About
About Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School
Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School (清华大学深圳国际研究生院, Tsinghua SIGS) describes itself on its own English pages as "a research and graduate education institution of Tsinghua University located in southern China". Jointly established by Tsinghua University and the Shenzhen Municipal Government, it was approved by China’s Ministry of Education on 6 November 2018 and inaugurated on 29 March 2019. It is not a new university wearing a Tsinghua name: it is one of the schools and departments through which Tsinghua admits graduate students, and its applicants use Tsinghua’s own international graduate admission system.
The Shenzhen partnership is much older than 2019. The two sides signed a cooperation agreement on 14 October 2000; the Graduate School at Shenzhen (GSST) was established on 8 June 2001 and moved into Shenzhen University Town in October 2003. The Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute followed in September 2014 and Open FIESTA, with the Paris Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity, in June 2015. SIGS was created by integrating GSST and TBSI, and the institutes that now define it were built out after the launch, from biopharmaceutical and health engineering in December 2019 to data and information in February 2023.
The most important thing to grasp before applying is that SIGS is graduate-only. Its Facts and Figures page counts 4,491 master’s students and 1,365 doctoral candidates — 5,856 registered students and no undergraduates — against 230 faculty and 246 postdoctoral researchers across 9 institutes and divisions on a 22.48-hectare campus in Shenzhen University Town, Nanshan District. The 2027 announcement lists 40 master’s and 22 doctoral programs and nothing below that, organised around seven engineering-led domains: materials, information technology, biopharmaceutical and health, ocean engineering, future human habitats, environment and ecology, and innovation management. The Chinese 2026 notice is explicit that SIGS students are trained full time in Shenzhen, with no accommodation at the Beijing main campus — you are a Tsinghua student, but a Shenzhen-based one.
A Tsinghua University figure; SIGS is one of its schools and is not ranked separately.
Released September 2026, after the 2027 intake opened; Tsinghua was 20th in the 2025 edition.
Also university-wide, quoted on Tsinghua’s graduate admissions site.
A Tsinghua degree, earned in Shenzhen
Tsinghua’s 2027 international guide states that 54 of the university’s schools and departments admit international students to Tsinghua master’s or doctoral degrees, and SIGS is listed among them on Tsinghua’s graduate admissions site. Applications run through Tsinghua’s international system, and the 2027 announcement puts the enrolment qualification review "upon registration at Tsinghua University". Neither site prints a separate sentence naming whose name is on the diploma, so if you need that in writing, ask the Admissions Office.
Graduate-only, by design
No bachelor’s degrees, no foundation year, no undergraduate intake of its own. Everything on the SIGS admission pages is a master’s program, a doctoral program or a research visit.
Mostly taught in English
The Chinese 2026 admission notice says most programs open to international students are fully English-taught, with some disciplines requiring Chinese; the academics overview counts over 100 fully English-taught courses. Where an HSK level applies it is set per program, not school-wide.
Admission
Admission, programs & tuition
SIGS admits international students to master’s and doctoral degrees only — no bachelor’s route, no foundation program, no separate Chinese-language degree — so an undergraduate applicant is not applying here at all. Everything runs through Tsinghua University’s international graduate application system at yzbm.tsinghua.edu.cn/intlLogin, and the RMB 800 application fee is Tsinghua’s university-wide fee. For 2027, applications opened on 17 September 2026 and close at 17:00 Beijing time on 15 May 2027; registration in Shenzhen is normally late August or early September 2027. Two things catch applicants out. First, the real deadline for anyone who needs money is not May: SIGS recommends that scholarship applicants submit a complete application by December 2026, and the Chinese Government Scholarship channels close in February. Second, the language requirement is set per program, not per school — Tsinghua’s guide says applicants must supply "HSK results or English test reports" according to the requirements of the program they choose, so read your own program’s entry before booking a test. Selection follows the application-assessment model: a document review, then a comprehensive assessment that usually includes an interview, with decision timelines varying by program. Neither the SIGS nor the Tsinghua 2027 guide states an age limit for international graduate applicants.
