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Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices
Jian Li
“Four Branches” of Internationalization of Higher Education in China A Policy Retrospective Analysis
Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices Series Editors Eryong Xue, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China Simon Marginson, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Jian Li, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
This book series explores education policy on Pre-K, K-12, post-secondary education, and vocational education, informing multiple experts from academia to practitioner, and specifically pays focuses on new frontiers and cutting-edge knowledge that transforms future education policy development. It has been initiated by a global group of education policy research centers and institutions, whose faculty and staff includes internationally recognized researchers in comparative education policy studies. The series’ mission is to advance the modernization of the education and social construction. This series provides policymakers and researchers with an in-depth understanding of international education policy from diverse perspectives. Topics include cutting-edge and multidisciplinary studies on identifying, analyzing and uncovering education policy reform and practice among the fields in education policy and pedagogy. It addresses how education policy shapes the development of education systems in different regions and seeks to explain how specific education policies concentrate on accelerating the development of quality education and social progress. More importantly, this book series offers policymakers and educational stakeholders, government, and private sectors a comprehensive lens to investigate the trends, rationales of education policy development internationally.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16621
Jian Li
“Four Branches” of Internationalization of Higher Education in China A Policy Retrospective Analysis
Jian Li China Institute of Education Policy Beijing Normal University Beijing, China
The study received funding from Beijing Education Science Planning (Key project) Research on Internationalization Development Strategy and Evaluation Index System of Capital Universities under the Background of “Double First-Class” [No. AAAA19009]. ISSN 2730-6356 ISSN 2730-6364 (electronic) Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices ISBN 978-981-16-4204-3 ISBN 978-981-16-4205-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4205-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore
Preface
This book examines the emerging power of “Four Branches” of internationalization of higher education in China from a policy retrospective analysis. In particular, branch one includes that China’s policy on studying abroad (“going out”) after the reform and opening up; branch two concentrates on China’s policy on studying in China (“bring in”) after the reform and opening up; branch three explores the policy of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools; branch four examines the policy of foreign exchange and cooperation. All these four emerging branches are interdependent, and all contribute to shaping the landscape of internationalization of higher education system in contemporary China. In addition, the conclusion and remarks are also offered in this book. This book also originally examines how to explore and shape the internationalization of higher education in China since 1949. The proposed framework of the internationalization of higher education includes Chinese students studying abroad, foreign students studying in China, international cooperation and exchange, and Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. All those four dimensions concentrate on constructing the internationalization of higher education in China’s Higher Education. They are interdependent to shape the comprehensive model of internationalization of higher education in China’s higher education system. The internationalization of world higher education is a process of constant evolution and transmutation. After entering 21st century, especially in recent years, internationalization of universities in China is no longer a proposition, but a survival mode of university development. Internationalization of higher education has become an important goal to be achieved in the development of Chinese universities. The exchanges between Chinese universities and foreign universities and academic institutions are increasing, and the platforms for intergovernmental cooperation and exchange are expanding. Thus, this book investigates the background, content, policies, challenges, and strategies of internationalization of higher education, relatively. The idea of “Four Branches” of internationalization of higher education in China is epitomized to analyze and summarize the greats achievement and rewards, which are
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deeply rooted in the historical development of China’s higher education internationalization since 1949. Thus, the concept of “Four Branches” of internationalization of higher education in China is identified as two meanings: one is as the core meaning to explore the ultimate mission of internationalization of higher education in contemporary China; another is considered as value-laden to reflect the value leadership of the fundamental common interests of international education worldwide. Along with this, for China, the core value of “Four Branches’ of Internationalization of Higher Education in China” is based on equal rights and social justice, respect for cultural diversity, international solidarity and shared responsibility. Chapter 1 involves exploring the background of internationalization of higher education in China. Internationalization of higher education is an inevitable process of higher education in the era of globalization. It is also an important strategy to improve the quality of higher education. It is one of the basic trends of higher education development in the contemporary world. China’s higher education with Chinese characteristics in the process of internationalization of education is to establish the higher education system of tortuous development history. The higher education internationalization development policy develops with the times and in this chapter, it is mainly from the political, economic, cultural and social aspects to analyze the development of China’s higher education internationalization. Chapter 2 explores the conditions, challenges and strategies of studying abroad from various perspectives. With the progress of China’s economy and social technology, China’s higher education presents an open, diversified and international, more and more people are not satisfied with the guidance of traditional domestic education, high school students, college students as the mainstream of most people have chosen to study abroad this way to improve themselves. Leading foreign teaching quality, open teaching environment, diversity and ethnic culture are all factors for students to choose to study abroad. The number of Chinese students studying abroad is increasing and the scale is expanding. With the gradual expansion of the scale of studying abroad in China, higher education in China shows a vigorous vitality, but at the same time accompanied by the emergence of problems. Facing the problem of overseas students in China, where will Chinese higher education go? How to develop? Facing the current situation of studying abroad in China and the problems faced by studying abroad in China, this chapter made careful analysis and research and took corresponding measures, hoping to promote the development of higher education in China. Chapter 3 examines the international education development in China. With the increasing international status of China, the rapid development of economic society and the improvement of educational advantages, for China’s education to the world to provide a good opportunity for development, but also for foreign students in China to provide a political, economic and cultural foundation. In the era of internationalization of higher education, the scale of foreign students studying in China has been expanding year by year, and the proportion of foreign students has become an important basis to measure the degree of internationalization of a university. As we all know, China has become the world’s third largest host country for overseas students. The number of Chinese students has reached 440,000 since 2016. The countries along
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the One Belt and One Road are important sources of overseas students in China and the regions with the fastest development of overseas students in China. In the face of important studying education development opportunity in China, should be adapted to the national development trend, further defined the student’s education work of strategic position, at the same time thinking about coming to China to study abroad education, enhance the level of our country’s higher education internationalization is not only an important opportunity, promote “area” initiative important booster and build a community of human destiny. This chapter systematically analyzes the current situation and future trend of studying in China from three aspects: background conditions, development characteristics and policy environment. At the same time, this chapter put forward relevant policy suggestions aiming at the problems that still exist in the development of studying in China, such as low quality and low attractiveness, etc. Chapter 4 concentrates on exploring Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools from the scopes of backgrounds, problems, and suggestions. In accordance with the regulations on Chinese-foreign Cooperation in Running schools, foreign educational institutions and Chinese educational institutions jointly organize educational and teaching activities within the territory of China with Chinese citizens as the main enrollment target in accordance with the law, which is called Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. For the convenience of understanding, we can from (1) the main body is Chinese and foreign educational institutions; (2) Cooperation; (3) The object is the Chinese citizens within the territory of three aspects to understand, grasp. In addition, according to the provisions of the regulations, Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools shall also be operated in the form of education and teaching plans formulated jointly by Chinese educational institutions and foreign educational institutions of corresponding levels and categories, the issuance of Chinese educational qualifications or certificates of foreign educational qualifications or certificates of foreign academic qualifications or certificates of academic degrees, and the implementation of some educational and teaching activities outside the territory of China. However, Chinese educational institutions have not substantially introduced foreign educational resources, and the educational and teaching activities carried out with foreign educational institutions only in the form of mutual recognition of credits are not classified as Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. A Chineseforeign cooperatively run school refers to a Chinese-foreign educational institution that initiates, proposes and is specifically responsible for the establishment of a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school or project by means of investment or other means. Operators set up the stage, in the school is responsible for raising funds, provides conditions for offering education, establish the school organization and the articles of association, and a series of responsibilities and after school set up by the school board of trustees, the board of directors or other forms of decision-making body directly, influence the school matters, and responsible for the stability of the sources of funds for schools. Chapter 5 examines the foreign exchanges and cooperation in China from the perspectives of situations, issues and strategies. With the development of economic globalization, the internationalization of higher education will also become the
