A Study On The Students' Choice In The Sino-foreign Cooperative Universities

With the development of globalization,China's higher education market has undergone profound changes.As a kind of institution,which is different from ordinary public universities and private colleges,Sino-foreign cooperative universities are developing rapidly.The number of Sino-foreign cooperative projects and institutions is increasing,their quality is improving,relative policies are being perfected,and the social recognition is gradually raised.Part of the middle class expects their children to have an opportunity of receiving international education.Based on this,young students can not only study abroad,but also choose Sino-foreign cooperative universities.This dissertation,which is based on the case study of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University(XJTLU),mainly investigates the behavior of students' school choice and the influencing factors by findings from 260 valid questionnaires and 12 students' interviews.By using the method of questionnaire and interview,this paper illustrate the integral characteristics and inner difference of students,clarifies the influencing factors of school type and specific institutions when students choose Sino-foreign cooperative education universities,and explains the causes of the influencing factors.Meanwhile,this paper analyzes the characteristics of middle class' education selection and the meaning of class mobility,explains the allocation function of middle school choice for higher education market,and provides suggestions for rationalization of students school choice and optimization of school enrollment plan.This study draws the following main conclusions:Firstly,from the overall characteristics of the school chooser,most of the students selecting XJTLU are from the middle class family,whose parents have good educational background and careers that are more prestigious.Most of the students have better educational conditions in basic education stage,and their grades are in the upper middle level.The educational interaction between parents and students is mild and rational.However,there are also some group distinctions of influencing factors,including different gender,learning performance and the high school level.Secondly,when choosing the Sino-foreign cooperative universities,students are mainly influenced by the push power from “studying abroad”,“ordinary public universities”,and the pull power brought by the advantages of Sino-foreign cooperative universities.The important push factors of "studying abroad" are high economic cost,difficulty of applying,the high opportunity cost of abandoning the college entrance examination,the family's distrust of students' cross-cultural adaptability and self-control capacity.The main push factors of "traditional public universities" are insufficient of entrance exam scores,lacking of international culture atmosphere and cultivate mode.The pulling force of Sino-foreign cooperation originates is from its highly internationalized characteristics,which provides students similar cultivating environment with oversea universities.Thirdly,when choosing a specific institution,students are influenced by the interaction between individual factors and institutional factors,forming eight major influencing factors,including the school condition,the official information channel,information from significant others,urban environment,the Chinese maternal university environment,the foreign maternal university environment,the domestic development direction and the family expectation.The impact of students' choice of specific institutions is also showing some characteristics,the objective entrance condition is the most important factor,and the second is suitable for career planning.Furthermore,the family decision-making power is greater than the individuals.In the reception of information,the power of the official channel is greater than that of the interpersonal communication.In terms of school factors,the apparent factors such as school and urban environment are most important.The influence of Chinese maternal university reputation and popularity on student selection is greater than that of the foreign side,and the environment atmosphere of the school itself is more attractive than the institutional arrangement.Fourth,the school choice behavior of the middle class family is rational and active.The rational side reflects in that they view higher education as an investment.The process of choosing school is the process of the rate of return accounting.The active aspect is that they use their capital to help children carry on cultural reproduction and class mobility.In addition,the demand and behavior of middle class school chooser has the market allocation function,the international education demand has increased the supply of international higher education,and the difference demand has brought the subdivision of the international education market.Fifth,students can choose the school type before the university entrance examination,and they ought to pay more attention to the details of talent training quality of target institutions.Universities could make more decision about the channels and content of enrollment information distribution,accurately publishing information to improve efficiency.However,the most important way to attract high-quality students is to improve their own reputation and popularity.