Degree programs
Select a degree level to see tuition, duration and entry requirements.
Master’s degreeGraduate
Forty master’s programs are open to international students for 2027, up from 39 for 2026 — mainstream engineering plus design, public administration and logistics engineering, plus the separately priced professional degrees: the Master of Finance, urban and rural planning, and the part-time MBA, accounting and healthcare administration programs. Tuition is set per program and the spread between rows on the same table is very wide, so find your own row before budgeting.
- Most engineering master’s programs (architecture, computer technology, big data technology, mechanical, materials & chemical, electrical, civil & hydraulic)
- RMB 33,000 / year
- Electronic Information (085400)
- RMB 75,000 / year
- Resources & Environmental Engineering (085700)
- RMB 62,000 / year
- Public Administration (120400) / Logistics Engineering (125604)
- RMB 30,000 / year · RMB 30,000–36,000 / year
- Master of Finance (025100) / Urban & Rural Planning (085300)
- RMB 198,000 · RMB 120,000 per full program
- Part-time: Healthcare Administration (1258S1) / Accounting (125300) / MBA (125100)
- RMB 150,000 · 298,000 · 418,000 per full program
- Biological & Pharmaceutical Engineering (086000) and Design (135700)
- Printed as "TBD" on the 2027 list — ask the Admissions Office
Application requirements
- A foreign national holding a valid ordinary passport and not a Chinese citizen under the Nationality Law of the PRC. Applicants who once held Chinese nationality must have acquired the foreign nationality at least six years before 30 April of the year of enrolment.
- A bachelor’s degree or recognised equivalent, with an authentication report from the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange where the degree is not from a mainland Chinese university.
- Chinese-taught programs: an HSK certificate and score report at the level the target program requires — there is no school-wide level, it sits in the individual program entry.
- English-taught programs, for applicants who are not native English speakers: IELTS 6.5, or TOEFL iBT 85 for tests taken before 21 January 2026 and 4.5 on or after, reflecting the change in the TOEFL score scale.
- Good conduct and good physical and mental health, meeting the national and university medical examination requirements.
- A personal statement, two recommendation letters from associate professors or above or senior industry professionals, transcripts with GPA evidence and a passport bio page.
Doctoral degreeGraduate
Twenty-two doctoral programs for 2027: applied economics, chemistry, biology, mechanical engineering, instrument science and technology, materials science and engineering, electrical engineering, electronic science and technology, information and communication engineering, control science and engineering, computer science and technology, data science and information technology, architecture, civil engineering, hydraulic engineering, chemical engineering and technology, environmental science and engineering, environment science and new energy technology, biomedical engineering, precision medicine and healthcare, management science and engineering, and business administration. Tuition is a single flat figure, and doctoral students draw a stipend more than six times the master’s. SIGS also advertises a STEM Leader PhD Program with "full scholarships for all eligible students".
- All doctoral programs
- RMB 40,000 / year
Application requirements
- A foreign national holding a valid ordinary passport and not a Chinese citizen under the Nationality Law of the PRC, subject to the same six-year rule for applicants who once held Chinese nationality.
- A master’s degree or recognised equivalent, authenticated as above. Tsinghua also runs direct bachelor’s-to-doctorate admission; the Institute of Environment and Ecology set a minimum GPA of 3.5/4.0 for that track in its 2026 notice.
- A brief account of your research experience or a research plan on top of the personal statement, plus two recommendation letters, transcripts with GPA evidence and a passport bio page.
- Chinese-taught programs: an HSK certificate and score at the level the target program requires.
- English-taught programs, for non-native English speakers: IELTS 6.5, or TOEFL iBT 85 before 21 January 2026 / 4.5 on or after. Individual institutes have published lower bars — the Institute of Environment and Ecology’s 2026 page asked for TOEFL 80 or IELTS 6.5 and said HSK was not required — so read the program page too, and confirm with the office if the two disagree.
