A Comparative Study Of Educational Structure Of Chinese And American Students

The developing of foreign students education have become increasingly important in the internationalization of education, and when it comes to evaluating the foreign educational system, the number, structure, quality and financial contributions of foreign students need to be taken into consideration as significant indicators. Above all the dimensions, the foreign students educational structure reflects a combination of the academic level, fields of study, the origin places, source of funding and the distribution of foreign students in a certain county.This study compares the academic level, top places of origin, primary source of funding and the distribution of foreign students of China and that of the US by making description of the basic facts on foreign students exchange. Recognizing the differences and similarities of the foreign educational structure, the author assesses the factors influencing the foreign educational structure of the two countries, and makes a reflection on the way to planning the number, structure, quality and cost-benefit of foreign students as a whole and optimizing the foreign educational structure in China.Divided into seven chapters, this study starts with the development of foreign students exchange of China and the US, and identifies the features as well as the driving forces of foreign students exchange. In attempt to answer the questions of "which academic level have they got", "what fields do they study in", "where do they come from", "what are their primary source of funding", "where do they study", the author make comparisons from the perspective of the academic level, fields of study, the origin places, primary source of funding and the geographic distribution of foreign students in the US and China.The data suggest that most of the foreign students in the US are aiming at pursuing degrees, while the overall enrollment by non-degree students outnumbers the degree students in China, although the foreign students pursuing degrees is on a rise; STEM fields attract the majority of foreign students studying in the the US(42 percent), while more than half of the foreign students in China are concentrated in language study, which indicates the unbalanced distribution of the subjects they choose; in terms of the origin places of foreign students, a multitude of foreign students in both the US and China come from several countries or areas, for China with a large proportion of foreign students coming from the neighboring countries, geopolitical factors become one of the most important factors affecting foreign students; More than 60 percent of foreign students in the US fund their US studies primarily through personal and families, only a few students fund their study through the federal government, and foreign students relying primarily on their own governments is ranked at number three, while in China, the ratio of scholarship students to all the foreign students is relatively high, and it also shows the lack of funding structural diversity. Both foreign students in the US and China were mainly hosted by only a small part of states and institutions, the unbalanced distribution of foreign students in China is more evident. Last but not least, through analyzing the existing problems in foreign educational structure of China, the author reflects on the way to optimizing the foreign educational structure in China and to promoting the sound development of foreign education in China.