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inevitable trend of the world education reform and development, society and even the world will also put forward new requirements for higher education. All the way in the new period of reform and opening up as well as in the “area” initiative, since the implementation of the higher education are endowed with new connotation and mission, this is an opportunity for higher education, but all the colleges and universities in the theoretical research and practice of understanding is different, the internationalization of higher education in higher education opening to the outside world also has many problems and loopholes. Foreign exchange and cooperation, as one of the important embodiment of the internationalization of higher education, in order to improve the level of higher education in China, China’s top priority should be to the enhancement of concept of internationalized education in common colleges and universities at the same time, speed up the internationalization of western universities, learning the foreign advanced experience, and develop their good experience, fully funds for higher education at the same time; In order to achieve the goal of internationalization of higher education, to expand the influence of China’s higher education in the international community, and to promote the sustainable development of China’s higher education, we should cultivate educational talents comprehensively to achieve the national strategic goal. This chapter aims to discuss the foreign exchange and cooperation of China’s higher education, mainly involving the current situation, problems and countermeasures of foreign exchange and cooperation. Beijing, China
Jian Li
Contents
1 The Multiple Background of Internationalization of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Political Background of the Internationalization of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.1 The Development Characteristics of China’s Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.2 The Development of Higher Education Internationalization Through Reform and Opening Up Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Economic Background of the Internationalization of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.1 Reform and Opening-Up Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.2 Under the Background of Economic Globalization . . . . . . . . 1.2.3 One Belt and One Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.4 Double First-Class Strategic Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Cultural Background of Internationalization of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.1 Cultural Background in Different Historical Stages . . . . . . . 1.3.2 The Development of Higher Education Since the Founding of New China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.3 Higher Education in the Context of Global Cultural Collision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Social Background of Internationalization of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.1 Domestic Social Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.2 International Community Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.3 Origin and Development of Internationalization of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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3 7 7 8 9 11 12 13 15 15 17 18 19 20 23 23
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2 Exploring Chinese Students Studying Abroad: Background, Problems, and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 The Scale of Study Abroad Activities in China Conforms to the Basic National Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 The Policy of Studying Abroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 International Education Development in China: Background, Issues, and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Status Quo of International Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Problems and Challenges of Studying in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Challenges of Studying in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4 Countermeasures for Studying in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools: Backgrounds, Problems, and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Status Quo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Risks of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running the School . . . . . 4.3 The Sustainable Development of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25 25 26 34 41 42 43 44 51 54 57 63 64 65 66 79 81 86
5 Foreign Exchanges and Cooperation in China: Situations, Issues, and Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.1 Current Situation of Foreign Exchange and Cooperation in China’s Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 5.2 The Development of Foreign Exchange of Higher Education in China Since the “One Belt and One Road” Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . 90 5.3 Problems in Foreign Exchange and Cooperation of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 5.4 Countermeasures for the Foreign Exchange and Cooperation of China’s Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 6 Conclusion on Internationalization of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 Political Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Economic Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 Cultural Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4 Social Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5 Countermeasures to Solve the Problems Existing in the Education Management of Overseas Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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About the Author
Jian Li is the assistant professor in China Institute of Education Policy, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University. She received her Ph.D. degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPS), School of Education, Indiana University Bloomington. Her research interests focus on Education Policy Studies, Globalization and Internationalization of Higher Education. Dr. Li currently also serves as think tanker at China Institute of Education and Social Development, Beijing Normal University. In the past years, she has published more than 70 papers in Chinese and English in Higher Education, International Journal of Education Research, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Educational Research, Comparative Education Research, China Education Journal and other SSCI and CSSCI indexed journals. She has published 16 English monographs, participated in the editing of 2 English works, and published more than 20 articles in China Education Daily, People’s Political Consultative Conference News and People’s Daily Overseas Edition. More than 30 international academic conference papers, national, provincial and ministerial level decision-making departments adopted or participated in the writing of more than 20 proposals of the CPPCC National Committee. Presided over or participated in 6 national, provincial and ministerial projects and also serves as the editorial board member and reviewer of several international English journals.
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The Multiple Background of Internationalization of Higher Education in China
This chapter involves exploring the background of internationalization of higher education in China. Internationalization of higher education is an inevitable process of higher education in the era of globalization. It is also an important strategy to improve the quality of higher education. It is one of the basic trends of higher education development in the contemporary world. China’s higher education with Chinese characteristics in the process of internationalization of education is to establish the higher education system of tortuous development history. The higher education internationalization development policy develops with the times and in this chapter, it is mainly from the political, economic, cultural, and social aspects to analyze the development of China’s higher education internationalization.
1.1 Political Background of the Internationalization of Higher Education in China Higher education is professional education and vocational education based on the completion of secondary education. It is the main social activity to train senior professionals and professional personnel. It is a specialized education formed on the basis of general education. In the traditional sense, higher education includes junior college, undergraduate, and graduate school. At the same time, higher education can be divided into full-time higher education and part-time higher education, as well as face-to-face higher education and non-face-to-face higher education. According to different learning forms, higher education can also be divided into higher education with school form and non-school form of higher education. There are many kinds of higher education in China, such as junior college education, undergraduate education, college education, and graduate school education.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li, “Four Branches” of Internationalization of Higher Education in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4205-0_1
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China’s higher education, mainly full-time higher education. As a new interdisciplinary subject, its research object will vary with different periods. With the development of science and technology, the research object of education is transferred from ordinary primary and secondary education to students receiving higher education. Higher education has a complex teaching system and diversified teaching forms, so the traditional pedagogy has been unable to meet the development requirements of higher education. At present, China’s higher education is developing rapidly with remarkable achievements, but there are also many drawbacks. Therefore, the theoretical research on higher education is also constantly advancing and developing (Lei, 2002; Mo & Liu, 2020; Zhou, 2020).
1.1.1 The Development Characteristics of China’s Higher Education The object of higher education in China is relatively extensive, but mostly young students. In the middle of the twentieth century, the development of education in China was mainly about the transmission between teachers and students, which was too single and narrow in scope, and it was difficult to break through the boundary and regional restrictions, thus hindering the widespread and further exchange of new knowledge. After the emergence of internationalization of higher education in China, the transfer of knowledge can break through the limits between national boundaries and different regions, and China’s higher education has gone international. The characteristics of internationalization of higher education are mainly reflected in the following aspects: Pursue financial gain. Under the influence of economic globalization, educational services in various countries are changing, and the purpose of their services can also be transformed into an educational industry. Higher education in various countries is also constantly evolving and has become an important commodity in the service and a place in the trade system. At the same time, the dominant power of higher education internationalization is also changing, from the previous cultural and political influence, gradually into a market economy. Diversified services. The number of international organizations that influence higher education is growing globally. In order to promote the rapid development of higher education transnational service industry, these organizations play an increasingly important role. For example, World Trade Organization, UNESCO, and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development are also actively participating in and promoting the development of transnational higher education. Diversified forms of flow. So far, the internationalization of higher education in various countries mainly includes two aspects. The first is the exchange and cooperation between teaching personnel and academic research, and the second is the mutual flow between various levels of colleges and universities and various educational
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projects across countries, such as carrying out cooperative education among countries, setting up overseas branch schools, conducting transnational credit exchange and other educational services (Chen & Guo, 2018; Lu et al., 2018; Wang & Yang, 2012).