Non-degree programs
Visiting students
Research-only: "Visiting students at Tsinghua SIGS only engage in scientific research and do not take any courses," and no degree is awarded. You must find a SIGS supervisor willing to host you and discuss the arrangement before submitting anything, so this route starts with an email to an academic, not a form. Contact: Office of Academic Affairs, Room B302.
Fee · Not published on the SIGS visiting-students page — ask the Office of Academic Affairs
Exchange students
Open only through bilateral agreements. SIGS names two — with the Technical University of Munich and Tokyo Institute of Technology — and nominates a set number of students each semester, 15 October to 30 November of the previous year for spring and 15 March to 15 May for autumn. No degree is awarded.
Fee · Tuition follows the inter-institutional agreement; SIGS publishes no fee
Tsinghua SIGS Global Summer School
A short summer program run by the Office of Global Affairs and announced each January (registration for the 2025 edition opened on 15 January 2025; the 2024 edition ended on 4 July). SIGS publishes no dates, fees, credit value or eligibility for the next edition, so treat any figure you see elsewhere as unverified.
Fee · Not published on the Global Summer School pages — ask the Office of Global Affairs
Documents to prepare
- Personal statement, plus — for doctoral applicants — a brief research background or research plan.
- Degree certificate plus authentication: the nationally recognised degree for mainland Chinese universities, or an authentication report from the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange. Originals are inspected at registration.
- Academic transcript with evidence of your GPA, and a language proficiency score report: an HSK certificate at the program’s level, or IELTS 6.5 / TOEFL iBT 85 (tests before 21 January 2026) or 4.5 (on or after) for non-native English speakers on English-taught programs.
- Two academic recommendation letters, from associate professors or above, or senior professionals in the relevant industry.
- Passport bio page (a personal ordinary passport), plus nationality status documentation where applicable. Documents not in Chinese or English need a notarised translation.
Application timeline
These are the dates Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School published for the 2027 intake.
- 1
Applications open for the 2027 intake
17 Sep 2026Tsinghua’s university-level guide gives a general window of mid-September to the following February, but departments set their own closing dates and SIGS runs much later.
- 2
Chinese Government Scholarship windows
Nov / Dec 2026 – Feb 2027Type A (November–February) goes through the Chinese diplomatic mission or dispatching authority in your home country; Type B (December–February) through the CSC system at studyinchina.csc.edu.cn under agency number 100032. Both need a SIGS pre-admission offer in hand.
- 3
Recommended submission date for scholarship applicants
By Dec 2026Five months before the general deadline — the date that actually matters if you need funding.
- 4
Application deadline
17:00 Beijing time, 15 May 2027The 2026 cycle closed on 31 May, so 2027 is two weeks earlier; individual programs have occasionally extended their own deadline by separate announcement.
- 5
Shenzhen Universiade International Scholarship window (enrolled students only)
Apr 2027 - 6
SIGS International Student Scholarship window
May – Jul 2027The university-level Tuition Scholarship is applied for in June, through your intended institute.
- 7
Registration and start of the academic year
Late Aug / early Sep 2027Normally late August or early September in Shenzhen; bring original degree certificates for the qualification review.
The RMB 800 application fee is non-refundable whatever the outcome, and is Tsinghua’s university-wide fee rather than a SIGS surcharge. Doctoral tuition is a flat RMB 40,000 per year; master’s tuition is a set of individual prices rather than a band, from RMB 30,000 a year to RMB 418,000 for the whole part-time MBA, with two 2027 rows still printed as "TBD". Add RMB 800 per academic year for compulsory accidental injury and hospitalisation insurance. Accommodation is the gap in the published figures: SIGS houses all full-time graduate students and admitted international students automatically qualify without a separate application, but no price is published, and Tsinghua’s guide prints Beijing rates only and tells Shenzhen applicants to contact SIGS. Doctoral students receive a basic stipend of RMB 3,810 a month and master’s students RMB 600.
