Yale University has extended its need-based financial-aid package to international students for the first time on a nondiscriminatory basis.

"Today no Chinese students were shut out of Yale because of our need-for-funds package," said Yale President Richard Levin. "If they qualify for admissions to the university, they will have funding to study. This has completely changed the profile of Chinese and other international students we have been able to accept."

The tuition fee for Yale University is about $50,000. Families earning less than $60,000 annually will not make any contribution toward the cost of a child's education. In 2008, the average annual salary of an urban resident in China was 29,229 yuan ($4,175).