1.1.2 The Development of Higher Education Internationalization Through Reform and Opening Up Strategy At the beginning of the reform and opening up and at the end of the twentieth century, the development of internationalization of higher education in China experienced two leapfrog stages, in which extension was the main form, which made the development of internationalization of higher education in China show earthshaking changes. The types of colleges and universities and the types of education have become the cornerstone and important support for promoting the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The Initial Stage of Internationalization of Higher Education in China (1978– early 1990s). With the resumption of college entrance examination as the symbol and starting point, the development of higher education since 1978 is a beginning of the development of education, science, and technology system, promoting the rapid recovery and development of China’s higher education internationalization cause, and has an important milestone significance. It has brought the higher education of China out of chaos and turned it into a healthy and orderly development from stagnation and chaos, and also marked the arrival of a small upsurge in the internationalization of higher education. On June 23, 1978, Deng Xiaoping made positive instructions to the government to study abroad and was required to expand the scale of dispatch. In August of that year, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Co-electing Overseas Students, setting the target of 3,000 students sent by the government to study abroad that year. In December 1986, The State Council approved and transferred the Interim Provisions on The Work of Personnel Studying Abroad drafted by the State Education Commission, which clearly put forward the policy of “dispatch according to needs, ensure quality, and be consistent in learning and application”. The government sent abroad to study cultivated a large number of scientific and educational management talents with international experience, and these talents with overseas study experience played an important role in accelerating the modernization process of higher education in China after they entered the management positions in colleges and universities. The reform and opening up policy have also promoted the study in China. A large number of students from all over the world have come to study in China. The competent education authorities have successively revised the Regulations on the Trial Implementation of the Work of Foreign Students and issued such policy documents as the Provisions on the Admission of
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Foreign Students to Study in Chinese Institutions of Higher Learning, the Administrative Measures for Foreign Students, and the Trial Implementation Measures on the Awarding of Chinese degrees to Foreign Students by Ordinary Institutions of Higher Learning. During this period, the study in China was endowed with more functions and connotations, and the policy objectives changed from simple political needs to serve the country’s diplomacy, reform and opening up, economic construction, and education reform. Meanwhile, the management of study in China was also more standardized and orderly (Chen & Fu, 2011; Jin, 2012; Lei, 2002; Mo & Liu, 2020; Wu & Song, 2018; Zhou, 2020). The “Great Expansion” stage of Internationalization of Higher Education in China (early 1990s–2010). With the deepening of reform and opening up, China has accelerated the pace of opening up to the outside world, and the internationalization of higher education in China has entered a new stage. During this period, the internationalization of personnel and educational institutions both developed significantly. The scale of personnel internationalization is expanding, and it is gradually moving toward a standardized management track. In 1994, The State Council issued the Opinions on the Implementation of The Program for China’s Education Reform and Development, proposing to “establish the State Scholarship Committee to put the recruitment, selection and management of overseas and Chinese students on the legal track”. The selection guidelines are: “individual application, expert evaluation, fair competition, selective admission, signing and dispatching, and compensation for breach of contract”. In 1998, the gap between China’s higher education and the average development level of the world’s higher education was obvious. The development level of China’s higher education is much lower than the average level of developed countries and developing countries. In 1999, the CPC Central Committee promulgated the Decision on Deepening Educational Reform and Comprehensively Promoting Quality-oriented Education, which proposed to actively develop higher education in various forms to relieve the pressure of entering higher education. Second, the government has issued a series of rules and regulations to bring Chineseforeign cooperation in running schools into the legal management track. With the deepening of reform and opening up, Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools has ushered in a favorable external environment for development. Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools have developed rapidly and become an important part of China’s higher education system. Since then, the internationalization of higher education in China has stepped into a stage of rapid development. “ENTRY into WTO” provides opportunities and challenges for internationalization of higher education in China. China’s entry into WTO not only has a direct and significant impact on China’s economic development, but also has an indirect and far-reaching impact on the internationalization of China’s higher education. Furthermore, China’s entry into WTO means that China’s higher education has entered a new historical stage, which provides development space for the internationalization of China’s higher education. China’s entry into WTO brings a rare opportunity for the internationalization of higher education. According to the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services, there will be more service exchanges among countries in the field of education,
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including in the field of higher education. The number of students and visiting scholars sent to each other will be greatly increased, and the market of higher education will be more open. After joining the World Trade Organization, we will have a strategic understanding of the international advanced concept of running schools and the status of education, which will promote us to further update the development view and talent view of higher education. This international cooperation can relieve our country’s higher education funding shortage, under-funded pressure, also can make the Chinese higher education well and absorbing foreign advanced education, experience of running a school, teaching methods, understanding of the dynamic development education, situation, for building a world-class level of university in our country provides a good opportunity to break the conditions of China’s education market to foreign closed. On August 14, 2002, the year after China’s accession to the WTO, Jiang Zemin put forward the new policy of “bringing in and going out”. In March 2004, the Ministry of Education put forward the Action Plan for The Revitalization of Education for 2003–2007, which emphasized that education should be “opened wider to the outside world, international cooperation and exchanges should be strengthened, government and people should be carried out at the same time, bilateral and multilateral to promote the all-round, multi-field and high-level development of international cooperation and exchange in education”. In a nutshell, it is a diversified development strategy of both the country and the market, emphasizing both quality and quantity, while its development policy and driving force have shifted from the development of human resources in the 1990s to the promotion of the country’s soft power and competitiveness. Since 2001, it has been carried out from three levels, led by national policies, combined with resources of local governments and universities, and driven by the establishment and expansion of soft power: holding global conferences and forums, educational exchange agreements, diversification of international exchange platforms and development of “Confucius Institutes”. Foreign Exchange and Cooperation Policy. Foreign exchange and cooperation policy are an important support for promoting the internationalization of higher education and play an encouraging and guiding role in policies. In recent years, by persisting in promoting reform and development through opening up and carrying out multilevel and wide-ranging educational exchanges and cooperation, China’s educational internationalization level has been constantly improved, as well as the international status, influence, and competitiveness of China’s education. International cooperation and exchange in education have made positive progress in deepening comprehensive reform, promoting two-way study abroad, supporting highlevel demonstration cooperation in running schools, and planning cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. China’s international cooperation and exchange policy in education have presented a new trend in actively promoting the opening up of education. The opening up of education plays a fundamental, guiding, and overall role in the national opening up strategy. At present, China has basically formed an all-directional, multi-tiered, and wide-range pattern of educational opening up and made great achievements in promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and foreign countries, cultivating high-level talents, and introducing
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high-quality educational resources, which are mainly reflected in the following four aspects. Strengthen the design of top-level systems. Two important guiding documents have been issued, namely, several opinions on doing a good job in opening up education in the new era and promoting the co-construction of “One Belt and One Road” education action, clarifying the development goals and missions of international cooperation and exchange in education in China in the future, laying out key tasks and strengthening various safeguard measures. Accelerate the training of talents urgently needed by the country. We will intensify the training of non-general-purpose language talents, talents of international organizations, national and regional research talents, top-notch innovative talents, and outstanding talents in China, so as to provide personnel guarantee for international cooperation and exchange in education. In terms of national and regional talents, it will provide funding for 16 people to carry out national and regional research in 10 countries and regions. In terms of training top-notch innovative talents, China Scholarship Council has been entrusted to set up the “Future Scientist Project” to cultivate a group of top innovative talents, leading talents, and masters. In terms of cultivating outstanding talents in China, we actively implement the “Scholarship program for Advanced Master’s Degree in China”. The trend of two-way study abroad has been strengthened. In recent years, the number of Chinese studying abroad, returning to China, and studying in China has increased significantly. China is the world’s largest exporter of overseas students. By the end of 2015, there were 523,700 Chinese students studying abroad in more than 180 countries. A total of 409,100 Chinese returned from overseas study. From 1978 to the end of 2015, 2.22 million people had finished their studies and returned to China, accounting for 80% of those who had finished their studies. China has become an important destination for overseas students in Asia. Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools to recruit outstanding international students has become a new highlight. Steadily promote Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. At present, a total of 2,469 Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and projects have been approved through examination or review. In terms of the size of the school, the total number of students enrolled in Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools at all levels and of various types is about 550,000. From the perspective of cooperation objects, there are 830 foreign universities and 720 Chinese universities in 36 countries and regions, including nearly 10 TOP50 universities in the world, such as Duke University in the US and the University of Edinburgh in the UK. In 2015, a third-party evaluation report gave full affirmation to China’s Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools: “A batch of high-quality overseas education resources have been introduced, and high-quality Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools has increased (Chen & Fu, 2011; Chen & Guo, 2018; Jin, 2012; Lei, 2002; Lu et al., 2018; Mo & Liu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2012; Wu & Song, 2018; Zhou, 2020)”.
