Speakers:
Yasemin Soysal, Professor of Sociology, University of Essex
Hector Cebolla Boado, Associate Professor, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)
Dorothee Schneider, Senior Research Officer, University of Essex
2. BRIGHT FUTURES
THE STUDY
• Collaborative project by researchers from four universities in UK, Germany and China
Project team:
Principal Investigator: Yasemin Soysal (University of Essex)
Co-Investigators: Hector Cebolla-Boado (UNED); Liu Jingming (Tsinghua University), Thomas
Faist (Bielefeld University), Sophia Woodman (University of Edinburgh), and Senior
researcher: Dr. Dorothee Schneider
• Funded jointly by the ESRC, UK; DFG, Germany; and NSFC, China
Bright Future Survey:
• The first ever large-scale (over a sample size of 8000), representative database on Chineseand
Japanese higher education students in origin (China and Japan) and multiple destination
countries (UK, Germany, and Japan)
3. BRIGHT FUTURES
SURVEY
• Chinese international students in UK, Germany
and Japan
• Comparison samples of:
Japanese international students
Chinese students in China
British/German/Japanese home students
• Survey fieldwork April 2017 to April 2018
Two-stage probability sample in Europe
• Stratified universities into groups by ranking and number of Chinese students
• In each university all Chinese undergraduate and masters students or random sample
• Similar sampling in China; quota sampling in Japan
• Questionnaires in Chinese/Japanese/English/German, depending on group
sample UK DE China Japan Total
Chinese 1,345 727 2,740 492 5,304
Japanese 295 61 0 389 745
Native 1,620 398 0 0 2,018
Total 3,260 1,186 2,740 881 8,067
4. "I leave, I see, I learn and I return to shape China"
Source: Zhang Junmian, China.org.cn, December 24, 2011
4
1872 first Chinese government sponsored study-abroad program to the US
1870s and 1880s Chinese scholars and students were also sent to Europe
and Japan
by 1910 more than 20,000 government or self-sponsored Chinese scholars
and students in Japan – Japan as a model of “western modernity”
Between 1950 and 1960, more than 10,000 Chinese students / scholars
went to the Soviet Union to study
5. from “Catch up to the West/ Modernity” to “Be Part of the Global”
One-fifth of globally mobile students are Chinese, enrolled in universities in more than 100 countries..
But also about 400,000 students from more than 200 countries enrolled in Chinese universities ..
5
6. Diverging trajectories of Chinese and Japanese HE student flows to the UK—over time trend : different timing of HE
enrollment expansion and internationalization of education
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
45000
50000
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016
CNS UG CNS PGT JPS UG+PGT
Trends in number of Chinese and Japanese students (UG and
Masters) in the UK, 2002 - 2016
Source HESA 2002-2016, own calculations
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
80000
90000
100000
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016
CNS UG+PGT JPS UG+PGT
Trends in number of Chinese and Japanese
students (UG and Masters) in the UK, 2002-2016
7. Conventional theories of International Education (IE)
Human capital perspectives:
Differentials in educational offerings and returns to education between
origin and receiving countries
Cultural and social capital perspectives:
Elite reproduction of distinction and advantage (Bourdieusian logic of capital
conversion)
Strategic investment (in global skills and cultural dispositions) by students
and their families for material and symbolic gain—building careers and
status are the main motivations
Overlooks the broader transformations: transnationalized higher education
field
8. • Historically linked with the trajectory of nation-building
and development HE as a national institution, with
distinct national profiles and structures, embedded within
distinct national policy agendas and cultural traditions
• From the 2000s on increasing embeddedness of HE
systems within a transnational framework of competition,
facilitated by world rankings and excellence initiatives
Transnational higher education field
Convergence of universities around similar core
missions and policies
Convergence of HE student aspirations and
expectations
9. Motivations (Why study abroad?)
Future plans
Selectivity: who goes abroad? (Individuality traits, social background)
10. How important were the following in your decision to study
abroad? (% very or extremely important)
• Why study abroad?
