Mobility in an Imagined Global Knowledge Space: Chinese STEM Undergraduates’ Decision to Study in Europe

Abstract

This paper examines how the “imagined global knowledge space” influences the mobility of Chinese STEM students in Europe, based on interviews with 28 participants. It finds that, firstly, Chinese students perceive a diverse global knowledge landscape, acknowledging China's rapid progress and questioning the traditional “center-periphery” model. Secondly, students’ views on the global knowledge space vary by their exposure to this space, career plans, and disciplinary background, impacting their motivations to study abroad-whether knowledge-seeking, pedagogical, or consumer-oriented. Thirdly, this study finds that Chinese STEM students in Europe view destination choices through a triadic “US/Europe/other countries” perspective, moving beyond the traditional “center-periphery” dualism model. With rising geopolitical tensions between China and the US, Europe emerges as a favorable alternative for education. The findings highlight that students’ study-abroad decisions are shaped not by fixed global structures but by subjective, imagination-based perceptions of the global knowledge space.

Keywords

Imagined geography study abroad Chinese students STEM subjects Europe

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ackers

(2005). Moving people and knowledge: Scientific mobility in the European Union1. International Migration, 43(5), 99–131. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2005.00343.x

Alatas

S. F.

(2003). Academic dependency and the global division of labour in the social sciences. Current Sociology, 51(6), 599–613. https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921030516003

Altbach

P. G.

(1981). The university as center and periphery. Teachers College Record, 82(4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146818108200412

Appadurai

(1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization (Vol. 1). University of Minnesota Press.

Bamberger

Morris

(2024). Critical perspectives on internationalization in higher education: Commercialization, global citizenship, or postcolonial imperialism? Critical Studies in Education, 65(2), 128–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2023.2233572

Barnett

G. A.

Lee

Jiang

Park

H. W.

(2016). The flow of international students from a macro perspective: A network analysis. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 46(4), 533–559. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2015.1015965

Bauder

(2015). The international mobility of academics: A labour market perspective. International Migration, 53(1), 83–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2012.00783.x

Bauder

Lujan

Hannan

C. A.

(2018). Internationally mobile academics: Hierarchies, hegemony, and the geo-scientific imagination. Geoforum; Journal of Physical, Human, and Regional Geosciences, 89, 52–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.01.004

Beech

S. E.

(2019). The geographies of international student mobility: Spaces, places and decision-making. Springer.

10.

Ben-David

(1962). Scientific endeavor in Israel and the United States. American Behavioral Scientist, 6(4), 12–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/000276426200600404

11.

Ben-David

(1977). Centers of learning: Britain, France, Germany, and United States. McGraw-Hill.

12.

Brooks

Waters

(2022). Partial, hierarchical and stratified space? Understanding ‘the international’ in studies of international student mobility. Oxford Review of Education, 48(4), 518–535. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2022.2055536

13.

Cao

Zhu

Meng

(2016). A survey of the influencing factors for international academic mobility of Chinese university students. Higher Education Quarterly, 70(2), 200–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12084

14.

Caruso

De Wit

(2015). Determinants of mobility of students in Europe: Empirical evidence for the period 1998–2009. Journal of Studies in International Education, 19(3), 265–282. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315314563079

15.

CCG (Center for China & Globalization). (2024). The development of Chinese students studying abroad (2023–2024). Accessed April 24, 2024. http://www.ccg.org.cn/archives/84327

16.

Cebolla-Boado

Soysal

Y. N.

(2018). Why study abroad? Sorting of Chinese students across British universities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39(3), 365–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2017.1349649

17.

Chen

T. M.

Barnett

G. A.

(2000). Research on international student flows from a macro perspective: A network analysis of 1985, 1989 and 1995. Higher Education, 39(4), 435–453. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003961327009

18.

Collins

(2014). Globalising higher education in and through urban spaces: Higher education projects, international student mobilities and trans-local connections in Seoul. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 55(2), 242–257. https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.12055

19.

Ding

Yang

(2021). The elite exclusion: Stratified access and production during the Chinese higher education expansion. Higher Education, 82, 323–347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00682-y

20.

Driver

(2005). Imaginative geographies. In P. Cloke, P. Crang, & M. Goodwin (Eds.), Introducing human geographies (2nd ed., pp. 144–155). Routledge.

21.

Gioia

D. A.

Corley

K. G.

Hamilton

A. L.

(2013). Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: Notes on the gioia methodology. Organizational Research Methods, 16(1), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428112452151

22.

Griner

Sobol

(2014). Chinese students’ motivations for studying abroad. Global Studies Journal, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.18848/1835-4432/CGP/v07i01/40893

23.

Shen

Zhang

(2023). A regionalism shift? Chinese undergraduate students’ choice of study in Asia under COVID-19. Research in Comparative and International Education, 18(2), 186–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/17454999221143976

24.

Hou

Fan

Gui

Duan

(2022). Does international student mobility foster scientific collaboration? Evidence from a network analysis. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 52(2), 327–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2020.1765316

25.

Jonkers

Tijssen

(2008). Chinese Researchers returning home: Impacts of international mobility on research collaboration and scientific productivity. Scientometrics, 77, 309–333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1971-x

26.

Kim

(2012). The birth of academic subalterns: How do foreign students embody the global hegemony of American universities? Journal of Studies in International Education, 16(5), 455–476. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315311407510

27.

Kim

Cho

(2022). Complicit mobility: Southeast Asian students in Korean studies and their inter-Asia knowledge migrations. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2022.2095502

28.

