Why Chinese Students Intend to Study Abroad? An Economic Analysis With Survey Data on Seven Cities in China

• In Event: Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: Global Perspectives on Higher Education

Abstract

With internationalization of higher education, the number of Chinese students who study abroad has been sharply rising over the past three decades. What determines their intentions of studying abroad? This study develops an economic model,taking into account both investment and consumption motivation. The investment motivation concerns foregone earnings and future benefits, but consumption motivation cares current cost and an immediate sense of satisfaction. With survey data collected from seven cities covering various regions over China, this research finds that only under self-financing condition that students’ economic return, consumption values, price elements and constraint factors have significant effects on students’ intentions for studying abroad, but such impacts lose their significance under loans condition, and consumption values still have significant effects.

Author

• Jinyan Zhou, Beijing Normal University