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1.2 Economic Background of the Internationalization of Higher Education in China From the beginning of the internationalization of higher education in China to the present, the economic background of the internationalization of higher education in China mainly includes four stages: reform and opening-up, economic globalization, “One Belt and One Road” and “double first class” strategy.
1.2.1 Reform and Opening-Up Period The internationalization of higher education in China can be said to have started in 1978, that is, the period of reform and opening up. Since China’s reform and opening up, China’s higher education internationalization has experienced “explore development - policy perfect - connotation promotion - model upgrade” four stages of transition, the development theme has experienced into national reform and opening up, with the transformation of higher education, with the transformation of education planning layout, the current to participate in the national strategic deployment as the theme in the new period of history. The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) pointed out that the primary task of reform and opening up is to develop the economy, but the development of education is also advancing with The Times. In order to better serve the society and make adequate preparations for the rise of China, the country needs high-quality talents adapted to social development, and the development of education cannot be delayed. Explore the development stage. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, the internationalization of higher education in China was carried out in a relatively simple way, mainly by sending students abroad to study and carrying out small-scale Chinese-foreign cooperative education projects. At this stage, the country has just experienced a decade of the cultural revolution, the turbulence of the socialist modernization construction in ruins, all walks of life need good cultural quality of personnel, but turmoil just concluded China’s higher education level is not high, need with the aid of outside force, with international education to accelerate the development of higher education, it promoted the initial development of the internationalization of higher education in China. Stage of policy improvement. This stage is also the scale expansion stage of the internationalization of higher education in China. With the deepening of reform and opening up, especially after Deng Xiaoping’s speech during his southern tour, China has accelerated the pace of opening up to the outside world, ushering in a more vigorous development of economic and social undertakings. At the same time, the internationalization of China’s higher education has entered a new stage, with unprecedented development in all aspects. The government has also issued some policies on the education and management of overseas students, and the number of
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overseas students has entered a period of rapid development. Meanwhile, the policies on the return of overseas students and the introduction of overseas talents have also been improved. Taking study abroad as an example, in order to promote economic development and internationalization of higher education, The State Council issued the Opinions on the Implementation of the Program of Education Reform and Development in China in 1994, which proposed to “establish the National Study Abroad Fund Committee, so as to put the recruitment, selection and management of study abroad and in China on the legal track”. At the same time, carry out the pilot, and gradually promote to the whole country. By the end of the twentieth century, China had established a relatively perfect policy system for studying abroad, and the policy for studying abroad had entered the road of legalization and standardization. In 2009, the General Office of the Ministry of Education issued the Measures for Tuition Subsidies for State-Funded High-level Graduate Students (Trial), which further clarified the measures for the administration of public-funded graduate students and increased the intensity of funding. Under the encouragement of a series of policies and measures, the number of people sent by the government to study abroad in China has been steadily increased. Meanwhile, the backflow of talents has also alleviated the shortage of highly educated talents in China and promoted the long-term development of China’s economy and the process of internationalization of higher education (Chen & Fu, 2011; Jin, 2012; Lei, 2002; Mo & Liu, 2020; Wu & Song, 2018; Zhou, 2020). Connotation promotion stage. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, China has entered a new era of comprehensively deepening reform and innovationdriven economic development. In July 2010, the Outline of the National Plan for Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010–2020) was released, stressing the need to continue to open up education to the outside world and raising the requirements of introducing high-quality educational resources and enhancing exchanges and cooperation. During this period, high-level Chineseforeign cooperatively run schools, mainly self-run ones, were constantly emerging, which strengthened the requirements for carrying out high-level Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools with world-class universities or research institutions. In the process of comprehensively promoting the construction of world-class universities and first-class disciplines, we will also take strengthening international exchanges and cooperation as an important part of the reform and an important means to achieve the goal of “double first-class”.
1.2.2 Under the Background of Economic Globalization Since the twentieth century, the rapid economic development in Western Europe, North America, Asia–pacific, and other regions have strongly promoted the liberalization of international trade and investment finance, followed by the establishment of a unified labor market, the development of multinational companies, and the rapid rise of network information technology, leading to the formation of global economic
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globalization. Since the late 1980s, the wave of economic globalization has gradually affected the fields of politics, culture, science and technology, and education, which has accelerated the process of internationalization of modern higher education and provided necessary conditions for the internationalization of China’s higher education. Since the twenty-first century, economic globalization has been expanding and the integration process has been gradually accelerated, which has become the most important feature of the contemporary world and provided a solid material foundation for the internationalization of higher education. Economic globalization has laid a solid foundation for the internationalization of higher education in China. The development of transnational corporations has narrowed the distance between countries, promoted the exchanges and collisions between different cultures, enhanced people’s desire for different cultures and knowledge, and laid a cultural and spiritual foundation for the development of education. The global expansion of the market economy and the development of information technology strengthen the production link between countries, optimize the global allocation of resources, reduce the production cost, improve the economic efficiency, promote the economic growth, safeguard the people’s life, make people have the ability and willingness to increase the education fund input, it laid the material foundation for the development of education. The wide application of information technology in the whole world to form the global trend of information integration, which makes the knowledge information can break through the barriers of time and space on a global scale can synchronize free flow at the same time, greatly improve the efficiency of the procession of access to information resources, for the internationalization of education provides the necessary technical support and material conditions (Lei, 2002; Mo & Liu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2012; Zhou, 2020). With the globalization of economy and trade, especially after China’s accession to the International Trade Organization, the scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges between China and other countries are closer. Through various means, such as exchange students and teachers’ further study, colleges and universities promote the scientific research level, the construction of teachers’ team, and the specification of personnel training to be in line with the international standards. Extensive international cooperation enables Chinese scientific and technological personnel to quickly get in touch with the frontier of scientific research, broadens academic vision, improves academic level, creates a group of research teams active in international academic circles, speeds up the pace of discipline construction in China, and promotes the process of internationalization of higher education in China.
1.2.3 One Belt and One Road In terms of economic factors in the policy background of the internationalization of higher education, internationalization of higher education is a means of cultural exchange and talent training under the background of economic globalization and driven by economic factors. China’s higher education internationalization has new
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development with the change of the national policy, the further development of reform and opening up, our country from the slow development to have the ability to assist neighboring countries to develop together, behind this also shows that with the development of China’s comprehensive strength, and the Chinese people in their own progress at the same time also do not forget to help for the progress of the rest of the world, a harmonious in the sense of community, the development strategy of our country’s launch area along the way. One Belt and One Road, short for the silk road economic belt and the twenty-first-century maritime silk road, is a cooperation initiative put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September and October 2013, respectively. It runs through the Continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa. On land, it relies on international channels. At sea, it is connected by key ports. China has signed 201 cooperation documents with 138 countries and 31 international organizations to jointly build the One Belt and One Road (as of November 2020). It will make full use of the existing bilateral and multilateral mechanisms and effective regional cooperation platforms between China and relevant countries to actively develop economic cooperation partnerships with countries along the Belt and Road, and jointly build a community of shared interests, shared future, and shared responsibilities featuring political mutual trust, economic integration, and cultural inclusiveness. China is now the world’s second largest economy, the world’s largest trade in goods, the largest foreign exchange reserves. The large stock of economy also puts forward new requirements for China’s “going out” and “bringing in” strategies in the new era. It requires China to improve its open economy in a wider scope, in a wider range, and at a deeper level and integrate into the global economic system. The development of One Belt and One Road drives the development of surrounding areas in all aspects, and also provides opportunities for the further development of the internationalization of higher education in China (Lu et al., 2018; Wang & Yang, 2012). One Belt and One Road’s strategic vision closely revolve around the concept of “community of interests, community of destiny, community of responsibility”, and strives to achieve regional take-off and multi-win. Higher education is the combination point of the first productivity of science and technology and the first resource of human resources. It plays an important role in international development. Therefore, the internationalization of higher education in China should be transformed from promoting domestic development to considering the interests of other countries, which is exactly in line with the development strategy of One Belt and One Road. The same Belt and Road strategy also provides favorable opportunities for this transformation, mainly including: 1. Large-scale regional cooperation projects initiated by the government, involving a wide range of social units, are conducive to the establishment of higher education information platforms. Second, China has a certain basis for cooperation with countries along the “One Belt and One Road”. In particular, China has more comprehensive experience in higher education cooperation, which is conducive to the development of higher education internationalization.