Kondakci

Bedenlier

Zawacki-Richter

(2018). Social network analysis of international student mobility: Uncovering the rise of regional hubs. Higher Education, 75, 517–535. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0154-9

29.

Shen

Xie

(2021). Why students leave Chinese elite universities for doctoral studies abroad: Institutional habitus, career script and college graduates’ decision to study abroad. International Journal of Educational Development, 84, 102408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102408

30.

Lin

Wang

Shen

(2024). Staying away from the crowds: An analysis of factors influencing Chinese college graduates’ decision to study in the Nordic countries. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/17516234.2024.2407655

31.

Liu

Kamnuansilpa

Hirofumi

(2018). Factors affecting international students’ decisions on destination for studying abroad: A case study in China. Frontiers of Education in China, 13, 93–118. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-018-0004-2

32.

Lou

(2015). Rethinking the legitimacy of the system of “Tenure-track” in China's colleges and universities. Higher Education Research, 36(6), 21–32. [In Chinese: 娄宇. 我国高校“非升即走”制度的合法性反思. 高等教育研究].

33.

Marginson

(2008). Globalization, national development and university rankings. In University ranking: Global trends and comparative perspectives, international symposium (pp. 12–13).

34.

Marginson

(2016). The dream is over. University of California Press.

35.

Marginson

(2022). ‘All things are in flux’: China in global science. Higher Education, 83(4), 881–910. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00712-9

36.

Marginson

(2023). Hegemony and inequality in global science: Problems of the center-periphery model. Comparative Education Review, 67(1), 31–52. https://doi.org/10.1086/722760

37.

Massey

(2005). For space. Sage Publications Ltd.

38.

Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. (2024, March 27). Xi Jinping meets with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/s6052/moe_838/202403/t20240328_1122775.html

39.

Moed

H. F.

(2017). A critical comparative analysis of five world university rankings. Scientometrics, 110, 967–990. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2212-y

40.

Mok

K. H.

Shen

(2024). The impact of geopolitics on international student mobility: The Chinese students’ perspective. Higher Education Quarterly, e12509. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12509

41.

(2021). The fourfold logic of the evolution of Deng Xiaoping's study abroad ideology. Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University (Social Science Edition), 22(4), 9–22. [In Chinese: 祁小平.邓小平留学思想演变的四重逻辑[J].西南交通大学学报(社会科学版.]

42.

Radcliffe

S. A.

(2012). Relating to the land: Multiple geographical imaginations and lived-in landscapes. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 37(3), 359–364. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00524.x

43.

Raghuram

(2013). Theorising the spaces of student migration. Population, Space and Place, 19(2), 138–154. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.1747

44.

Said

(1978). Orientalism. Penguin Books.

45.

Saisana

d’Hombres

Saltelli

(2011). Rickety numbers: Volatility of university rankings and policy implications. Research Policy, 40, 165–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2010.09.003

46.

Salazar

N. B.

(2011). The power of imagination in transnational mobilities. Identities, 18(6), 576–598. https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2011.672859

47.

Shen

Wang

(2022). Reconceptualising international academic mobility in the global knowledge system: Towards a new research agenda. Higher Education, 84(6), 1317–1342. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00931-8

48.

Shields

(2013). Globalization and international student mobility: A network analysis. Comparative Education Review, 57(4), 609–636. https://doi.org/10.1086/671752

49.

Shils

(1961). Metropolis and province in the intellectual community. In Sovani

N. V.

Dandakar

V. M.

(Eds.), Changing India (pp. 275–294). Asia Publishing Co.

50.

Shu

Sugimoto

C. R.

Larivière

(2021). The institutionalized stratification of the Chinese higher education system. Quantitative Science Studies, 2(1), 327–334. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00104

51.

Sidhu

R. K.

Chong

H. K.

Yeoh

B. S.

(2019). Student mobilities and international education in Asia: Emotional geographies of knowledge spaces. Springer Nature.

52.

Sidhu

Ishikawa

(2022). Destined for Asia: Hospitality and emotions in international student mobilities. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 52(3), 399–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2020.1771544

53.

Tsang

M. C.

Levin

H. M.

(1985). The economics of overeducation. Economics of Education Review, 4(2), 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-7757(85)90051-2

54.

Van Nes

Abma

Jonsson

Deeg

(2010). Language differences in qualitative research: Is meaning lost in translation? European Journal of Ageing, 7, 313–316. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-010-0168-y

55.

Xiang

Shen

(2009). International student migration and social stratification in China. International Journal of Educational Development, 29(5), 513–522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2009.04.006

56.

Xie

Zhang

(2023). The world coordinates and future choices of Chinese university discipline construction: Data analysis based on the academic ranking of world universities (2017-2021). Modern Education Management, 2023(2), 32–44. https://doi.org/10.16697/j.1674-5485.2023.02.004

57.

Zhai

Gao

(2021). Who achieves superior rates of upward social mobility and better labor market outcomes in China: International student returnees or postgraduates who study domestically? Asia Pacific Education Review, 22, 223–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-021-09669-x

58.

Zhang

Wang

(2021). Inequality and access to elite universities in China: Reexamining the interacting multiple capitals model. Studies in Higher Education, 46(9), 1881–1893. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1711042

59.

Zhang

P. F.

Wei

(2003). The development of modern overseas students and China's engineering technology. Science Technology and Dialectics, 2003(6), 64–66. [In Chinese: 张培富,卫莉.近代留学生与中国工程技术的发展[J].科学技术与辩证法]