Chinese Postgraduate Students' Intentions and Expectations to Study Abroad

This is a qualitative research on Chinese postgraduate students’ intentions and expectations of studying abroad. Using focus groups and in-depth interviews on Chinese overseas students who were taking master’s degrees in the UK, the research analysed the students’ motivations of studying abroad in the perspectives of both individual development and their reflections of the globalisation process. Complementary to previous arguments about studying abroad as the acquisition of human capital and enrichment of distinction that the students found helpful for their future career development, results in this research showed that it was the incompatibility between the capital they gained from previous HE experiences in China and their future aspirations that stimulated the students to consider about other HE opportunities, and how their imaginaries of the global HE hierarchy brought them the motivation to study abroad. Another contribution of this research was that it showed how individuals (university students) reflect and react to the influence of globalisation, and how they connect their individual development with the imagined global hierarchy. Their attitude toward China also proved to be influential, as many students planned to study abroad and go back to China for future careers due to the growing globalisation process in China and their anticipation of a rising China. Such was complementary to previous arguments of the admiration for the developed world citizenship (Fong, 2011), as it showed that the students could find their jobs in China without undermining their developed world citizenship as China’s increasing level of economic development and globalisation. Key words: Chinese postgraduate students’, imaginary, studying abroad, human capital, cultural capital, globalisation