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1.2.4 Double First-Class Strategic Background From the point of the development of knowledge economy era of new and high technology, in recent decades, the development of high and new technology made for thousands of years never had the huge progress, and high and new technology of the updating cycle of knowledge is becoming more and more short, the development also needs more high-quality talents, in order to speed up the development of higher education in our country, our country launched double leading strategy. In October 24, 2015, the State Council issued the plan as a whole to promote the world firstclass university and the first-class discipline construction overall plan, requirements, in accordance with the “four comprehensive” strategy layout and the CPC Central Committee and the State Council decision deployment, adheres to the core of Chinese characteristics, a world-class, as the fundamental, to support the innovation-driven development strategy, economic and social development as the guidance, adhere to the “first-class performance as the goal, on the basis of the subject, as a lever, driven by reform” of the basic principles, speed up built a batch of world first-class universities and first-class discipline. Since 2016, the task requirements of “double first class” have been clearly set for the construction of universities and disciplines, and the timetable has been made in three stages. Among them, the ultimate goal of “basically building a nation of higher education” is set at the middle of this century. This indicates that there is a new blueprint for the development plan of higher education in the next 30 years, which is a major position of cultivating creative personnel in colleges and universities, is the source of the original basic research and cutting-edge technologies in the field, is to address the issue of the national economy major science and technology, to promote science and technology into real productivity transformation of powerhouse, is the carrier of excellent cultural heritage innovation and the world communication bridge of different cultures, and wisdom is the national important think tank regiment. Therefore, it is extremely urgent to cultivate a batch of high-quality first-class universities and disciplines. At the turn of the century, China formally joined WTO and became one of the 143 members of WTO. China’s higher education market is gradually opening to foreign countries, and many foreign universities hope to bring them real economic benefits through various kinds of cooperation with China’s higher education due to their own lack of funds. However, it is unfavorable to the real development of higher education in our country, so it cannot achieve the real development of science and technology, and thus cannot meet the development of our country’s comprehensive national strength (Jin, 2012; Lei, 2002; Mo & Liu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2012; Wu & Song, 2018; Zhou, 2020). The imbalance of regional economic and social development in China leads to the obvious difference of regional development level of higher education, which is not conducive to the development of higher education internationalization. Therefore, under the background of “double first class” strategy to promote the internationalization of higher education in China, we must explore an appropriate path that conforms to China’s national conditions and regional economic development level. Follow the
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principle of “implementation at different stages and promotion at different levels”, concentrate on main resources, focus on building key universities and strong disciplines with a small gap with the world’s first-class level. After leading the first group of key universities and disciplines to achieve the goal, then give overall consideration to the development process of other universities, from the point to the surface, and gradually carry out. To increase inter-school cooperation is an important aspect of the internationalization of higher education as well as the main focus of the work. Without the cooperation between universities at home and abroad, the internationalization of higher education will lose the space and power for development. Therefore, we should increase the strategy of “bringing in” and “going out”. We will introduce top talents from foreign universities, establish more Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, and recruit more students to study in China. At the same time, Chinese universities should set up pilot universities or cooperate in running schools abroad and establish more Confucius Institutes and various specialized colleges. However, China’s international status as the world’s largest developing country has not changed. The gap between China’s per capita GDP and high-income countries is narrowing. The rapid economic development also provides an economic foundation for the process of inter-school cooperation. The development of knowledge economy has many economic problems to promote the internationalization of higher education in China, but it also brings opportunities to its development. Under the background of the double firstclass strategy, the internationalization of higher education in China will be further developed.
1.3 Cultural Background of Internationalization of Higher Education in China The cultures of all countries in the world are developed through mutual exchanges and collisions. Culture is a distinctive feature that distinguishes one group from another in values, beliefs, attitudes, codes of conduct, customs, and other aspects. The cultural background influences the educational idea, and the educational idea influences the cultivation of people. Different national cultural backgrounds have different educational concepts and human training objectives. Ideologically, the internationalization of education is the common ideal of many educators and thinkers in the history of education. As the highest level of education, higher education not only has the function of inheriting culture and cultivating talents, but also has the function of developing culture and innovating knowledge. It is not only a tool for spreading culture and science and technology, but also a driving force for economic development. With the continuous development of society, the functions of higher education are constantly expanded (Chen & Guo, 2018; Lei, 2002; Lu et al., 2018; Mo & Liu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2012; Zhou, 2020).
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1.3.1 Cultural Background in Different Historical Stages From the perspective of historical development, the most prominent education in traditional Chinese culture is the “contention of a hundred schools of thought” in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period. As a result of the contention of a hundred schools of thought, cultural education has been gradually expanded, and is no longer limited to the aristocracy. Numerous scribe classes with extensive knowledge have been created constantly, which makes social changes more frequent, and also brings great liberation to people’s minds, which effectively promotes the development of ideology, culture, and society. At that time, the “contention of a hundred schools of thought” laid a solid foundation for the development of Chinese ideology, culture, and academia. It was the first ideological liberation movement in Chinese history. It not only exerted a profound influence on Chinese traditional culture, but also greatly influenced the psychology, concepts, habits, and behaviors of Chinese people in later generations, and also promoted the development of Chinese society at that time and later generations. China’s higher education, from the historical records, the Shang Dynasty had the embryonic form of higher education institutions––university. With the development of society, institutions of higher education also develop from the embryonic state to a relatively complete and mature stage. The initial higher education in China was originated from the traditional cultural characteristic of “theocracy”. School education is linked to political activities, and the state runs schools to train officials for the state. The creation of Ji Xia Academy of Higher Education in official schools laid a foundation for the establishment of official universities in feudal China. In terms of teaching, the Ji Xia Academy had free discussions, democratic equality between teachers and students, and flexible and diverse forms of lecturing, which had a great impact on academies and other institutions in later generations. Although the Ji Xia School palace is not a complete university, it provides a positive reference for higher education in ancient China. The establishment of the Imperial College was a further improvement of the Imperial College of Ji. The Imperial College of the Han Dynasty could be regarded as a relatively formal university. The Imperial College was mainly to cultivate ruling talents and was the highest institution of official learning of the Central Government. The development of higher education in private schools is relative to official schools. Private schools have existed together with official schools in the feudal society of China for more than 2,000 years, occupying an irreplaceable position in the history of Chinese education. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, great changes took place in Chinese society. “The emperor lost his official position and his studies in the Four Barbarians” and “the contention of a hundred schools of thought” all promoted the rise of private learning. Many school thinkers have taken the form of private schools to preach their teachings and expand the influence of their own school. Private schools of classics were established after the Han Dynasty, and most of them were famous scholars at that time. It cultivated a large number of talents who did not seek fame and played a great role in promoting
