The International Mobility Of Chinese Students: Driving Forces And Risk Prevention

With the increasingly intense connection and cooperation among international economies nowadays, many countries treat cultural and educational exchanges as an effective way to strengthen their global influence and realize political interests. Therefore, accepting and training foreign students has become one of the significant aspects of various countries'global development strategy. With the reality of economic globalization, higher education must continually cultivate international talents. Economic globalization and higher education internationalization accelerate international student mobility, with the number of all students studying outside their home countries reaching 2.9 million at present, a number which has surpassed previous levels.Because international student mobility benefits countries in the areas of politics, economics, education and culture, it has led many countries to attract international students and expand their share in the international education market. The education of international students has evolved from a singular focus on education to a combined function which includes economics, politics, and culture, thus becoming an important method for developed countries to expand education markets and their influence.With the rapid increase of international students throughout the world, the situation has become more complicated, resulting in fiercer competition for countries and colleges as well students in the international education market. Along with the deepening of reform and the policy of greater openness in China and the receptivity to foreign education after entering the WTO, more and more Chinese students choose to further their education abroad. In recent years the number of Chinese students studying overseas has increased several times, thus bringing the following problems: the uneven quality of education, the seriousness of low returning rate of students, poor safety situation while studying abroad and declining in integrity during the process of student mobility.At present China has been the biggest source country of international students. The quantity and quality of the student mobility will influence politics, economics, society and culture for China and the countries who receive the students. The strengthening of risk prevention for Chinese students will be helpful to build a stable student international mobility market, thus promoting its healthy development.This dissertation focuses on the opportunities and challenges in international mobility of Chinese students under the framework of education internationalization. With the theories of human resource investment, education market demand theory, education service trade theory, higher education internationalization theory and the push and pull theory, the author analyzes the driving forces of Chinese students studying abroad and focuses on the construction of a risk prevention system, thus transferring and applying the risk management theory to student mobility and enriching the student mobility theory. Besides, the author provides risk prevention methods for interested parties in this process, which will help the investors and consumers intensify risk consciousness and adopt suitable solutions.Chapter One:Introduction. In this chapter the author analyzes the research background and objectives, indicates the shortcomings of the present study, summarizes the studying methods and interprets certain concepts.Chapter Two:Current situation and trends in international student mobility. This chapter covers the analysis of the current situation and trends in international student mobility, and defines the characteristics of international mobility of Chinese students, which facilitates further analysis of the driving forces of student mobility.Chapter Three:Driving forces of international student mobility. Firstly, based on the theories, including the human resource investment theory, education market demand theory, education service trade theory, higher education internationalization theory, and the push and pull theory, the author analyzes the driving forces of international student mobility, which leads to a detailed analysis of motivation behind student mobility.Chapter Four:Definition and classification of international student mobility risks. Through many cases and data, the author illustrates the potential risks of international student mobility, including brain drain risk, anticipated profit risk, education quality risk, safety risk and reputation risk.Chapter Five:Generating mechanism of risks for international mobility of Chinese students. This covers education, systemic and social sources of international mobility risk, which thus lays reliable foundations for risk prevention.Chapter Six:Construction of an international mobility risk prevention system. This is the most significant part which outlines the specific prevention measures from the viewpoint of the government, intuitions and individuals. These prevention systems include 1) a quality provision system for international education,2) a supervision system in the intermediary agent market,3) a support system for student mobility and 4)an individual student risk prevention system.