The United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia remained the top three destinations for Chinese students studying abroad.

Master's degree holders continued to dominate among returnees, representing 63.09 percent in 2023, up two percentage points from the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of returning PhDs continued to grow steadily, reaching 21,574 in 2023, up 51 percent from 2020.

Despite the overall increase in doctoral returnees, the proportion of those with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) backgrounds is declining. STEM PhD holders made up 36.8 percent in 2023, down from 58 percent in 2020, according to the blue paper.

The report also highlighted a growing shift in the geographic distribution of foreign degrees. In 2023, about 53 percent of doctoral returnees obtained degrees from Asian universities, while only 16.3 percent held degrees from North American institutions.

Field of study preferences are also changing. In 2023, management studies overtook science for the first time to become the most common major among returning graduates, followed closely by economics and engineering.