Living cost, at a glance
≈$1,944–2778/yr
≈$694–1389/yr
≈$183–368/mo
≈$81–116/mo
≈$3,611–5555
≈$5,113–8583
Tuition, rent/dorm, and food only. Rent & food are monthly figures ×12. On-campus swaps rent for the dorm rate. Excludes the one-time application fee and small recurring costs (utilities, transport).
01 — What Chongqing University actually is
A regional flagship built up through a century of relocations, mergers, and one wartime decade at the center of everything
Chongqing University was founded in 1929 as a comprehensive provincial university for what was then Sichuan's largest city. It grew through the turbulence of the decades that followed — including 1937 to 1946, when Chongqing itself became the wartime capital of the Republic of China and universities from across the country relocated into the region alongside the government. Over the following decades it absorbed a number of specialized institutes. The biggest came in 2000, when the former Chongqing Institute of Architecture and Engineering and the former Chongqing Institute of Communications merged into it. That's where its strength in architecture and civil engineering comes from — sitting alongside its original core in engineering and science.
Today it has Project 985 status — the same top tier as Fudan, Tsinghua, and the other schools already profiled on this site — plus Double First-Class designation. It isn't in the C9 League, the nine-school alliance that includes Harbin Institute of Technology, Xi'an Jiao Tong University, and Fudan, all covered elsewhere on this site. Chongqing University sits a tier below those nine in most domestic rankings, while still sitting comfortably inside China's national first tier. That's a distinction worth getting right rather than rounding up. It ranked 489th in the world in the 2026 QS World University Rankings — a placement roughly consistent with that domestic positioning: solidly 985-tier, but well outside the C9 band that sits in most of the world's top 300.
02 — Can you actually study here?
What the university's own international-admissions materials say, and what stays unconfirmed.
The headline facts first. Chongqing University was founded in 1929 and holds 985 and Double First-Class status, ranking 489th globally in QS. It is not a C9 school, but it sits comfortably inside China's national first tier. Tuition for international undergraduates runs ¥14,000 to ¥20,000 a year, about $1,944 to $2,778, with on-campus dormitories at ¥5,000 to ¥10,000 a year, about $694 to $1,389. The city around it is steeper and stranger than any brochure photo will show you. A flat-looking campus map in Chongqing can still mean a daily climb of several hundred steps.
Chongqing University runs its international admissions through a dedicated School of International Education, with its own application portal (study.cqu.edu.cn) separate from the university's domestic admissions system. Here's what that office's own published materials say:
| Question | What Chongqing University's own materials say |
|---|---|
| Degree programs | Bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs for international students, administered through the School of International Education's own admissions cycle, published annually as a dedicated application guide. |
| Language of instruction | The large majority of degree programs are Chinese-medium. A growing number of English-taught programs exist — undergraduate options include Business Administration (BBA), Materials Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering; graduate options include MBA, Architecture, Urban Planning, Landscape Architecture, Law, and Software Engineering, among others. Partial confirmed |
| English-proficiency benchmark | Official requirement for English-taught programs: IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL 80 (iBT) or above. This is confirmed from the university's own current 2026 admissions materials. Chinese-taught tracks require HSK Level 4 (score ≥180) or equivalent. |
| Scholarships | Multiple tiers confirmed on the university's own site: the national Chinese Government Scholarship, the China Scholarship Council's International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship, and two university/municipal-level awards — the Chongqing Municipal Government Mayor Scholarship and the Chongqing University President Scholarship. |
| Application contact | International Students Office, No. 174 Shazheng Street, Shapingba District, Chongqing — iso@cqu.edu.cn, per the university's own published contact page. |
| Total international student headcount | Multiple public sources cite roughly 1,800 international students from over 100 countries. A separate, official university figure (over 1,400) appears on the university's "About" page but dates to 2014, so it is not current. No official total at time of writing. |
Source: Chongqing University's own School of International Education site (study.cqu.edu.cn) and its published 2026 application guides for undergraduate and postgraduate international students, retrieved July 2026. Treat every figure as specific to the cycle it was published for, and confirm current terms directly with the university before applying.
The honest pattern here is different from Fudan's. Fudan's gate is an interview that tests Chinese-language ability even inside an internationally-branded program. Chongqing University's gate is plainer and less dramatized: a smaller, more conventional international office, a narrower slice of English-medium options, and — candidly — thinner public documentation of exactly how selective the process is for any given program. That's not a criticism of the school. It's a description of what a solid 985 flagship outside the C9 tier actually looks like from an applicant's side of the desk: less marketing, more paperwork.