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Scholarships
Funding comes in four layers — national, university, municipal and school — and they are mutually exclusive rather than stackable: the Financial Support page excludes Chinese Government Scholarship holders from the university Tuition Scholarship, excludes both from the Shenzhen municipal award, and excludes all three from the SIGS International Student Scholarship. So your first choice matters, and the timing matters more: both Chinese Government Scholarship channels close in February, which is why SIGS recommends finishing the whole admission application by December 2026 rather than working to the 15 May deadline. Every channel except the municipal one needs a pre-admission offer from SIGS first. One caveat: Tsinghua’s 2027 guide names the Beijing Municipal Government Scholarship, a Beijing award, while the SIGS page lists a Shenzhen one instead — since SIGS students study in Shenzhen, ask financialaid@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn which applies to you.
Chinese Government Scholarship — Type A (bilateral program)
A full scholarship: the 2027 SIGS announcement says it "usually covers tuition, stipend, accommodation subsidy, and medical insurance".
Eligibility: Non-Chinese citizens with a SIGS pre-admission offer, applying through the Chinese diplomatic mission or dispatching authority in their home country, or via campuschina.org. Window: November to February.
Chinese Government Scholarship — Type B (Chinese university program)
A full scholarship, on the same terms as Type A.
Eligibility: Non-Chinese citizens with a pre-admission offer, applying through the CSC system at studyinchina.csc.edu.cn under Tsinghua’s agency number 100032. Window: December to February — the narrowest in the system.
Tsinghua University Tuition Scholarship
Tuition only — "full or partial tuition fee with a duration of one academic year", so it is renewed annually rather than granted for the whole degree.
Eligibility: Non-Chinese citizens with a pre-admission offer, applying through the institute they intend to join rather than centrally. Chinese Government Scholarship recipients are excluded. Window: June.
SIGS International Student Scholarship
Tuition fee waivers, granted according to the annual scholarship evaluation results. SIGS publishes neither the size of the waiver nor the number of awards.
Eligibility: New international students, assessed on previous academic achievements, research outcomes and overall performance. Holders of the awards above are excluded. Window: May–July.
Shenzhen Universiade International Scholarship (SUISF)
A municipal award administered through the Shenzhen Universiade International Scholarship Fund at suisf.org.cn. The amount is not stated on the SIGS Financial Support page.
Eligibility: Current students only — not an entry scholarship, so it cannot fund year one. Chinese Government Scholarship and university scholarship recipients are excluded. Window: April.
Institute-level scholarships, assistantships and the STEM Leader PhD Program
Set by the individual institute: the Institute of Environment and Ecology advertised in its 2026 notice an iEE New Student Scholarship covering full or partial tuition, plus assistantships. Separately, SIGS advertises "full scholarships for all eligible students" on the STEM Leader PhD Program, without publishing the stipend or defining "eligible".
Eligibility: Applicants to that institute’s or program’s degrees. These terms are published per institute rather than on the school-level page, so read your institute’s notice as well as the SIGS one — and note that the STEM Leader program ran to its own 31 May deadline in the 2026 cycle.
Research
Research at the university
SIGS is organised as a research school first: nine institutes and divisions plus the International Open Innovation Education Center (Open FIESTA) and the Double Helix Center, each built around one of the seven disciplinary domains rather than around traditional departments. The scale is substantial — 246 postdoctoral researchers alongside 230 faculty, and 132 research institutions of all kinds as of 31 October 2024, classified as government-approved, self-established or jointly built; the homepage counts 27 of those as national or provincial/ministerial level. The most recent annual figure on the English research pages is for 2023: 272 projects approved with a total contract value over RMB 270 million, split 85 national (including 29 Key Research and Development projects, 51 Natural Science Foundation grants and 5 from other ministries), 39 provincial and 138 municipal. The municipal block is the largest — this is a school whose research base is genuinely tied to Shenzhen, not merely located there.
