How does CUSSA Make Credit Earning More Efficient?

In 1872, when the first group of young children left China to study in the U.S., the situation of Chinese students going abroad was gradually opened, and the number of international students from China has grown from 30 students per year to the largest number of students in the world today.

With the growing popularity of study abroad, "summer school" has also become a key buzzword in recent years. Not only do students go to the United States, Canada and other countries to study foreign courses during summer vacation, but China also offers summer study programs for international students, through which they can earn credits and graduate early.

In 2012, CUSSA introduced the international Summer School system to China, which is an academic alliance of top domestic universities and international summer school programs, with a market share of about 25% in the summer school industry.

By inviting professors from famous overseas universities to partner universities in China, CUSSA provides a convenient and economical way for overseas Chinese students to earn credits due to the relatively low cost of teaching in China.

CUSSA was founded during Li Lin's undergraduate studies. After graduating from high school, Li Lin went to the University of Pittsburgh in the United States for his undergraduate studies and started his own business during his sophomore year at CUSSA.

At the beginning of CUSSA, it focused on the pain point of overseas students: how to effectively overcome the language learning barrier? How do I make sure that language is not a barrier to successful completion of school? How to effectively integrate domestic and international resources to support international students' learning?

In order to solve these problems, Li Lin and the CUSSA startup team have designed a smooth mechanism: summer university course cooperates through innovative design thinking and comprehensive analysis of domestic and overseas courses, which eventually leads to a sustainable business model.

CUSSA charges C-suite users for per-subject fees, ranging from RMB 30,000 to RMB 50,000. CUSSA offers a one-stop service for teaching, training, and credit transferring.
As a native of Wuhan, Li Lin has set up CUSSA's global headquarters in his hometown of Wuhan, and set up branch offices in New York, Columbus, Hong Kong, and Chengdu, to devote himself to CUSSA's business.

So far, CUSSA has been operating for 10 years and has provided services to tens of thousands of overseas Chinese students.

Meanwhile, CUSSA has established cooperation with dozens of 985 and 211 universities, including Renmin University of China, Zhejiang University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, National Sun Yat-sen University (Taiwan), etc. CUSSA established the China University Summer School Alliance (CUSSA) together with many domestic 985 and 211 universities as well as a worldwide mutual credit recognition system.

Relying on the combination of teachers from world-renowned universities and the teaching management mode of domestic universities, CUSSA provides professional North American university credit courses for overseas Chinese students, domestic high school students, and prospective students. It helps students to earn credits, save money, and finish their overseas studies early.

CUSSA not only provides Chinese students with international education experience, but also helps overseas Chinese students realize their personalized academic development planning based on the intelligent assessment and analysis system developed by education technology.

According to the founder Li Lin, CUSSA adopts an online and offline mixed teaching model with professors from famous overseas universities. The offline classes are mainly conducted in partner universities in major cities in China with professors from overseas universities.
In general, CUSSA's summer courses are held in June and July every year, while the winter courses are held in December, and each course lasts 4-5 weeks.

Due to the epidemic, CUSSA also offers courses for overseas credit during the regular semester this year for those Chinese students who are unable to return to their home universities overseas in time. Through CUSSA's teaching training and credit transfer services, students can complete their overseas studies in advance and save a lot of money on study abroad costs.

During the Wuhan Anti-Epidemic period, the CUSSA global team promptly switched the offline summer courses to online global courses based on wind control management.

In addition, CUSSA's overseas marketing team promptly conducted in-depth communication with students and partner universities through various channels to provide flexible and innovative OMO products and services. Through these quick responses, the students were not lost due to the epidemic, but rather the adhesion with the students was increased.

It is reported that, under the epidemic, as of early June, CUSSA's contracted amount has exceeded last year's annual revenue total, with a revenue size of nearly 100 million, and it is expected that the annual revenue will still grow by 100%.

In June 2020, CUSSA, a leading international summer school brand, completed a RMB 20-million-yuan Series A financing round with the exclusive investment of Hyde Capital, which injected more impetus to its market layout.

In the future, CUSSA will leverage its experience and resources in the field of international education abroad to continuously expand its product categories and strengthen its brand building and development, so as to provide more international students with better, more professional and more efficient services.