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the development of higher education. Academy, as an institution of higher education, played an important role in the prosperity of academic development and talent cultivation in all dynasties. Later, the establishment of “New Learning” school from the perspective of the development of the history of Chinese education, the establishment of “New Learning” by Westerners in the late Qing Dynasty was a major reform of the traditional feudal education. It spread western modern science and technology, trained Chinese early modern science and technology talents, and played a certain positive role in the establishment of Modern Chinese higher education. The Ton Gwen School of the Capital, Tianjin Chinese and Western School, and Nanyang Public School were the earliest institutions of higher learning in modern China. Later, in the reform and reform, in order to meet the requirements of the New Deal, the Metropolitan University was founded. Since then, modern Chinese institutions of higher learning have been set up in various places. With the establishment of the market economic system, the integration of diverse cultures, the acceleration of the process of global integration and the pace of reform and opening up in China, and the constant influx of foreign cultures into China will promote the development of the internationalization of higher education in China. Modern universities are effective media and bridges for cross-cultural communication, as well as important hubs for the virtuous circle of communication achievements and social benefits. Almost all the famous universities in the world are international. Teachers and students from different countries and different cultural backgrounds are in the same school, carrying out substantial cultural integration. Obviously, the more such international universities there are, the more bridges, platforms, and fields there will be for different cultures to communicate and assimilate. With the higher education internationalization increasingly fierce market competition, it is necessary to deepen the reform of the institutions of higher education system and further to clear our country’s higher education in the process of the internationalization of local cultural identity crisis and the native culture of demands, create is advantageous to the university to participate in international competition system, strengthen the policy of studying abroad and foreign cooperation and exchange, currently studying abroad and foreign cooperation has increasingly become an integral part of culture and education, to strengthen the exchanges and cooperation of Chinese and foreign culture is the trend of The Times in today’s world. We should strengthen the integration and innovation of Chinese and foreign cultures, absorb and integrate foreign excellent cultures on the basis of adhering to local culture, take the essence and discard the dross, so as to promote the internationalization of higher education in China. China’s education has always taken the protection of the interests of the group, social interests, national interests as the highest ethical principles. It advocates “The rise and fall of the country, every man has the responsibility”, “under the nest, there are no eggs?” It is a traditional Chinese educational concept to pay attention to harmony and the shaping of harmonious quality. This is also the core socialist values that we should promote in our current era. Moreover, we should not be complacent about the shortcomings of our own culture, but actively learn from different cultures, strengthen the absorption and integration of foreign cultures to enhance our own strength, so as to improve the internationalization level of China’s higher education. Chinese universities should
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broaden their horizons, take the initiative to promote themselves around the world, and attract students from all over the world to study in China. At the same time, in the era of globalization of education, we should improve consultation and service (Chen & Fu, 2011; Chen & Guo, 2018; Jin, 2012; Lu et al., 2018; Wang & Yang, 2012).
1.3.2 The Development of Higher Education Since the Founding of New China Since the founding of New China, except for some special years, the higher education policies in different periods have reflected the national will and the actual needs of higher education development at that time and played a positive guiding and promoting role in the growth and growth of new China’s higher education. Since the reform and opening up, higher education has achieved unprecedented development, and the educational community has begun to attach importance to the research and exploration of higher education related issues. Higher education research itself has changed with the changes of The Times. The recent 40 years of higher education research have played an important role in the development and reform of China’s higher education. In China, in the past decades of years of higher education internationalization, international theory and practice after the start period and blowout period, both made great development, but compared with now gradually speeded up the globalization development, the internationalization of the higher education level remains to be promoted, a new phase of development should strengthen the concept of internationalization of higher education connotation development, forms for realizing innovation of higher education internationalization, pay attention to the international top-level design and sustainable development, strengthen the social, cultural, and political motivation and active participation in global higher education management.
1.3.3 Higher Education in the Context of Global Cultural Collision In the era of globalization, the integration of political, economic, cultural, and other factors forms a driving mechanism, promotes the internationalization of higher education, and promotes the optimal allocation of educational resources in various countries, among which cultural factors also play an important role. The internationalization of a country’s higher education is a matter of national comprehensive strength. Internationalization of higher education can improve the educational level of a country, accelerate its economic development, strengthen international contacts, enhance international cooperation, and strengthen its potential influence in politics,
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economy, culture, and other aspects through the cultivation of talents. The internationalization of higher education in China is a great education in the new era, which has the historical responsibility of rejuvenating the Chinese nation and the characteristics of adapting to the social development in the new era. It is people-centered, with distinctive Chinese characteristics, going to the world, reflecting the development orientation and continuous innovation. In essence, the internationalization of higher education is a kind of cultural influence and infiltration, and the development trend of higher education towards internationalization is actually the process of creating and spreading a kind of culture. At the same time, the internationalization of higher education also reflects the mutual circulation and symbiosis of multiple cultures. The two world themes of peace and development call for greater understanding among nations and peoples. Only by strengthening international understanding and understanding can peace and development be guaranteed. Such understanding should be based on the collision and exchange of different cultures and require the development of various cultural achievements with more caring characteristics and cooperative spirit. The internationalization of graduate education has and continues to strengthen this cultural function, which can promote the production, transmission, and reproduction of world culture in a more efficient way and in a more harmonious atmosphere (Chen & Fu, 2011; Chen & Guo, 2018; Jin, 2012; Lu et al., 2018; Wang & Yang, 2012). The development of information exchange technology provides the possibility for the internationalization of higher education. “Culture is the soul of a country and a nation, and it is closely linked to the rise and fall of a country,” General Secretary Xi Jinping said in his report to the 19th CPC National Congress. People around the world are redefining their identity according to culture in order to arouse people’s attention to cultural factors. Higher education is an educational practice of training senior professionals, which is closely related to the generation, development, and inheritance of culture. In the mid-eighteenth century, during the first scientific revolution, the world market began to take shape. During the second scientific and technological Revolution in the nineteenth century, not only the export of goods intensified, but also the scale of capital export continuously expanded. After the Second World War, especially in the past 25 years, the economic internationalization made new progress. With the passage of time, this trend has been further strengthened. Whether economic internationalization or globalization, all countries are required to implement an open policy, combine their own economy with the world economy and regional economy, and actively participate in global economic activities. With the more and more extensive application of information communication technology, the arrival of the information society and the formation of the learning society, the network of education between schools, between school education and social education, as well as between various levels and different regions and countries, all have exerted a great influence on the internationalization of higher education in various countries. In our country since 1980, Deng Xiaoping about facing the modernization, the world and the future under the guidance of thought of “three facing” and do a lot of work in higher education internationalization, such as actively promote Chinese teaching, professional and curriculum structure adjustment, to accept overseas students, encouraged
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to study abroad, to hire foreign experts, with foreign universities combination education, etc., has made great progress. Since the 1990s, it has accelerated the process of internationalization of higher education, in some courses. It puts forward the requirement of studying or practicing in one or several foreign countries, accelerates the speed of running a school jointly or setting up an overseas branch school, vigorously develops network education, and promotes the process of internationalization of higher education in China. The educational philosophy of the twenty-first century needs to emphasize a spirit of global cooperation. This spirit requires the development of a variety of more characteristic cultural outcomes. We really need to create a new paradigm of global cooperation. Creating this paradigm is an urgent task. Both economic and ecological forces are pushing the world in this direction. Although there are increasing signs of narrow nationalism around the world, these two forces for global cooperation should transcend national boundaries. The task of the world’s education systems is to ensure that this happens. Need to come up with one of the problems is that an international language for global social development, to enhance and promote a culture of international through a different culture, not only can make the pedagogue to understand other national cultural traditions, value orientation, moral sentiment, stimulate their respect for other ethnic traditional thoughts and feelings and behavior orientation, but also through their radiation effect, make the thoughts and feelings phase spread to other people, and gradually make it into a conscious action of all mankind. Each country has its own history and unique culture. As a nation with a long history, China’s culture is more splendid and colorful. If we want to integrate into the world cultural family, we should actively promote the internationalization of higher education in China and give full play to the function of the cultural inheritance of higher education (Chen & Guo, 2018; Lu et al., 2018; Wang & Yang, 2012).
