Studying Driving Force Research

In recent years, more and more foreign students from ASEAN countries study abroad in Guangxi. This phenomenon illustrates the remarkable education cooperation and exchange between Guangxi and the ASEAN countries. Meanwhile, the rapid development of international education in Guangxi for foreign students provides good research topics, particularly the driving force for the foreign students from the ASEAN countries. On that basis, the central theme of this article,"Why study abroad in Guangxi?" naturally emerges. According to research studies, both outside and inside China, the decision for students to study abroad in another country depends largely on political, economic, cultural and personal consideration/dimensions of the countries where the students come from, the former three dimensions being the external driving force while personal dimensions being the internal driving force. In order to better develop the education industry, expand student enrollment and improve student quality for students from the ASEAN countries, we need to understand the external and internal driving forces involved. To start with, using the push-pull theory as the theoretical base, the sending and the receiving countries provide the pushing and the pulling forces respectively. The political, economic and cultural aspects are external driving forces which influence the students’ choice to study abroad. By survey and interview with ASEAN foreign students in5of the Guangxi higher educational institutions, their motives, encouraging and limiting factors to study abroad can be gathered directly. Such information can be sorted and analyzed statistically to find out what are the governing factors to prompt them to study in China. The population of the survey is classified into to three groups based on the degrees affecting the motives to study abroad. The relationship between the types of students and the change in population size can be estimated with an attempt to derive a statistical model on the driving force to study abroad. Using this statistical modeling, the motive of going to study abroad can be stepped up by increasing the positive and limiting the negative factors. The paper will summarize findings and insufficiency of the study with a view for further research to follow.