Mutual Benefit at the Planning Table: A Case Study of China’s Scholarship Programs for the Global South

• In Event: Global Perspectives on Education and Culture: Digital Strategies, Social Media, and Tianxia in Shaping Future Citizens

Proposal

Education is an essential component of China’s international aid practice. In the past decades, China has strived to promote technical cooperation and knowledge sharing with Global South countries. Providing scholarships for international students is the main way China has chosen to achieve these goals. In the 1950s, students from Eastern Europe and Africa started to receive scholarships to study in China. This signified the start of educational aid practice in China. With the arrival of the 21st century, China rapidly broadened the availability of scholarships for Global South countries. It is China’s educational aid project aimed at strengthening cooperation between China and other countries as well as enhancing human resource capacity for developing countries. For decades, mutual benefit has been central to how China describes its educational aid principles. Unlike Western leaders who tend to see aid as a cure for the problems of poverty and backwardness, Chinese leaders insist that “aid is a partnership, not a one-way transfer of charity”. However, the mutually beneficial relationships between China and Global South countries in the people-to-people exchange activities are not discussed sufficiently.
The purpose of the study is to explore the relationship of mutual benefit between China and Global South countries by examining China’s scholarship programs. The driving question is “How has the principle of mutual benefit influenced the planning of China’s educational aid programs in China’s higher education institutions (HEIs)?” This study uses adult education program planning theory to provide an innovative analysis of adult educational engagement in China’s HEIs as part of China’s international cooperation with Global South countries. In doing so, it enriches the research on international aid to education across the fields of adult education, international and comparative education, and international relations.
To address the research question, this study adopts a qualitative case study design. Data were collected from China’s scholarship program targeting government or public sector professionals from developing countries to study in China. Four international students and six Chinese planners(four faculty members and two administrators) were recruited for interview and six supporting documents within the case were collected. Following Cervero and Wilson’s “working the planning table” theory, this study analyzes the planning process of (a) program objectives, i.e., educational, management, and political objectives; (b) instructional design; (c) administrative organization; and (d) program evaluation. It pays particular attention to the negotiations among international students and Chinese program planners.
This study finds that the roles of stakeholders in educational programs not only represent their personal interests but also reflect their national identities. Both planners and students tended to prioritize their home countries’ benefits rather than their personal benefits. For example, program planners in China perceived hosting scholarship programs as their responsibility to help build China’s good image abroad. Students expect to contribute to their home countries’ development after accomplishing their studies in China. As this suggests, the political objectives that are normally hidden in educational programs are made clear in China’s scholarship programs. Negotiations generally occur when the education quality in relation to the educational and management objectives cannot be guaranteed, including the issues of program planners’ English proficiency, thesis/graduation requirement, program enrollment, and the scholarship stipend that impacted students’ living quality.
Moreover, there is a mutually beneficial synergy as stakeholders pursue their own interests. For example, as students pursue their degrees in order to contribute to their own and their countries’ development, they also advance the interests of program planners for quality programs, and China’s broader political interest in building China’s image abroad. Nevertheless, this mutually beneficial synergy does have its limits. We found issues in program planning that are not resolved through consultation-level negotiations among students and program planners. The resolution of these issues and the forms and levels of program planning negotiations are beyond the scope of this study but warrant further investigation.
This study concludes that to balance the different objectives of building China’s good image, serving partner countries’ local needs, and improving program quality, program planners need to consider a broad range of elements in programs’ instructional design, administrative organization, and evaluation. The negotiations of benefits that occur among the stakeholders (program students, faculty, and administrators) reflect the mutual benefit established between China and partner countries and deeply influence the program planning process.

Author

• Xiaoying Jiang, Shandong University of Finance and Economics