1.4 Social Background of Internationalization of Higher Education in China Internationalization of higher education is the development process and general trend of a country’s higher education going international. With economic globalization, information integration, and cultural diversity, as well as the change of national policies, the efforts of the World Trade Organization promote the internationalization of higher education to develop gradually. Personally, I will expound on the social background of the internationalization of higher education from the domestic and international social backgrounds.
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1.4.1 Domestic Social Background Due to the changes and development of The Times, all countries and educational circles pay more attention to the internationalization of higher education. In fact, the internationalization of higher education is of great significance for a country to accelerate the development of education and enhance its comprehensive national strength. The essence of internationalization of higher education is to participate in the competition of international education, and the competition of international education is also the competition of talents. In the final analysis, the internationalization of a country’s higher education is a matter of national comprehensive strength. Internationalization of higher education can improve the educational level of a country, accelerate its economic development, strengthen international contacts, enhance international cooperation, and strengthen its potential influence in politics, economy, culture, and other aspects through personnel training. Clearly aware of this, our country has gradually given economic support and policy encouragement. We can discuss the progress of internationalization of higher education from the development and change of studying abroad and studying in China. For a long time after the founding of new China has not established the basic direction of studying abroad, cause the policy about studying abroad have been in a state of blank, the development of our country to study abroad in the 1870s, during the experience many important adjustments and reforms, the policy of studying abroad has experienced a moderate adjustment, but its trajectory is a constant change, the objective is to achieve “scale, improve the quality of overall goal”. From 1972 to 1980, China’s study abroad policy focused on government-funded students. Due to the slow development of study abroad, the policy of self-funded study abroad was formally proposed in 1980. In 1985, China abolished the qualification examination for self-funded overseas study, which marked that China opened its door to overseas students. After entering the twenty-first century, studying abroad has entered a period of prosperity and development. While continuously expanding the scale of students sent by the government, the country has further standardized the market of self-funded studying abroad, and the creation of a good working environment for returning to China will further support the introduction of talents. Before 1973, China basically did not enroll foreign students, and there was no corresponding policy and management system. Until the reform and opening up, China has been in a stagnant state. Although the number of Chinese who came to China gradually increased, there was no real growth. Therefore, the Chinese government has gradually established a set of perfect management systems for studying in China by promulgating a number of policies on studying in China. Through the policy of reform and opening up, the students form a system, which means coming to China to study abroad channel that has opened, 1979 international students in our country is only 440 people, but how to manage and solve the related problem has become a pressing problem, then our country has issued a series of regulations, until 1985, promulgated measures for the administration of the foreign students and so on set up basic students management system in China, although not led to the
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students’ real growth, for the continuous improvement of the policy in China laid a foundation. Since 2000, international students in China have been an important aspect of international education. After years of exploration and development, the number of international students in China has been rising rapidly. How to improve the quality of education, strengthen management, and make the next step of development strategy is very important. China promulgated the Regulations on the Acceptance of Foreign Students by Institutions of Higher Learning, which formally established the management system for foreign students, and the Notice on the Implementation of the Annual Evaluation System of Chinese Government Scholarships further improved the management system for foreign students. In 2010, the Ministry of Education in the national conference on foreign students pointed out that the study in China plan points out, in accordance with the “scale, optimize the structure, the standard management, quality assurance” of 16 words work policy, the scale structure of quality as a whole, push forward the sustainable development of the students, build the international brand of China’s higher education (Chen & Fu, 2011; Chen & Guo, 2018; Lei, 2002; Lu et al., 2018; Wang & Yang, 2012; Zhou, 2020).
1.4.2 International Community Background Since the 1990s, the turning point changes in the world economy, politics, science, technology, and education have become the main international background for promoting a new round of educational internationalization. Economic globalization provides the demand power and material foundation for the internationalization of education. In the 1990s, for the development of multinational companies as the main carrier of the era of economic globalization, the internationalization of talent flow gradually became talent measure standard, this is the required national education, especially university education more considering the international standard, in addition, the economic globalization through economies of scale to promote the development of national economy, improve the living standard of the residents from all over the world, make quite a lot of country residents of the growing demand by domestic education to international demand, including studying abroad, education of increasing demand has been driving the import and export of the education service, provides the material basis for the education internationalization. The consistency of contemporary world politics and educational themes provides a favorable environment for the internationalization of education. Humans are faced with the problem such as environment problem, energy problem, population problem, and development problem is more and more its homogeneity, transcend national borders, to solve any problem, need countries to work together to education in inheriting the civilization at the same time, modern science and technology and humanities knowledge become one of the contents of education, education is faced with the challenges of also more international characteristics, the strengthening of the education content with uniformity, internationalization of education is required for times.
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The development of science and technology, especially information technology, provides technical support for the internationalization of education. New advanced technologies provide people with the opportunity to receive extensive education through mass media and remote systems. The distance between time and space is no longer a major obstacle to international exchange and cooperation. Modern science and technology greatly increase the mutual influence of education among countries and provide a broad technical platform for education internationalization. Education industrialization and service trade liberalization provide market pressure for education internationalization. With the decline of population growth rate in developed countries, educational resources are gradually surplus, so some developed countries turn to the international market to recruit foreign students, export teachers, and teaching content, and develop the international education industry. At the same time, the international multilateral free trade system in promoting trade liberalization of goods at the same time, also urgent education services, the development of service trade, the mutual opening of the national education market becomes a trend, an international education, the big field is forming, internationalization of education become the era of economic globalization to the inevitable trend of education development. The coordinated efforts of international organizations on a global scale have effectively promoted the development of the internationalization of education. The European Community, UNESCO, and the European Union have all made great efforts for the development of internationalization of education.