Materials, information technology and data
The Institute of Materials Research (2020) and the Institute of Data and Information (February 2023) anchor the engineering-first strategy. Data science and information technology is both an institute and one of the 22 doctoral programs, with its own interdisciplinary degree code.
Biopharmaceutical and health engineering, ocean engineering, future habitats
The Institute of Biopharmaceutical and Health Engineering was the first created after the launch, in December 2019, and precision medicine and healthcare is a separate doctoral program. The Institute for Ocean Engineering grew out of the ocean science department created in 2011. The Institute of Future Human Habitats covers architecture, urban and rural planning, and civil and hydraulic engineering — the disciplines behind the architecture and planning master’s degrees.
Environment, ecology and innovation management
The Institute of Environment and Ecology runs two master’s and two doctoral programs for international students, including the English-taught Environmental Science and New Energy Technology degree (0830J2). The Institute of Innovation Management is the one non-engineering anchor, alongside the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences.
- 89 provincial and ministerial research awards and 6,035 published patent applications.
- 10 national-level quality courses and 18 Tsinghua quality courses, alongside over 100 fully English-taught courses.
- A postdoctoral cohort of 246 against a faculty of 230 — an unusually research-heavy staffing ratio.
Global engagement
Global engagement
SIGS was assembled out of international partnerships rather than acquiring them later: the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, agreed with the University of California, Berkeley in September 2014, and Open FIESTA, set up with the Paris Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity in June 2015, were both folded into the new school at its 2019 launch. Its partner list names Leibniz University Hannover and the Technical University of Munich, Kanazawa University, the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, the University of Southampton, the Paris interdisciplinary institute, Johns Hopkins and Harvard, DNV in Norway and the University of Sydney; the Chinese overview adds Yale, Imperial College London, RWTH Aachen, Melbourne, Waseda and Nagoya, and says students are regularly sent to more than 30 universities and research institutes abroad. What distinguishes the list is how much of it is dual-degree rather than mobility: several partnerships end in two degrees, not a semester abroad.
Dual master’s degrees in Europe
With Leibniz University Hannover, a three-year resource-and-environment dual master’s in which Tsinghua awards an MS in Environmental Engineering and Hannover an engineering master’s. RWTH Aachen takes a cohort each year for joint mechanical engineering training in automotive and production engineering, and Open FIESTA runs a dual master’s with Paris-Saclay. Separately, exchange agreements with the Technical University of Munich and Tokyo Institute of Technology send a set number of students each semester, nominated 15 October to 30 November for spring and 15 March to 15 May for autumn.
Japan, Korea and Hong Kong
Cooperation with Kyoto University on environmental technology dates from 2005 and became an environmental professional dual master’s in 2016. Seoul National University partners at master’s and doctoral level in environmental engineering, and a financial management master’s with the Chinese University of Hong Kong dates from 2004.
Health and public health in North America
A healthcare management dual master’s with Yale, collaborative doctoral training in public health with Johns Hopkins, research with Harvard on public health and healthcare system reform, and an environmental studies dual master’s with the University of Waterloo.
Career
Career & alumni
Career support runs through the Career Development Guidance Center in Life Science Building B, Room 302B, alongside a Career Services Office that organises mentorship programs, enterprise visits and coaching. The most distinctive element is the peer-mentorship scheme: advisers are SIGS alumni within three years of graduation, which keeps advice on internships, workplace expectations and applications recent rather than general. Two honest caveats. First, SIGS publishes no employment rates, salary figures or placement statistics for international graduates, so treat any such number you find elsewhere as unsourced. Second, the university-wide jobs hub it points students to, the Tsinghua Employment Network, is a Chinese-language service. The only cohort-scale figure SIGS publishes is cumulative: more than 18,000 graduates since the Shenzhen graduate school opened in 2001.