Rather than a narrow focus
on enhancing career
prospects, motivations
reflect the ideal of a HE
student having broad
aspirations, pro-active, open
(to the world and others),
and aware of their
individuality—shared by all
student groups
Motivations
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Be part of global world
Gain world class education
Realize worth as a person
Meeting people from different backgrounds
Enhance career prospects
Gain new experiences
CNS in Europe CNS in Japan JPS in Europe
11. Academic backgrounds
CHINESE
• Prior performance of Chinese students
studying in Europe is as varied as that
of those studying in China
• Around a third of Chinese students
going abroad are low to average
performance
• In Japan, there is slightly fewer top
Chinese students compared to Europe
Ranking in high school class
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
near top
above average
average
below average
near bottom
CNS in Japan CNS in Europe CNS in China
12. Academic backgrounds
JAPANESE
• Almost 40% Japanese students in
Europe from low to average levels of
performance
Ranking in high school class
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
near top
above average
average
below average
near bottom
JPS in Japan JPS in Europe
13. Future plans
CHINESE
• Majority of Chinese undergraduates
in Europe plan to continue studying
after current degree
• less in Japan – over half plan to work
• If planning to continue studying most
Chinese plan to study in the same
country where they currently study
What do you plan to do after completing your current degree?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
CNS UG in
Europe
CNS UG in
Japan
CNS UG in
China
CNS PGT in
Europe
CNS PGT in
Japan
CNS PGT in
China
Continue studying Work other or don't know
UG PGT
14. Future plans
JAPANESE
• In contrast to Chinese, Japanese
undergraduates, whether abroad or
at home, don’t plan to continue
studying after current degree
• Reflects the labour market conditions
What do you plan to do after completing your current
degree?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
JPS UG in Europe JPS UG in Japan JPS PGT in Europe JPS PGT in Japan
Continue studying Work other or don't know
UG PGT
15. Future plans
WORK LOCATION
Planned work location after graduation
• Chinese students in Japan and
Germany are more open to
staying for work after graduation
• Chinese students in UK least
likely to plan stay —‘hostile
environment’ combines with
elimination of post-study work
visa regimes
• Japanese students in Europe
have broadly similar plans to
stay in Europe after graduation
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
CNS UK CNS DE CNS in Japan
In COUNTRY OF STUDY Maybe in COUNTRY OF STUDY
In HOME COUNTRY maybe in HOME COUNTRY
in another country Haven't decided yet at all
17. Confounders in migration research
• Difficulties to isolate the effect of migration on specific integration
outcomes from that of confounders, which simultaneously create a
push for migration.
• Migration as a shock: migration has an impact
• Migrants compare to natives in destination
• No causal connection between migration and migrant/native-born, but
selection:
• Migrants compared to natives in origin (Massey and Zenteno 2000, Garip 2016, Guveli
et al. 2016, Mussino, Tervola, and Duvander 2018)
18. Expanding research on selection
• Migrants self-selected population not representative of population in
origin (Chiswick 1999) to explain integration paradoxes such as
migrant educational optimism or healthy immigrant effect.
• Observable selectivity is increasingly addressed.
• Social background: education, social status, income, and family background (Ichou 2014,
Feliciano and Lanuza 2016, 2017; van de Werfhorst and Heath 2018).
• Unobserved characteristics: we know less.
• International surveys such as the European Social Survey and World Values Survey to
explore migrant/non migrant differentials in achievement-related motivational
orientations (Polavieja, Ramos, and Fernández 2018).
• Data from countries of origin to explore differences between prospective migrants while
still in origin and those who do not intend to migrate (Cebolla-Boado and Soysal 2017).
19. Expectations
• Selection on unobservables
• H1 Positive selection of international students by parental social background
• Bourdieusian understandings of IE as some form of capital generating investment that will
provide returns in future careers
• Selection on unobservables
• H2: Migration research suggests a selection bias among those who make the move
in terms of unobservables
• H3: Transnationalized higher education affects self-orientations and perceptions of
not only those who migrate for their education but also those who stay, so we
expect little to no selection
• Contemporary higher education places on standardized models of agentic individuality:
expanded notions of rights and capabilities–proactive, independent, and goal oriented
(Meyer and Jepperson 2000; Hasse and Krucken 2013, Soysal 2012)
20. Expectations
• Selection on unobservables
• H1 Positive selection of international students by parental social background
• Bourdieusian understandings of IE as some form of capital generating investment that will
provide returns in future careers
• Selection on unobservables
• H2: Migration research suggests a selection bias among those who make the move
in terms of unobservables
• H3: Transnationalized higher education affects self-orientations and perceptions of
not only those who migrate for their education but also those who stay, so we
expect little to no selection
• Contemporary higher education places on standardized models of agentic individuality:
expanded notions of rights and capabilities–proactive, independent, and goal oriented
(Meyer and Jepperson 2000; Hasse and Krucken 2013, Soysal 2012)
21. Variables
• Socioeconomic background:
• Father’s occupation (e.g. a dummy combining professional, technical, and
high-level administration versus the rest)
• Education (whether the father is a university graduate)
• Unobserved: factor of agentic individual
• Questions asking students if someone who:
• “thinks up new ideas” (creative);
• “makes their own decisions” (independent minded),
• “looks for adventures and taking risks” (risk-taker),
• “values being successful” (achievement oriented)
• “not at all like s/he,” “somewhat like s/he,” “neither like s/he nor unlike s/he,” “somewhat like
s/he,” or “very much like s/he.”
27. Discussion:
• Observable selection
• IE is a more democratic phenomenon than Bourdieusian and other elite-reproduction
theories suggest.
• Unobservable
• We considered four specific individual characteristics that are evenly
distributed among migrants and non-migrants from different origins
• being creative
• independent minded
• a risk-taker
• achievement oriented
28. Discussion: What does this mean for IE?
• Selection among educational migrants occurs due to observable
characteristics.
• Unobserved.
• Chinese university students are equally likely to see value in these individual
characteristics.
• They are also similar to students matriculated in British and German
universities who were natively born.
• Striking difference between Japanese home students and abroad: why?
29. For more information and to follow our upcoming work:
www.brightfutures-project.com
@BrightFuturesHE