Multi-Causal Framework: An Analysis On The Causes Of The Chinese-Origin Foreign Students In Xiamen University

Today the era of globalization makes higher education move toward internationalization. As an important part of Chinese international exchange, higher education of foreign students faces unprecedented opportunities as well as challenges. This paper is aimed at the question of"why did they study in China?". Altbach is a famous educator in comparative pedagogy in America. Two-division method is used in the Push-Pull theory to explain the reasons of going abroad for study, Altbach analyzes on the factors into two classes: push factors and pull factors. Push factors mean the reasons in exporting country which drive the talents flow out. And the pull factors mean the reasons in the reception country which attract people to flow in. The existing study shows more concerns on the attraction of China to the foreign students. And my paper plan to analyze the reasons from another aspect of"what influences the decision of coming to China to study?"That is to say this paper makes analysis of the driving forces in the foreign students'native land. What makes the Chinese international students choose China to study rather than other developed countries when they decide to study abroad?This paper makes a hypothesis on the traditional viewpoint which connected the reasons of Chinese-origin foreign students'studying in China with"cultural identification". After the questionnaire survey and the statistical analysis of data, the five classifications of the foreign students are made out to compare the learning motivation differences between the Chinese-origin students and the foreign students. And combining with the case interview information this article make a further study on the influences lie in the individual himself,his family,the community,his native country environment and the exchange conditions. And the"Multi-Causal Framework"of individual,family,community,country and the exchange is established to analyze on the effecting factors of the foreign student in Xiamen University. This is a two-dimensional coordinates on the classifications of the foreign students and the ten reasons of coming to study in China. This paper investigates the intention of international students who come to China for studying and analyzes the question with the Push-Pull theory. The study emphasize that the cause of coming to Chine for studying to the international students can not be single-element. Many traditionally studies consider the reasons that Chinese-origin students studying in China as the"cultural identification", and connect the Non-Chinese foreign students choosing China to study with the practical purpose. The single reason is not an overall review. The factors which effect the foreign student's decision should be a"Multi-Causal Framework"from the individual to the national surroundings. I hope the conception of"Multi-Causal Framework"can make a comprehensive analysis on the topic of foreign students'learning motivation relatively.