Career support
- Career Development Guidance Center — one-on-one counselling on career decisions, application materials and professional strategy, booked through the 清深就业 mini-programme.
- Peer mentorship — career advisers who are SIGS alumni within three years of graduation — plus International Organization Talent Exchange salons and a Sustainable Development Local Action series of site visits with Shenzhen social organisations.
- Career Services Office programs: mentorship schemes, enterprise visits and professional coaching, plus resume review and international career pathway guidance.
- Tsinghua Employment Network (career.tsinghua.edu.cn), the university-wide opportunities and placement hub SIGS directs students to.
Notable alumni
Campus life
Campus life
Because SIGS is graduate-only, campus life is a graduate community: 50 registered student organisations across seven categories — public welfare practice, technological innovation, ideological and political development, cultural and sports activities, arts and culture, volunteer services, and mutual support and self-discipline — with over 1,000 students taking part, plus university-wide competitions such as the Ma Yuehan Cup. The school houses all full-time graduate students, and its Chinese admission notice adds that admitted international students automatically qualify for a student apartment without a separate application. The catch is the price: Tsinghua’s guide prints only Beijing rates and tells applicants to ask SIGS about Shenzhen, while the SIGS Housing and Dining page lists buildings but no fees.
Accommodation
On-campus residences — Heyuan Buildings 1, 2, 4 and 5, and Building B (International Building Section I)
Not published on the SIGS pages
Admitted international students automatically qualify and need not apply separately. The standard for the year is announced at enrolment, so ask the Admissions Office rather than budgeting from the Beijing rates.
Off-campus residences — Yun Gu Buildings 1 and 3, and SoFunLand Buildings A11, A27 and A28
Not published on the SIGS pages
SIGS uses these because on-campus capacity is limited, so an offer of accommodation does not guarantee a room on campus. Ask where you would be placed before planning a commute.
Dining
Heyuan Canteen 1 in the Heyuan Complex Building, Heyuan Canteen 2 in the Heyuan Building 1 Annex and the International Building Canteen on floors 1–4 of Building B all run 7:00–9:30, 11:00–13:30 and 17:00–19:30; a KFC near Heyuan Building 5 opens 8:00–22:00. Students receive a campus card at enrolment, which is what the canteens run on, and visitors can apply for an electronic dining card through the Campus Service Center. SIGS does not publish meal prices, so budget for food separately.
Facilities
Sport
A bookable sports field and two gyms — a 330 m² gym on the first floor of Building Q, open 8:00–23:00, and one on the 24th floor of Building B with 10 rowing machines, open 10:30–12:30 and 14:30–21:30. South-east of the campus, the 17,000 m² University Town Sports Center adds a gymnasium, a stadium, two swimming pools, six basketball courts, 11 tennis courts, seven badminton courts, five table-tennis tables and a football field.
Student organisations
50 registered student organisations across seven categories — public welfare practice, technological innovation, ideological and political development, cultural and sports activities, arts and culture, volunteer services, and mutual support and self-discipline — with more than 1,000 students taking part, plus annual athletics competitions and university-wide events such as the Ma Yuehan Cup.
Health, insurance and visas
The Psychological Counseling Center, established in 2005 on the second floor of Building Q, offers individual counselling, group sessions, workshops and an AI counselling system with multilingual support around the clock. Accidental injury and hospitalisation insurance is compulsory at RMB 800 per academic year. Visas, residence permits and general campus-life questions go to the International Students & Scholars Center, not the Admissions Office.
