Trapped in unchanging national image: Chinese international students’ perceptions of Korean universities vis-à-vis Japan

• In Event: Roundtable Group 4
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Comparative Dialogues of East Asian Higher Education and Multiculturalism

Proposal

The number of Chinese international students has increased rapidly since the 2010s and the world university rankings (e.g., QS ranking) function as one of the main heuristics guiding their choice of study destinations. As East Asian universities become more competitive, their preferred destination has expanded to countries such as Korea and Japan; beyond primarily Western countries, such as the US. Whereas, they have consistently shown a higher preference for Japanese universities over Korean universities. This has been sought to be reasonable as Japanese top universities have largely maintained their rankings within top 100s for an extended period, while Korean top universities have just started to accelerate their way up the ranks; currently, more than four universities securing positions in the top 100 since 2021, a notable increase from the sole institution that held such a rank in 2010. However, Korean universities are in a perplexing situation as Chinese students continue to hold a less favorable perception of Korean universities, even with the remarkable rise in their rankings; compared to the relatively stable or rather declining performance of Japanese universities.

Why do Chinese international students' recognition of Korean universities not improve with rising global rankings? We elucidated this through the theory of national image, which remains relatively stable compared to institutional evaluations. So far, studies emphasize motivation theories, analyzing push-pull factors influencing international students' destination decisions. However, this theory makes it difficult to understand why students' perceptions of Korean universities remain the same. According to Herrmann & Fischerkeller, who contributed to studying national image, a country's image is determined by three structures━goal compatibility, relative power, and relative cultural status. Regarding the image of Korea and Japan, Korea is perceived as lower in power than China, whereas Japan is perceived as equal to or higher in power than China. Hence, adopting a qualitative research approach, we explored how the national image influences Chinese international students' preference for Korean universities over Japanese universities, despite the efforts made by Korean universities to address the primary pull factor—world university rankings.

To explore how the national image affects students’ choice of destination and their experience abroad, we interviewed Chinese students who received a master's degree from Korean and Japanese elite universities between 2010 and 2023. In our interview questions, we incorporated the six dimensions of the Fombrun-RI Country Reputation Index, a widely utilized measurement method for evaluating national image.

Our research makes significant contributions by emphasizing that international students can choose their study destination not only from a consumer standpoint but also as a national identity holder. Our findings reveal that conventional internationalization strategies of universities have limited influence on international students' choice of university; students heavily consider the national power of the host country more important. Also, this implies that integrating public diplomatic efforts alongside existing strategies could empower the performance of higher education internationalization in emerging countries.

Authors

• Sunna Park, Seoul National University

• ZHAO Xiaoshuai, Seoul National University

• Jeong Youn Lee, Seoul National University

• Xin Li, Hiroshima University