Jason Li opted out of China’s domestic exam system in his mid-teens, moving instead to Canada to finish high school before completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo, about two hours drive west of Toronto. But he had no hesitation about where he wanted to go next to further his studies and pursue a career in finance.

“I didn’t even think for a second about coming back to China,” he says. “Canada is a nice place to live but, given the market here and thinking about my career, I had to come back.”

Mr Li opted to study for a specialist Finance MBA at the Tsinghua People’s Bank of China School of Finance in Beijing, a dual degree programme with Cornell University taught by professors from both institutions and for which Chinese and English fluency is required.