Campus
Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School in photos
Photos of Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is a Tsinghua SIGS degree a Tsinghua University degree?+
Yes — SIGS is a graduate school of Tsinghua University, not a separate institution, and describes itself as "a research and graduate education institution of Tsinghua University located in southern China". You apply through Tsinghua’s international graduate application system at yzbm.tsinghua.edu.cn/intlLogin rather than a Shenzhen-only portal; SIGS is listed among the university’s schools and departments on Tsinghua’s graduate admissions site; Tsinghua’s 2027 guide says 54 of those schools and departments admit international students to Tsinghua master’s or doctoral degrees; and the SIGS announcement puts the enrolment qualification review "upon registration at Tsinghua University". What neither site prints is one explicit sentence naming the institution that issues the diploma, so if you need that in writing, ask admission@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn.
Can I apply to Tsinghua SIGS for a bachelor’s degree?+
No. SIGS is graduate-only: no bachelor’s degrees, no foundation year, no pathway program. Its Facts and Figures page counts 4,491 master’s students and 1,365 doctoral candidates and no undergraduates, and the 2027 announcement lists 40 master’s and 22 doctoral programs and nothing below them. A bachelor’s applicant needs Tsinghua University’s undergraduate admissions channel instead. The non-degree options SIGS runs — visiting students, exchange students and the Global Summer School — are not degree routes either: visiting and exchange students are told outright that no degree is awarded.
How much is tuition at Tsinghua SIGS, and what else will I pay?+
Doctoral tuition is a flat RMB 40,000 per year. Master’s tuition is set per program: RMB 30,000 a year for public administration, RMB 30,000–36,000 for logistics engineering, RMB 33,000 for most engineering master’s, RMB 62,000 for resources and environmental engineering and RMB 75,000 for electronic information, then whole-program prices for the professional degrees — RMB 120,000 for urban and rural planning, RMB 198,000 for the Master of Finance, up to RMB 418,000 for the part-time MBA. Two 2027 rows, biological and pharmaceutical engineering and design, are still marked "TBD". Add RMB 800 for the non-refundable application fee and RMB 800 a year for compulsory insurance. Accommodation is the figure SIGS does not publish — you are guaranteed a place but not quoted a price. Going the other way, doctoral students receive a basic stipend of RMB 3,810 a month and master’s students RMB 600.
Do I need HSK, or can I study entirely in English?+
Most programs open to international students are fully English-taught — the Chinese 2026 admission notice says so, and the academics overview counts over 100 fully English-taught courses — but some disciplines require Chinese. There is no school-wide HSK level: Tsinghua’s guide says you must supply "HSK results or English test reports" according to what your chosen program requires, so read the program entry before booking a test. For English-taught programs, applicants who are not native English speakers need IELTS 6.5, or TOEFL iBT 85 for tests taken before 21 January 2026 and 4.5 on or after, reflecting the change in the TOEFL score scale. Individual institutes sometimes publish a lower bar — the Institute of Environment and Ecology’s 2026 notice asked for TOEFL 80 or IELTS 6.5 and said HSK was not required — so check your program page too and confirm with the office if the two disagree.
When is the deadline for the 2027 intake, and is there an age limit?+
Applications opened on 17 September 2026 and close at 17:00 Beijing time on 15 May 2027 — two weeks earlier than the 2026 cycle, which closed on 31 May. But 15 May is the wrong date to work to if you need funding: SIGS recommends a complete application by December 2026, and the Chinese Government Scholarship channels close in February. Individual programs also run their own calendar — the STEM Leader PhD Program set its own 31 May deadline in the 2026 cycle — so check your own program page. Registration in Shenzhen is normally late August or early September 2027. Neither SIGS nor Tsinghua states an age limit for international graduate applicants.
What scholarships can I apply for, and can I hold more than one?+
No, you cannot hold more than one: the four layers are mutually exclusive. The Chinese Government Scholarship — Type A through your home country (November–February), or Type B through the CSC system under Tsinghua’s agency number 100032 (December–February) — is the full award, usually covering tuition, stipend, accommodation subsidy and medical insurance. Below it, the university Tuition Scholarship covers full or partial tuition one academic year at a time and is applied for in June through your intended institute, but not by Chinese Government Scholarship holders. The SIGS International Student Scholarship grants tuition waivers to new students on academic and research merit, May to July, and excludes holders of the awards above. The Shenzhen Universiade International Scholarship is municipal, has an April window and is for current students only, so it cannot fund year one. All entry-level awards need a SIGS pre-admission offer first.
