Examines the factors motivating international student choice of the host country. It describes a “push‐pull” model motivating the student’s desire to seek overseas education and influencing the decision process in selection of a final study destination. Drawing on the findings from research studies undertaken in Indonesia, Taiwan, China and India, the paper examines the factors influencing host country selection and additional research that examines the factors influencing choice of final host institution. Based on these findings the paper argues that economic and social forces within the home country serve to “push” students abroad. However, the decision as to which host country they will select is dependent on a variety of “pull” factors. After drawing together the findings, the paper then examines the implications for governments and education institutions seeking to recruit international students.

¿Push-Pull¿ Factors Influencing International Student Destination Choice

Within the context of broad literature on cross-border flows for higher education, this article examines the distinctive case of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and Macau. These territories are a sort of bridge between the fully domestic and the fully international. Hong Kong and Macau higher education plays a dual role, as a destination in itself for higher education and as a stepping-stone for students’ further international development. Patterns in Hong Kong are slightly different from those in Macau, and the territories may thus be usefully compared with each other as well as taken as a pair for comparison with other parts of the world. The paper begins by noting the literature on the ways that push and pull factors influence student mobility, and then turns to motivations in pursuit of academic and professional growth, economic benefit, individual internationalisation, and enhanced social status. The paper shows that flows of mainland Chinese students are driven by both excess and differentiated demand. Analysis of the distinctive features of this pair of territories adds to wider conceptual understanding of the nature of cross-border flows for higher education.

http://www.ses.ecnu.edu.cn/picture/article/148/57/ee/a7faed434c058109a8c983e78def/775fb62c-7b71-46d9-9812-ce760265505a.pdf

Cross-border flows of students for higher education: Push-pull factors and motivations of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and Macau

Mainland China is one of the largest sources of undergraduate and postgraduate students. Previous research has identified the push—pull factors and features that influence a student choice of study abroad destination. This article extends understanding by identifying and examining what 251 mainland Chinese parents and 100 students rated as most and least important when considering study abroad. Findings highlight differences in parent—student ratings of importance and the consequent need for marketers to pay greater attention to cultural values when looking to recruit students from Confucian societies.

Choosing a higher education study abroad destination: What mainland Chinese parents and students rate as important

Student migration is a key component of knowledge migration. However, as knowledge becomes a central part of migrant selectivity, labour and family migrants too are involved in knowledge acquisition, both prior to and after migration. At the same time, student migrants are involved in work and family, just like other migrants. What then is distinctive about student migrants? This paper attempts to address this challenge. It begins by reviewing how migration theories have analysed student mobility. It then suggests that migration theorists need to extend existing analyses, which have primarily focused on the spatialities of migration, to take account of the spatialities of knowledge. It is argued that knowledge institutions need to reach out to people in different parts of the world and to produce in prospective students a desire to circulate. This is necessary if the institutions are to obtain a global presence and to maintain their legitimacy as knowledge brokers. An analysis of student migration where the inducements that the Higher Education Institutions offer to prospective students and the subjective responses of such students to these invitations will throw light on how the spatiality of knowledge is achieved and also highlight the distinctiveness of student migration in a knowledgeable migrant world.

Theorising the spaces of student migration

World Development Report 1980.

This study analyses the international flow of third level developing country students to advanced countries from the perspective of sending authorities in developing countries. The magnitude of this flow can hardly be overemphasized; on the basis of a conservative estimate made in the article, the annual loss of foreign exchange entailed by this flow amounted to 17 percent of the interest repayment on total external debts of the lesser developed countries (LDCs) in 1979, a sum which the developing countries themselves can hardly ignore. On an aggregate basis, our principal hypothesis is that the outflow of students is determined primarily by excess demand for third level education in developing countries. The empirical results support this hypothesis, while pointing to the importance of other factors. Excess demand for third level education in the developing countries is one of the most important determinants of the flow of developing country students to the advanced countries. On the whole, expansion of developing country tertiary education, at the national or regional levels, could effectively divert some of the flow to local institutions. Aside from this, expansion can also be argued on the basis of the high returns to third level education in developing countries compared to the returns to physical capital, as well as the considerable economies of scale associated with this level of instruction. Further, given the willingness/ability of the students to pay, as witnessed by the fact that the vast majority of developing country students finance privately their education abroad, the expansion of third level education in LDCs could be funded substantially via user charges and student loan schemes.

Kiong Hock Lee

Papers

The international flow of third level lesser developed country students to developed countries: Determinants and implications