With the increasing demand for globalized education, how to shorten the time and cost of studying abroad while ensuring teaching quality and enhancing the value of degrees has become a core focus for many universities and students. In November 2025, through our efforts, a university in Jiangsu, China, which emphasizes the training of applied talents, reached an agreement with a public university in Illinois, USA, to implement a “3+1+1” combined undergraduate and master’s program.
Program Model
The “3+1+1” model aims to create an efficient international education pathway for students in programs like Visual Communication and Digital Media Art:
- Domestic Study Stage (3 years): Students complete the first three years of undergraduate courses at a domestic institution, laying a solid foundation in their chosen field.
- Overseas Transition Stage (1 year): In their fourth year, students travel to the partnering U.S. university as non-degree students, where they take preparatory courses for the master’s program.
- Master’s Degree Stage (1 year): After successfully earning their bachelor’s degree from the domestic university, students officially enter the U.S. university’s master’s program. Upon completing the required credits, they will be awarded the master’s degree from that university.
This means that outstanding students can complete both undergraduate and master’s degrees in just five years, a process that traditionally takes six years or longer.
Key Highlights
- Highly Relevant Specialization: This program is specifically tailored to meet the demands of the digital age for creative talent, focusing on cutting-edge fields like “Media Theory and Research” and “Professional Media Management” with a specialized curriculum.
- Discounted Tuition Fees: Thanks to our active negotiations, the U.S. partner university has offered highly competitive incentives for students in this program. Eligible Chinese students can benefit from partial tuition reduction, making their financial burden equivalent to local U.S. residents’ tuition rates, significantly lowering the economic threshold for studying abroad.
- Credit Recognition and Guaranteed Admission: The two universities have reached a comprehensive credit recognition agreement. Through pre-screening and nomination by the domestic institution, students will receive priority in the admission process, greatly improving the success rate and stability of their master’s applications.
Our Role
In facilitating this collaboration, our company has fully leveraged its professional functions as a “bridge for international education”:
- Accurate Resource Matching: With a deep understanding of the strengths of both Chinese and U.S. universities, we quickly identified the overlap in the media and arts fields.
- Agreement Negotiation: After months of communication, we helped both parties reach an agreement on key elements such as course alignment, language requirements, tuition discounts, and student support services, ensuring the agreement’s compliance and long-term feasibility.
- Risk Assurance and Coordination: We thoroughly examined policy risks and administrative processes in international education collaborations, ensuring the smooth launch of the project in November 2025.
Conclusion
The establishment of the “3+1+1” program is not only another milestone for our company in the field of international higher education but also a vivid practice of our commitment to enhancing universities’ international capabilities and building high-quality development platforms for students.
We look forward to collaborating with more domestic and international universities to develop more diverse and competitive international education products. If you wish to make breakthroughs in international education, inter-university resource integration, or customized educational solutions, please feel free to contact us and begin your new chapter in global education.
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