Inside China's top computer science university training the next generation of AI engineers

• Tsinghua University is China's top computer science school, drawing the country's best students.
• A grind culture fuels long hours and peer pressure to excel, students and experts told BI.
• For many, studying at Tsinghua opens doors to top AI roles and careers.

Felix Gan, a second-year Ph.D. student in computer science, said he is effectively living a "996" routine atBeijing's Tsinghua University. Seven days a week, his days start around 8 a.m., and he leaves campusat about 9 p.m.

Most of those hours go into his research, but he's not just working toward a degree. Gan hopes to develop a technology he can turn into a product and launch a startup after graduation.

That level of intensity is the norm on campus, where writing one thesis isn't enough to stand out. Some students write several.

Tsinghua is China's top computer science university, often likened to Harvard University or Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Students are gearing up for a front-row seat in the global AI race.

As China's AI ambitions grow, so does the pressure on the engineers and researchers in training.

Many say the payoff for years of hardcore schooling is worth it. Making it through Tsinghua can mean a golden ticket into the ranks of China's tech elite — a network that includes the likes of Wang Xing, the cofounder and CEO of Meituan, one of China's largest on-demand services companies. Other notable Tsinghua alumni include China's president, Xi Jinping, and his predecessor, Hu Jintao.

Tsinghua alumni have founded more than 1,000 companies, including over a dozen unicorns, according to market intelligence platform Tracxn.

Normalized 'grind' culture

The university is among the most selective in China. To get in, students need top marks on the Gaokao, China's national college entrance exam.

In 2024, only about 0.05% of Gaokao test-takers made it into Tsinghua or Peking University combined — roughly one in 2,000 students, according to national data cited by Chinese media.

Tsinghua's undergraduate student body largely comes from mainland China. Graduate schools have more international students, like Tsinghua University Shenzhen International Graduate School. Located about 1,400 miles south of Beijing, the graduate school brings together Chinese and international students in research-driven, industry-linked programs.

Daniyar Kuzekov, a master's student studying data science and information tech at Tsinghua's Shenzhen Institute of Graduate Studies, said most students he meets either have exceptional backgrounds or are relentless grinding.

"I feel the pressure that they were on before, how hardworking they were in order to get here to this level," he added.

Kuzekov, who's from Kazakhstan, described locking into a 22-hour straight coding marathon for his thesis, working alongside an AI assistant on a paper about DeepSeek.

Students told Business Insider that the grind culture comes with learning at the AI frontier. For computer science undergraduate Pau Tong Lin Xu, late nights and seven to eight hours of studying a day are typical.

"You learn a lot, but that comes at the cost of a huge workload, and sometimes that can leave little time for you to do other things or explore some of your own ideas," he said.

He described the peer pressure as a "double-edged sword" — motivating, yet at times overwhelming.

Tsinghua's culture reflects a broader trend in China, often described as "involution" — a cycle of intense competition in which everyone works harder just to keep up.

Some young Chinese people have pushed back by "lying flat," rejecting the grind. But for students at elite universities, opting out is rarely an option.

Publishing early, joining labs, coding as baseline

Beyond the daily grind, many computer science majors join research labs early and work on academic papers.

Some undergraduates go a step further, aiming to publish at top-tier computer science conferences — a signal of research ability when applying to graduate programs.

Zhixun Tan, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in electronic engineering in 2016 and works as a software engineer at Google, said joining research labs and engaging in out-of-classroom activities were the most valuable parts of his Tsinghua experience.

Professors were happy to guide students in research programs. "You can just reach out randomly to professors, and more often than not, they will happily take you," Tan said.

Tan completed a summer research program at Imperial College London organized by his school, which he said broadened his research horizons.

Davenzka Abigayle, a second-year undergraduate student majoring in biomedical engineering, said coding is treated as a baseline skill across disciplines at Tsinghua. Economics students might pick up Python for data analysis. Science and engineering students often go deeper, learning languages like C++ early on, she said.

Abigayle completed her C++ course in her first semester.

"It's useful in the long run," she said, adding that coding has helped in her coursework and projects.

Students also use AI tools daily to supercharge learning.

For Gan, the Ph.D. student, AI tripled his research speed, helping with preliminary checks, drafting code, and early implementations. But the final step remains manual.

"Professors are telling you use the tools, don't resist the tools, but we do still need to validate our code manually at the end because research requires exact precision," he said.

Kuzekov said he uses AI tools in his machine learning course with his professor's approval.

"We have to share our chats and all of these materials with our teacher," he said.

In some classes, students disclose how much of their work involved AI. Professors can also cross-check usage to verify their work, Abigayle said.

Zak Dychtwald, the founder of the Young China Group, a think tank based in Shanghai, said Tsinghua's prestige "comes from being China's most selective, best-resourced, and most symbolically important university, with especially strong engineering and computer science pipelines that translate directly into elite jobs and AI research.

"As China is increasingly recognized as sourcing the world's leading AI talent, the name recognition has even more significance than it used to," he added.

A ticket to the top

For many students, the benefits of enrolling at Tsinghua become apparent quickly.

Bryan Constantine Sadihin, a second-year master's student studying computer science, said Tsinghua's training gives him an edge in highly competitive technical interviews.

A year into his program, he secured a research internship at ShengShu, one of China's leading AI startups, where he worked on multimodal generative AI models. He said Tsinghua's reputation and training make him "optimistic" about his job prospects.

Tech-related roles are the biggest destination. About a third of Tsinghua undergraduates entered IT and software-related industries in 2022, according to the university's data.

Zhao Litao, a senior research fellow with the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, said Tsinghua sits at the apex of China's higher education.

"Its prestige reflects not only academic strength but also its historical role in training political, scientific, and technological elites," said Zhao, who researches China's social policy.

Zhao said Tsinghua graduates typically move into "leading tech firms, high-growth startups, or pursue further study." Preferred tech employers include Huawei, ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba.

Academia remains a key path, with many staying in China as geopolitical tensions rise and local opportunities expand, Zhao said.

"Notably, a smaller but influential segment moves into AI-focused startups, often linked to university labs," he added.

Front-row seat to China's AI ambition

As China closes the gap with — and in some areas challenges — the US in AI, Tsinghua students know they are in the heart of it.

Tan, the Google software engineer, said it was clear even as an undergraduate in the mid-2010s that China was at the forefront of technology and rapidly producing tech talent.

Zhao, the NUS research fellow, said that China's university system is increasingly structured to channel top talent into strategically important sectors — AI being one of the top priorities.

Backed by strong state support and rapid industry growth, the field is widely seen as the frontier of both scientific progress and economic opportunity.

"This is not purely a top-down process — student preferences, labor market signals, and institutional incentives are reinforcing each other, especially in AI," he added.

For some Tsinghua students and alumni, being part of China's top AI training grounds comes with a sense of responsibility to lead the tech revolution.

"There's nobody to fix the problem except us. So we have to step up and do the most difficult things, and then other people will follow suit," Tan said.

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