee or by the applicant to sci@soas.ac.uk.
• English proficiency demonstrated through one of the following scores:
  • IELTS (Academic): overall 7.0
  • TOEFL (iBT): overall 100
  • Cambridge English Scale (Advanced): overall 185

Students whose native language is English, or who have graduated from an English-taught degree programme (undergraduate or above), are not required to provide an English proficiency test report.

Submission of English scores

For IELTS, TOEFL, and Cambridge tests, we will only accept scores sent directly to us from these organisations. Please choose 'Yenching Academy of Peking University' as the designated recipient of the scores. For TOEFL, use the institution code: C488.

TOEFL and IELTS English proficiency tests must be taken after September 1, 2022. Currently, we do not accept TOEFL MyBest Scores, TOEFL iBT Home Edition, IELTS Indicator test, or IELTS Online.

Non-English or Chinese university documents

Candidates whose official university documents are in languages other than English or Chinese must submit copies of both the original documents and certified English translations. This requirement also applies to diplomas issued in Latin. Please ensure that the translation indicates the degree type (e.g., bachelors or masters degree).