Market intelligence for international student recruitment from ICEF
26th Sep 2018

Why do international students choose to study in China?

“Recruiting international students has been taken as a strategy to strengthen China’s soft power,” says a recent article in the Journal of Studies in International Education. That, along with massive investments in expanding and strengthening the Chinese higher education system, helps to explain why the number of foreign students in China has climbed so quickly over the last couple of decades. In 1995, there were less than 37,000 international students studying in China and the country was nowhere to be found on the global table of leading destinations. By last year, that number had increased by more than 1200% with nearly 490,000 visiting students enrolled in Chinese institutions and schools. That places China as the fifth ranked study destination globally, after only the US, UK, Australia, and Canada – and well ahead of other traditional leading destinations such as Germany and France. Nearly six in ten foreign students in China come from other Asian markets, but the composition of sending countries is changing with China drawing much of its recent growth from emerging markets in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Africa. In their recent journal article, “The Emergence of a Regional Education Hub: Rationales of International Students’ Choice of China as the Study Destination”, the authors explore the factors behind this dramatic growth and present the findings of a recent survey of foreign students in China. Their observations reflect the input of roughly 1,700 survey respondents, which were complemented by an additional 30 in-depth interviews with foreign students. The authors note that survey respondents gave the greatest weight to education factors in shaping their decision to study in China, particularly the perceived quality and international recognition of Chinese higher education. “The attraction of China’s first-tier institutions is a significant pull factor in this dynamic,” notes the study. “In building world-class universities, China has successfully advanced the quality of a number of first-tier universities and thus raising the institutional reputation within the region…In addition, interviews reveal that Chinese universities’ easing admissions policy in recruiting international students is another important educational pull factor. Overall, China’s admission policy for domestic and international students is different and there are a lot of institutional differences in admitting international students in China. Only top universities have entrance examinations for international students and the admissions of international students is not a process as strict as that for domestic students.” After access to quality higher education, survey respondents also noted the importance of economic factors in their decision making. There are two main aspects of this. The first is the affordability of Chinese higher education, including the increasing availability of government-supported scholarship programmes for visiting students. But add to that the growing importance of the Chinese economy and the scale of opportunity that that represents for foreign students. As the study authors point out, “China’s ambitious plan to attract international students is related to its economic boom and its active engagement with bilateral and multilateral trade and business in recent years. Many have noted that the higher a country’s economic and political position in the world system, the more central it is in the international student exchange network.” In short: “China’s rising economic weight in the world has become an important driving force pulling international students to study in China.” There is no better illustration of this relationship than the linkages between student flows to China from countries that are heavily engaged in China’s massive “One Belt, One Road” development and foreign investment framework. This strategy is backed by a US$50 billion investment fund targeted to new projects and partnerships along traditional Silk Road trade routes throughout Asia, Europe, And Africa. One Belt, One Road has been a powerful lever for strengthening commercial and academic links, including student recruitment, in key emerging markets along these trade routes, and notably so in Southeast Asia. The authors conclude that this combination of education and economic factors are the real drivers of the continuing growth in China’s foreign enrolment, “whereas cultural and social motivations play a relatively smaller role.” “There are also differences in motivations between students from developed and developing countries,” add the authors. “Students from some developing countries are more concerned with improving job opportunities by increasing Chinese language skills than their counterparts from developed countries.” For additional background, please see:

Most Recent

  • Australia: With ELICOS under pressure, peak bodies push for reduction in “extortionate” visa fees Read More
  • Mystery shopping study finds broad improvement in student enquiry handling this year Read More
  • South Korea hits its 300,000 student target two years ahead of schedule Read More

Most Popular

  • Which countries will contribute the most to global student mobility in 2030? Read More
  • Research shows link between study abroad and poverty alleviation  Read More
  • Beyond the Big Four: How demand for study abroad is shifting to destinations in Asia and Europe Read More

Because you found this article interesting

Australia: With ELICOS under pressure, peak bodies push for reduction in “extortionate” visa fees The latest data from the Department of Education reveals that enrolments in Australia’s ELICOS sector (English Language Intensive...
Read more
South Korea hits its 300,000 student target two years ahead of schedule In 2023, the South Korean government announced a plan to attract 300,000 international students by 2027: 220,000 in...
Read more
Canada: Study permit numbers are in steep decline in 2025 In 2024, the first year under Canada’s current cap on new international student enrolments, the total number of...
Read more
UK confirms levy on international student fees as new analysis argues that government is “drastically underestimating” the impact of the move Updated for 30 September 2025: On 29 September, the Department of Education announced that it would reinstate “means-tested...
Read more
US administration’s new H-1B policies create uncertainty around post-study work rights The H-1B programme is a key policy mechanism for international students in the United States. Aside from the...
Read more
China leverages higher education capacity with expanded TNE partnerships As with most statistics about China, the latest higher education figures are a little dizzying. Enrolment in the...
Read more
France reports more than 443,000 international students in higher education for 2024/25 The latest data release from Campus France reports a record-high foreign enrolment in the country. There were 443,500...
Read more
Foreign enrolment in Canadian K-12 held steady in 2024/25 International student enrolment in public school boards in Canada declined marginally this year. The latest data from the...
Read more
What are you looking for?
Quick Links