The Factors Impacting University Choice Of The International Undergraduate Students In Beijing And Shanghai

The internationalization of higher education is the inevitable trend in the development of higher education against the backdrop of globalization, the international student mobility is an important aspect. With the growth of the number of foreign students and structure optimization, the university choosing process and impact factors of the foreign students in Beijing and Shanghai are vital for absorbing the foreign students. By taking two research-oriented universities in Beijing and Shanghai as cases, the study aims at investigating the similarities and differences of foreign student education between two hosting institutions and the influencing factors for foreign students choosing universities.This study adopts mixed methods of case study, with interviewing 20 foreign students and conducting questionnaire survey to 40 foreign bachelor degree students in Beijing H university and Shanghai M university.The research results show that the foreign students in these two universities have different process and impact factors when choosing a university. In the process of choice, the foreign students in Beijing and Shanghai have different priority order in country, city, school and discipline. The percentage of choosing country first is highest among the four dimensions in two institutions. Second, the proportion of international students in Shanghai choosing city first is higher than that of Beijing. And Beijing has a higher proportion of international students choosing university and discipline first than those of Shanghai. In terms of the impact factors, there are similarities between the two universities:The pulling factors at the national level include language learning environment, low cost and tuition fees, favorable economic and trade relations; the pulling factors at the city level include city uniqueness and competitiveness, geographical position and natural environment; the impact factors at the university level are the university brand, software and hardware resources, the market operation and advertisement; the factors at the discipline aspect include professional interest, professional employment prospects and whether to continue pursuing the academic study. In addition, the individual factors include the impact of significant other, family economic income and education environment, and eagerness to expand the culture and social experience, the pursuit of economic returns. The foreign students think that there are some differences in scholarship policies, student management and the discipline requirements between the two universities.However, the foreign student education in both institutions still lag far behind compared with the developed countries. There are some problems in teaching, adapting to learning, management and services, resources and equipment to be solved. China should seek to strengthen the uniqueness and competitiveness and constantly improve the quality of education for international students.