The Rise Of China As A Major Host Destination For International Student Education

International student mobility figures have exponentially increased over the years,doubling from 2.1 million in 2000 to close to 5 million in 2014 worldwide.The OECD projects this figure to reach 8 million in 2025.Since opening up its market in 1978 and making rapid developments in its economy,China has seen remarkable progress in its education sector.So much so,it has recently emerged as one of the top ten destinations for international students abroad.The central objective of this paper hence,is to examine the rise of China as major host destination for international student education.Using the theoretical approach of a developmental state,China’s rise would be attributed to its strategies employed by the Chinese state and universities that are used to enhance or create its attraction factors(otherwise known as “pull” factors)as identified in international student opinion surveys,that are of economic,educational and socio-cultural nature.In supplementing the above primary objective,the paperthen demonstrates that China’s success in the international student education market owing to the choice of strategies and motivations are indeed statedriven.Hence,itdeviates from the global neo-liberalism ideology,which otherwise sees pursuit of economic gain as primary.English-medium master programmes are also an emerging trend amongst Chinese universities in attracting international students.This paper will add on to the scarce literature available by prescribing some exploratory factors as to why some of these new programmes are more successful in attracting international students than others,through case studies of four such programmes that are from two C9 universities.