Chinese Undergraduate Students' College Choices of Canada and the U.S.A. as a Strategy for Social Mobility
Open Access
- Author:
- Li, Anke
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Theory and Policy
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 04, 2020
- Committee Members:
- David Post, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
David Post, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
David Alexander Gamson, Committee Member
Karly Sarita Ford, Committee Member
Joseph M Valente, Outside Member
Kevin Kinser, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- international students
student mobility
college choice
comparative study
qualitative study
social mobility
Chinese students - Abstract:
- Students from Mainland China are the largest international group in both United States and Canada, and their numbers have grown substantially. The influx of Chinese students has contributed to American and Canadian higher education institutions academically, financially, and culturally. However, due to rapid changes of social, cultural and political contexts in both home and host countries, new patterns of student mobility arise. Especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, higher education institutions in US and Canada need to understand international students’ needs and prepare better to attract and serve international students. My dissertation employed interviews to explore in-depth perspectives from students within the tradition of qualitative research. I conducted in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 55 Chinese undergraduate students, 21 of them at Cheer University in the US and 34 of them at Tree University in Canada. My study shows that Chinese students’ college choices were mainly influenced by push factors - by Gaokao and by the type of secondary education that developed in China under Gaokao. In addition, studying abroad was not only about knowledge or degree. It was also about with experiences, such as broadened views and skills. In this sense, middle-class families invested not only in knowledge and degrees, but also in the experiences of living abroad. Parents and their children strongly believed that the entire process is to their advantage in the future when they are compared to people who did not study abroad. Recommendations are made for both universities and future young Chinese people who want to study abroad.