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Hybrid Opportunities and Constraints: Chinese Top-Tier Overseas Postgraduate Students and Their Choices to Stay Abroad or Return Home

In: International Journal of Chinese Education
Author:
Nian Ruan Center for Higher Education Research, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

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Abstract

A considerable number of Chinese postgraduate students with strong academic and professional competences choose to stay abroad, despite the Chinese government’s success in attracting many overseas students. The paper explores the main considerations of these highly qualified non-returnees in choice-making between staying in the host country and returning home after graduation. The paper uses the Push-Pull framework to analyze online interview data with 12 participants. A hybrid “opportunity-constraint” heuristic has been extracted, and three types of Chinese overseas postgraduate students’ identities as stayers, nomads, and future returnees have been displayed. They emphasized career and individual development spaces, including access to different career choices, professional development, favorable social environment and lifestyle, and cultural recognition. This paper outlines the connection of Chinese students’ identity changes through international learning and decision making, provides insights for further analysis of the “brain drain,” “brain gain,” and “brain circulation.”

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