The Summer School for Generative AI is a twelve-day course run each July by the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Each edition takes 50 undergraduates, and only non-Chinese citizens are admitted.
Teaching starts at the basics of deep learning and natural language processing and moves up to large language models, multimodal and diffusion models, distributed systems for large-model training and inference, and autonomous LLM agents. Applied sessions cover generative AI in law, medicine, robotics and science. Eleven Tsinghua professors lecture, among them Jie Tang, Zhiyuan Liu, Minlie Huang and Jun Zhu.
The department has run the series annually: large language models in 2024, generative AI in 2025 and again in 2026. One registration fee covers the teaching along with a room and meals on campus.
Benefits & funding
- Twelve days of English-taught lectures and tutorials from Tsinghua computer science faculty; the 2026 edition ran 5–16 July.
- The USD 1,000 registration fee covers all courses, tutoring, accommodation and meals. The 2024 edition charged USD 800.
- A small cohort — 50 places per edition.
- Coursework spans large-scale pre-training, supervised fine-tuning and reasoning, cross-modal learning and embodied learning, with applications in natural language processing, computer vision, robotics and AI for science.
- No stipend, scholarship or travel grant is published, and airfare and visa costs are not among the items the fee covers.
Eligibility
- Non-Chinese citizens only.
- Undergraduates in their second or third year of study.
- Computer science or a related field.
- Applicants whose first language is not English submit a TOEFL score of 85 or an IELTS score of 6.5.
- No age limit, work-experience requirement or gender restriction is published.
Can you apply?
Here's who can apply
Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.
Eligible nationalities
Afghanistan · Albania · Algeria · Andorra · Angola · Antigua and Barbuda · Argentina · Armenia · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Bahamas
+ 182 more
Bahrain · Bangladesh · Barbados · Belarus · Belgium · Belize · Benin · Bhutan · Bolivia · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Botswana · Brazil · Brunei · Bulgaria · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cabo Verde · Cambodia · Cameroon · Canada · Central African Republic · Chad · Chile · Colombia · Comoros · Costa Rica · Côte d'Ivoire · Croatia · Cuba · Cyprus · Czechia · DR Congo · Denmark · Djibouti · Dominica · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · Egypt · El Salvador · Equatorial Guinea · Eritrea · Estonia · Eswatini · Ethiopia · Fiji · Finland · France · Gabon · Gambia · Georgia · Germany · Ghana · Greece · Grenada · Guatemala · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Guyana · Haiti · Honduras · Hungary · Iceland · India · Indonesia · Iran · Iraq · Ireland · Israel · Italy · Jamaica · Japan · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kenya · Kiribati · Kuwait · Kyrgyzstan · Laos · Latvia · Lebanon · Lesotho · Liberia · Libya · Liechtenstein · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Madagascar · Malawi · Malaysia · Maldives · Mali · Malta · Marshall Islands · Mauritania · Mauritius · Mexico · Micronesia · Moldova · Monaco · Mongolia · Montenegro · Morocco · Mozambique · Myanmar · Namibia · Nauru · Nepal · Netherlands · New Zealand · Nicaragua · Niger · Nigeria · North Korea · North Macedonia · Norway · Oman · Pakistan · Palau · Palestine · Panama · Papua New Guinea · Paraguay · Peru · Philippines · Poland · Portugal · Qatar · Republic of the Congo · Romania · Russia · Rwanda · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Samoa · San Marino · São Tomé and Príncipe · Saudi Arabia · Senegal · Serbia · Seychelles · Sierra Leone · Singapore · Slovakia · Slovenia · Solomon Islands · Somalia · South Africa · South Korea · South Sudan · Spain · Sri Lanka · Sudan · Suriname · Sweden · Switzerland · Syria · Tajikistan · Tanzania · Thailand · Timor-Leste · Togo · Tonga · Trinidad and Tobago · Tunisia · Türkiye · Turkmenistan · Tuvalu · Uganda · Ukraine · UAE · UK · USA · Uruguay · Uzbekistan · Vanuatu · Vatican City · Venezuela · Vietnam · Yemen · Zambia · Zimbabwe
Education required
Bachelor Enrolled
Circlebreaker is a free database of global fellowships, scholarships and programs — every one decoded like this.
We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.
Application process
- 1Open the current edition’s program page on the Tsinghua international education portal and create an account.
- 2Write a personal statement covering the applicant’s CV, research interests and past experience.
- 3Upload an official academic transcript together with a schooling certificate.
- 4Upload a copy of the passport information page.
- 5Attach a TOEFL or IELTS result where English is not the applicant’s first language.
- 6Submit before that edition’s deadline — 15 May for the 2026 round — and wait for the department to select the 50 participants.
Program timeline
Applications closed for the 2026 edition
May 15, 2026
The 2026 edition opened in Beijing
Jul 5, 2026
The 2026 edition ended
Jul 16, 2026
Earlier deadlines fell on 1 May 2024 and 1 June 2025, with teaching in early July
The 2027 edition has no published dates, and no notification date is published for any edition