China Academy of Art — guide for international students

The China Academy of Art (中国美术学院, CAA) was founded on 26 March 1928 in Hangzhou by Cai Yuanpei as the National Academy of Art (国立艺术院), with the painter Lin Fengmian as its first head. It was the first institution in China to offer undergraduate and graduate education in the fine arts. Over the following decades it carried a series of names — including the National Hangzhou Art Specialty School, the East China Branch of the Central Academy of Fine Arts from 1950 and the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts from 1958 — before taking its present name in 1993. It is a public academy affiliated with Zhejiang Province and takes part in the national Double First-Class construction program.

CAA is a multi-campus academy. Its English website names five campuses — Nanshan, Xiangshan, Liangzhu, Xianghu and Zhangjiang — the last of them in Pudong, Shanghai, the others in Hangzhou. For international students the centre of gravity is the Xiangshan Campus at No. 352 Xiangshan Road, where the International Education College has its office in Building 17 and where most international dormitory rooms are; some students are housed on the Liangzhu Campus instead. Wikipedia’s English and Chinese articles put enrolment at a little over 7,000 students (the English article gives 7,234 undergraduates and 513 academic staff); CAA itself does not publish current enrolment figures on the international-student pages.

International education at CAA is older than at most Chinese universities. A retrospective published by the International Education College for the fortieth anniversary of that work records that a dedicated office for international students was set up in 1978, that the first international students were admitted in 1980 — CAA was among the first 66 institutions nationally authorised to enrol them — and that more than 8,000 international students from over 100 countries had studied there, with 705 degree students from 89 countries enrolled at the time of writing. The International Education College itself was established in 2003.

CAA admits international students to Chinese-taught bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, to an English-taught doctorate launched for the 2026 cycle, and to non-degree courses in Chinese language and in Chinese painting and calligraphy. Everything goes through the academy’s online application system at caa.at0086.cn, and every route carries the same RMB 800 non-refundable application fee. Three features set CAA apart from a general university. First, the language bar for the Chinese-taught degrees is HSK Level 4 with at least 180 points and a listening sub-score of at least 70, from a test taken after 31 August 2024 — the listening sub-score is the part applicants miss. Second, the 2026 undergraduate guide requires the China Scholastic Competency Assessment (CSCA), sat in Chinese in two subjects, Professional Chinese (liberal arts) and Mathematics; the guide sets no minimum CSCA score. Third, admission is portfolio-led: undergraduates submit a portfolio to the specification in the major list attached to the guide (Attachment 1), master’s and practice-based doctoral applicants submit a portfolio of creative work related to their chosen direction, and at every degree level applicants who pass the document review go on to an online or video interview. The guides set age limits only for scholarship applicants (see below); for self-funded undergraduates the rule is that anyone under 18 on 1 September 2026 must submit a notarized letter from their parents appointing a guardian. All 2026 deadlines were extended after the guides were published — the dates below give both the original and the extended date where the academy announced one.

Degree programs

Select a degree level to see tuition, duration and entry requirements.

Non-degree programs

Documents to prepare

Application timeline

These are the dates China Academy of Art published for the 2026 intake. That cycle has closed. Use them as a guide to when each step falls in the year, and check the official pages for the 2027 dates before you plan around them.

CAA lists four families of funding: the Chinese Government Scholarship through the bilateral channel (Type A) and through CAA’s own university program (Type B), the Zhejiang Provincial Government Scholarship, and two CAA-funded awards — a freshman scholarship for new master’s and doctoral students and a scholarship for self-funded students already enrolled. The age limits are the detail to check, because they are not the same across schemes: for the Chinese Government Scholarship the 2026 guides give 25 for undergraduates, 35 for master’s and 40 for doctoral applicants, while CAA’s own freshman award allows up to 40 for master’s and 45 for doctoral applicants, and the Zhejiang award up to 30 for undergraduates. Scholarship applicants also face earlier HSK deadlines than self-funded applicants (1 March 2026 for graduate and 31 March 2026 for undergraduate scholarship applicants). No scheme may be combined with another scholarship.

CAA is an art academy, and its research is creative and art-historical rather than laboratory-based. What matters to an international applicant is the structure of the doctorate: the academy offers both academic doctorates (Art, Design) and professional, practice-based doctorates (Fine Art & Calligraphy, Design, Drama & Film), and its International Education College dates its "theory-practice combined" doctoral education in the visual arts to 2000. The master’s directories set out the theory side in detail — art history, art archaeology, visual culture, Visual China studies, craft and design theory, art management and film theory — alongside studio and design directions. CAA does not publish research output statistics on its international-student pages.

CAA has been teaching international students since 1980, and the International Education College’s own forty-year retrospective puts the total at more than 8,000 students from over 100 countries. The early decades were dominated by Chinese painting and calligraphy; the offer has since broadened to oil painting, printmaking, sculpture, design and architecture, and the academy frames its current international mission around what it calls "Visual Eastern Studies". The 2026 cycle adds an English-taught PhD. CAA also runs exchange places for students nominated by partner institutions, but it does not publish a list of partners or exchange terms on its international-student pages — ask your home university’s international office whether an agreement exists.

CAA does not publish employment or placement figures for international graduates, and its international-student pages carry no careers service of their own, so treat any outcome statistic you see elsewhere as unsourced. What the academy’s history does show is the calibre of the people who have studied or taught there — painters, architects and designers of international standing — and for art graduates the practical asset is the portfolio and network built in Hangzhou. The International Education College also runs a scheme through which international students can apply for exhibition space for their work.

International students centre on the Xiangshan Campus in Hangzhou, where the International Education College is in Building 17 and registration takes place. First-year undergraduates and all scholarship holders must live on campus; others can apply to live off campus with approval, at their own expense, and must then register their residence locally with a rental contract. All campus rooms listed in the 2025 enrolment notices have a private bathroom, broadband and air conditioning. Rooms are allocated by where your program is taught: students on the Xiangshan and Nanshan campuses are housed at Xiangshan, and students taught at Liangzhu live in double rooms there. Note that new arrivals must complete residence registration within 24 hours of entering China, and students on an X1 visa must apply for a residence permit within 30 days at the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau exit-entry office.

Accommodation

Dining

CAA does not publish dining halls or meal prices for international students on its international pages; budget for food separately and ask the International Education College on arrival.

Facilities

Reach the International Education College, China Academy of Art for questions about applications, documents, scholarships and arrival. Type academy programs and offices are based on campus in Hangzhou.