Factors that motivate Chinese students to study in the Uk Essay

Factors that motivate Chinese students to study in the Uk - Essay Example The aim of the present study is to investigate the factors that motivate Chinese student study to study in the UK. In order to understand the factors motivating Chinese students to study in the UK more clearly, the NCUK institution in Beijing will be used as a case study. Background of the Study Higher education has become an increasingly significant area of society in recent times, and higher education is likely to expand further in the 21st century. The 21st century might ultimately be known as the century of education. Numerous scholars view the arrival of an educated society, e.g. Unit Kingdom, Finland, Norway. Growth continues in a number of the world’s higher education systems, with predictions that millions of students will enter postgraduate educational institutions around the world in the next two decades, with most of that expansion occurring in the developing world. The last few decades of the 20th century witnessed considerable escalation in student mobility. The e xistence of international students on university campuses across different countries has increased over the past few years. Chinese students represent one of the biggest groups amongst international students in the United Kingdom (Altbach & Teichler, 2001). Due to a dramatic change in the policies of the Chinese government over the past few decades, a developing country has grown into as a super power (Wang, 2007). This development has come together with important reforms in higher education aimed at playing an important role in modernizing China (Zhang, 2007). The Open Door Policy taken up in 1978, which promoted foreign investment in China, allowed dual exchanges in education, firstly, teachers could go into foreign institutes of higher education to enhance the quality of their teaching, and secondly, a number of Chinese students could go abroad to study for higher degrees (Knight & DeWit, 1995). Since then, several impressive reforms in Chinese higher education have both altered the lives of many Chinese students and scholars. Since the pat two decades, education in China has been internationalized due to increase in globalization. This internationalization comprises a number of different activities, such as student and teacher exchange, specialized studies, technological assistance, the education of international students, and joint research programmes. China has become one of the world’s biggest exporters of students around the globe. Recent there are different researches to study the internationalization of higher education on various perspective, a number of which have been carried out in developed countries (Altbach & Teichler, 2001). China is the biggest supplier of international students around the world (Altbach & Knight, 2007). In recent decades, more and more Chinese students have been educated abroad for graduate degrees, with a number of graduate students studying in the United Kingdom (Mackie, 2007). The notion of gainning graduate degre es in British universities is broadly connected to the internationalization of higher education in China, as well as to the globalization of the Chinese society (Altbach & Knight, 2007). In order to achieve the dream of graduating from a foreign university, more specifically, the UK, there are a number of factors that influence students’ decision-making process. Researchers have discovered that family influence is a significant factor in overseas study decisions (Shanka, Quintal & Taylor, 2005). The opinions of family members might exercise various kinds of influence up on an individual’s behavior (Shanka, Quintal & Taylor, 2005). This is mainly because the nuclear familiar (single child policy) is small, parents have to finance the education