Confucius Institute and its impact on foreign students in China: empirical study based on panel data from 135 countries (1999-2015)

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday IV)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Student achievement in China and Brazil

Proposal

Number of foreign students in Chinese higher education institutions has expanded exponentially, especially since the new century. As of 2017, China hosts 489,000 international students in its higher education institutions which makes China Asia’s largest and the world’s third largest destination country. This is driven by national efforts to strengthen internationalization of higher education in China. In the meantime, Confucius Institute, an organization similar to its western counterpart such as Alliance Francaise, British Council, al Instituto Cervantes, was created in 2004 by the Chinese government as a tool to boost China’s cultural diplomacy and soft power (Kwan, 2013). In the past fifteen years, Confucius Institutes have mushroomed worldwide. There are 525 Confucius Institutes and 1113 Confucius Classrooms in 146 countries and regions in the world.

Recent research show that the Confucius Institutes serve as a catalyzer for foreign direct investment, trade ties, and international tourism. The Strategic Planning of Confucius Institute (2012-2010) indicates that encouraging students to study in China is one of the foci of Confucius Institutes. The empirical question this paper intends to answer is whether the presence of a Confucius Institute would lead to a rise in the number of foreign students studying in China.

Using panel data of 135 countries over 17 years, we employ two-way fixed effects model and find that Confucius Institutes have helped to attract more foreign students on Chinese government scholarships. Each Confucius Institute increases the foreign students on Chinese government scholarships by 1.5%. These results are hardly surprising given the role of Confucius Institutes in handing out scholarships. However, Confucius Institutes have led to a 1% drop in the total number of foreign student studying in China, especially for those non-degree students. Further heterogeneity analysis show that this is mainly caused by those main source countries in terms of foreign students. In the literature, this seemingly counterintuitive result is explained by the fact that the presence of Confucius Institute and the language and culture courses it offer may reduce the need to physically study in China. Another silver lining of this substitution effect is that the Confucius Institutes actually help China to improve the composition of its foreign students, i.e. more degrees-pursuing students as opposed to non-degree students. Therefore, China should establish more Confucius Institutes in Africa, Eastern European Countries in the future to maximize the catalyzing effect of Confucius Institutes.

Authors

• Wei Ha, Peking University

• Dongyang Chen, Graduate School of Education, Peking University