03 — What it costs to actually live here as a student
The city's own numbers apply — with one honest caveat about the terrain
Chongqing University's Shapingba campus sits inland from the riverside towers most people picture when they hear "Chongqing." This site's own city deep-dive covers the general cost-of-living baseline — a healthier rent-to-income ratio, around 35%, than most people assume. CQU's own School of International Education lists tuition at ¥14,000–20,000/year for undergraduates and ¥21,000–49,000/year for master's programs. On-campus dormitory rooms run ¥5,000–10,000/year depending on room type, and board is reported separately at roughly ¥7,000–10,000/year. What I still don't have sourced here is a specific student-scale monthly budget beyond those official figures, plus typical off-campus rent near Shapingba specifically.
The university cost calculator rolls these figures up against every other school in this series, side by side.
See how CQU's numbers add up against your own food budget, or against living off campus instead, in the university cost calculator →.
Tuition and dormitory figures above are from CQU's own official fee pages (study.cqu.edu.cn); the board estimate is from a third-party study-in-China guide and not independently confirmed against the university's own materials. Verify current rates before budgeting against them.
One thing does carry over, though, and it's worth saying again for a prospective student: whatever neighborhood you end up in near this campus, check its relationship to the hillside, not just its distance in kilometers from a classroom building. A flat-looking campus map in Chongqing can still mean a daily climb of several hundred steps between your dorm and your first class. The same optical-illusion terrain the city deep-dive describes doesn't stop at the campus gate.
04 — The honest brake
Where the confidence stops
A few things stay open here, not papered over:
- English-medium options are narrower here than at Fudan or HIT. If your Chinese isn't already strong, confirm — program by program, directly with the School of International Education — whether your intended major is actually taught in English, rather than assuming a 985-tier brand implies an English-medium track by default.
- The TOEFL/IELTS benchmark cited above is a third-party figure, not a confirmed current university requirement. Treat it as a rough historical indicator only, and get the current number directly from the university before relying on it.
- No clean current international-enrollment headcount. Marked open above rather than filled in with a borrowed estimate.
- The author has no personal connection to this school. Unlike the Harbin or Dalian university pages on this site, there is no "close but didn't get in" story here. This page is all research, no lived experience, and it reads that way.
- Go straight to the source. For current admissions, language, and program details, Chongqing University's own School of International Education site is the authority — not this page, not an agency, not a forum.
I've stood in this city twice and gotten lost both times. I've never sat in one of this university's classrooms, and this page doesn't pretend otherwise.
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05 — The rest of Chongqing's universities
Chongqing University isn't the only one
Two other schools round out the city's higher-education landscape, each deserving its own full treatment as this guide grows:
Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications (CQUPT)
A specialized institute with a strong regional reputation in communications and electronics engineering, offering a small number of English-medium bachelor's tracks for international students in fields including Communication Engineering and Electronic Information Engineering — narrower in scope than Chongqing University but more specifically English-accessible in the tracks it does offer.
Southwest University
Based in Beibei district, some distance from the urban core, Southwest University is a comprehensive 211-tier institution formed from the 2005 merger of Southwest Normal University and Southwest Agricultural University — giving it unusual dual strength in teacher training and agricultural science within the same city as Chongqing University's engineering focus.
These deserve their own full treatment. Coming as this guide grows.
06 — Questions people actually ask
Quick answers
When was Chongqing University founded?
In 1929, as a comprehensive provincial university. It took in several specialized institutes over the following decades. The biggest merger came in 2000, and that's where its strength in architecture and civil engineering comes from.
Is Chongqing University a C9 school?
No — it has Project 985 and Double First-Class status, the same top tier as Fudan and Tsinghua, but it isn't one of the nine C9 League schools. It ranked 489th in the world in the 2026 QS rankings, solidly 985-tier but outside the C9 band.
How much does it cost to study at Chongqing University?
Published figures run ¥14,000–20,000/year for undergraduate tuition and ¥21,000–49,000/year for master's programs. On-campus dormitory rooms are ¥5,000–10,000/year, and board is reported separately at roughly ¥7,000–10,000/year.
Does Chongqing's hilly terrain affect students specifically?
Yes — a flat-looking campus map in Chongqing can still mean a daily climb of several hundred steps between a dorm and a classroom building. Check a neighborhood's relationship to the hillside, not just its distance in kilometers.
How international is Chongqing University's admissions process, compared to other schools on this site?
Plainer and less dramatized than Fudan's, for example — a smaller, more conventional international office, a narrower slice of English-medium options, and thinner public documentation of exactly how selective any given program is.
If you're considering it
Before you apply to Chongqing University
- Confirm the language of instruction for your specific program directly with the School of International Education — a 985 brand does not by itself mean an English-medium option exists for your major.
- Budget for the terrain, not just the rent. This site's Chongqing city deep-dive explains why the cost-of-living ratio is healthier than reputation suggests, and why the real daily cost here is navigational, not financial.
- Ask about degree recognition in your home country and field before you commit, rather than after you arrive.
- Treat every admissions figure in this guide as dated the moment it's published. Confirm current terms, deadlines, and language requirements directly with the university.