Where will I live, and is a dormitory guaranteed?+
A place is effectively guaranteed — SIGS provides accommodation for all full-time graduate students, and its Chinese admission notice says admitted international students automatically qualify for a student apartment without applying separately. The price is not published anywhere on the SIGS pages, and Tsinghua’s guide prints only Beijing rates (RMB 40 per bed per day for a double, RMB 30 for a triple) while directing Shenzhen applicants to contact SIGS, so do not budget from the Beijing numbers. On campus you would be in Heyuan Buildings 1, 2, 4 or 5, or Building B of International Building Section I; because capacity is limited, SIGS also houses students off campus at Yun Gu and SoFunLand, so ask where you would be placed. One thing is settled: SIGS students are trained full time in Shenzhen, with no accommodation in Beijing.
Contact
Contact the admissions offices
Reach the Admissions Office, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School (Mon–Fri 8:30–12:00 and 13:30–17:30) for questions about applications, documents, scholarships and arrival. Type university programs and offices are based on campus in Shenzhen.
- Office
- Admissions Office, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School (Mon–Fri 8:30–12:00 and 13:30–17:30)
- Address
- Tsinghua Campus, University Town of Shenzhen, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, P.R. China (深圳市南山区西丽大学城清华园区)
- admission@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn — graduate admissions for international applicants; the first address to write tofinancialaid@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn — scholarships and financial aid, Office of Academic Affairsissc@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn — International Students & Scholars Center (visas, residence permits, campus life); beatrixjiang@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn is the named contact therezhangchen@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn — visiting and exchange students, Office of Academic Affairs, Room B302career@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn — Career Development Guidance Centergrad@tsinghua.edu.cn — Tsinghua Graduate Admissions Office in Beijing, for international applicants
- Phone
- +86 755 8654 3994 — SIGS Admissions Office+86 755 26036030 — scholarships and financial aid+86 755 26403743 — International Students & Scholars Center (visas and campus life)+86 755 86545074 — visiting and exchange students, Office of Academic Affairs+86 755 26036177 — Career Development Guidance Center+86 10 62781380 — Tsinghua Graduate Admissions Office, Beijing (international applicants)
Verified from official sources · last checked 2026-09-17
Tuition, fees and deadlines change every intake. Always confirm the current figures on the official Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School pages before applying.
- 2027 Admissions to Tsinghua SIGS are Now Open (17 Sep 2026)
- SIGS graduate programs for international students
- SIGS financial support and scholarships
- SIGS contact directory
- 清华大学2027年招收国际研究生简章
- Tsinghua international graduate admission guide index
- Tsinghua graduate admissions for international students (English)
- 清华大学深圳国际研究生院2026年招收国际研究生招生说明
- SIGS — The Basics
- SIGS Facts and Figures
- 清华大学深圳国际研究生院学院沿革 (history)
- 清华大学深圳国际研究生院学院简介
- SIGS homepage statistics (Chinese)
- SIGS academics overview
- SIGS institutes and divisions
- SIGS research programs and 2023 project figures
- SIGS 科研机构 (research institutions)
- SIGS 联合培养 (joint and dual degree programs)
- SIGS 国际合作伙伴 (international partners)
- SIGS visiting students
- SIGS exchange students
- SIGS housing and dining
- SIGS athletics and recreation
- SIGS health and wellness
- SIGS student activities
- SIGS 学生职业发展 (career development)
- Institute of Environment and Ecology admissions (2026)
- Tsinghua SIGS STEM Leader PhD Program
- QS World University Rankings — Tsinghua University
- THE World University Rankings — Tsinghua University