1.4.3 Origin and Development of Internationalization of Higher Education in China Due to China’s historical background, our country started relatively late and the development of higher education internationalization development speed is slow, the overseas development of higher education internationalization has a long history, its development can be traced back to the ancient Greece period, roaming around the world, the wise school teachers and students of the university of the middle ages are no longer affected by nationality, then they have international consciousness; Go out in the freedom of thought of the Renaissance, the study ethos is near the point of the popular, all of these can be said to be originated, the internationalization of higher education in the true sense of the internationalization of higher education in the 1840s, some developed capitalist countries attach great importance to the process of internationalization of higher education, enacted the law and policy pave the way for the development of higher education internationalization. And for our country, the internationalization of higher education originated in the nineteenth century, the invasion of the Western powers in China became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, under the influence of “introduced” ideological trend, the Westernization movement advocated learning advanced Western science and technology, establish a Western-style school, in order to adapt to the situation has sent a large number of
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Chinese students to study abroad, in 1861, Jingshi with pavilion was set up, mainly Western, USES class teaching system, greatly improving the teaching efficiency, and this is the first time that China has changed the imperial examination system of election officials say that taking the first step in learning from the west since the Westernization school established in succession. Even though their purpose was to maintain the rule of the feudal ruling class over the society, they were greatly integrated with the advanced Western science and technology, political civilization and educational philosophy, and to a certain extent, promoted China to learn from the West, and also promoted China to “enter the international arena”. In 1904, the Qing government issued “to write some articles of association”, which is based on the education system in Japan, as well as indirect learning about the Western road, 1911, the revolution established the People’s Republic of China, in order to meet the needs of the development of education of the rising bourgeoisie, which has the advanced thinking of scholars to the west, inspect experience system, to study achievements of Western education, and in accordance with China’s national conditions apply it to practice. It can be said that this period was no longer a simple imitation and copying, but a number of insightful people explored and developed in accordance with China’s national conditions. Cai Yuanpei made field visits to Europe many times, and through learning, he deeply transformed Peking University, which had a strong atmosphere of feudalism, and endowed it with the spirit of democracy, freedom, and science. At the same time, it also lays a good foundation for the internationalization of China’s higher education (Chen & Guo, 2018; Lei, 2002; Lu et al., 2018; Wang & Yang, 2012). The Development of Internationalization of Higher Education in China after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. 1949 years after the founding, belong to grope for the internationalization of higher education in our country, our country’s higher education began to training talents for socialist construction, in the education reform of the People’s Republic of China is mainly use for reference the experience of the former Soviet union institutionalization of higher education, from the education structure to the curriculum are the former Soviet union, indeed in a short period of time made an indelible contribution for the establishment of new China, however, just learning the western system, but not according to Chinese national condition doesn’t work, has a great deal of blindness and disadvantages; The highly centralized management system limits the autonomy of the university and violates the traditional spirit of the university. The lack of flexibility of talents cultivated by overdifferentiated disciplines leads to one-sided development of human beings, which is contrary to the purpose of education. Learning only one language in foreign language learning, to a large extent closed the field of vision, cut off the road of communication with other countries. So far, the internationalization of higher education in China has accumulated rich experience and lessons, which provide reference for the development of higher education internationalization in China after the reform and opening up. Development of Internationalization of Higher Education in China after the Reform and Opening up. After reform and opening up, the country put emphasis on the college construction and development of the construction of the national leaders
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put forward the “education must face modernization, the world and the future”, that is to say, education good things to learn from Western countries and surpass international advanced level, in a sense, that is the internationalization of education, but that is very different with wholesale Westernization. To carry out the reform of the economic system, therefore, it is urgent for China’s universities to cultivate international high-level talents. The economic system also led to the reform of education system, expanding the autonomy of running colleges and universities, colleges, and universities is with the market economy development and progress of motivation is the key to the reform of higher education system, make the increasing international exchanges and the international academic activities, an important force in promoting our country’s higher education internationalization, in addition, with the advent of the era of information, different from traditional teaching concept is forming, the college students’ learning styles in global is becoming more common, the new teaching model has pushed the development of China’s higher education internationalization, the students can through the network information search, a multinational study is no longer a difficult task, You can hear the courses of famous teachers from many countries through the Internet. Due to the development of economic globalization, the connection between countries in the world is increasingly close, which provides convenient conditions for studying abroad. International Development of Higher Education in China. In today’s world, the international situation is undergoing profound changes, economic globalization is indubitable objective laws of economic development in the world, is the most prominent feature in today’s economic development, and to the world’s economic and social development it has brought the profound influence, rapid progress in science and technology, the competition of comprehensive national strength is becoming more and more fierce. Contact countries in recent years, countries have become more and more close, relatively stable political environment, the world in terms of “peace and development” as the theme of the large international background, the state and the communication and contact between countries is more and more deeply, which has accelerated the pace of higher education internationalization, internationalization of higher education in our country widely attention, especially with the deepening of the reform and opening up, the good experience of foreign higher education development have been introduced to our country, our country standing under the background of globalization “take the essence and discard the dregs” and the localization, the experience of developed countries for the development of the internationalization of higher education in our country, At this time, internationalization has become not only a slogan for the development of China’s higher education, but also a concrete practice, in which the internationalization of learning is the driving force of innovation in the internationalization of education, which brings a new learning society. Although the internationalization of higher education in China is developing, there is still a gap compared with the developed countries, and the development of higher education still needs efforts (Chen & Guo, 2018; Lei, 2002; Lu et al., 2018; Mo & Liu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2012; Zhou, 2020).
1.5 Conclusion
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1.5 Conclusion We are living in a multicultural crisscross social coexistence of globalization, global communications are narrowing the space of our world, and in a new society, different cultures, different religions, different countries and different regime mutual respect and mutual understanding is the key feature of global society, health, and now, mainstream thinkers increasingly recognize that the future must be a multicultural society, the future peace of the world depends on the deep understanding and respect of cultural diversity. University is a concrete implementation of higher education institutions, universities in the development of mutual respect and mutual understanding play a role of center should be in the process, we should uphold the depth of the international goal—to develop more international competitiveness and the creative talents in the cross-cultural leadership, adhere to the value of the lead—the pursuit of the common interests of mankind, focus on strengthening the construction of the digital age ability of university, the pursuit of excellence quality, the beauty of its beauty, make human education community, and, on the deeper care for local cultural heritage and national interests appeal. We believe that in-depth internationalization will create a bright future for China’s higher education and inject new vitality into the expansion of people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries (Chen & Fu, 2011; Chen & Guo, 2018; Jin, 2012; Lei, 2002; Lu et al., 2018; Mo & Liu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2012; Wu & Song, 2018; Zhou, 2020).
References Chen, X., & Fu, Y. (2011). Problems and countermeasures of internationalization of higher education in China in the context of economic globalization. China Adult Education, 11(18), 10–11. Chen, B., & Guo, L. (2018). Transformation and upgrading of China’s higher education internationalization under the background of “One Belt and One Road” construction. Journal of the National School of Education Administration, 28(03), 9–15. Jin, C. (2012). Evolution of China’s higher education internationalization policy since the reform and opening up: Based on the connection of data and policy. Journal of Education, Renmin University of China, 22(04), 29–48. Lei, Z. (2002). Thoughts on internationalization of higher education in China. Journal of Jiangxi Normal University, 2002(01), 106–108. Lu, X., Wang, W., & Qian, X. (2018). Reflection on the internationalization of higher education in China under the “Double First class” strategy. Higher Education Management, 28(01), 27–34. Mo, Y., & Liu, B. (2020). The development course and reform trend of higher education internationalization in China. Journal of Hebei Normal University, 20(04), 85–93. Wang J., & Yang H. (2012). New fields of overseas investment: New trends in transnational higher education, 12(5), 11–18. Wu, C., & Song, Y. (2018). Changes and prospects of internationalization of higher education in China over the past 40 years of reform and opening up. China Higher Education Research, 28(12), 53–58. Zhou, S. (2020). Research on higher education internationalization policy and strategic decision— On the research on higher education internationalization policy in China. Chinese Journal of Education, 20(11), 110.
Chapter 2
Exploring Chinese Students Studying Abroad: Background, Problems, and Suggestions
This chapter explores the conditions, challenges, and strategies of studying abroad from various perspectives. With the progress of China’s economy and social technology, China’s higher education presents an open, diversified, and international, more and more people are not satisfied with the guidance of traditional domestic education, high school students, college students as the mainstream of most people have chosen to study abroad this way to improve themselves. Leading foreign teaching quality, open teaching environment, diversity, and ethnic culture are all factors for students to choose to study abroad. The number of Chinese students studying abroad is increasing and the scale is expanding. With the gradual expansion of the scale of studying abroad in China, higher education in China shows a vigorous vitality, but at the same time accompanied by the emergence of problems. Facing the problem of overseas students in China, where will Chinese higher education go? How to develop? Facing the current situation of studying abroad in China and the problems faced by studying abroad in China, this chapter made a careful analysis and research and took corresponding measures, hoping to promote the development of higher education in China.
2.1 Introduction “When Chinese students and their parents choose to study abroad, the choice of study countries and majors presents a trend of ‘diversification’ and ‘rationalization’.” The number of students studying abroad and returning students in mainland China is always in the basic trend of “two-way continuous growth”. The fundamental reason is that China’s comprehensive national strength and international influence have gradually realized the historic change of “from small to large and from weak to strong”. Of course, in the course of the development of the cause of studying abroad in China, there have also emerged some new situations, facing various difficulties and © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li, “Four Branches” of Internationalization of Higher Education in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4205-0_2
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institutional obstacles. On the one hand, the development of science and technology and education in Western-developed countries is “never ending”, and Chinese or Chinese people are seldom seen in “major international science and technology events” over the years., on the other hand, in recent years, with the rapid development of network technology, known as “for class” a “massive open online courses” on a global scale grew rapidly and its “students have higher degree of freedom and choice is wider and more interactive and research achievement spread faster and wider range” and other advantages will greatly change the previous training concept, change traditional education mode and the learning system; Others predict that the era of “big data” and “big science” will revolutionize education. All these will greatly affect the future direction and development path of China’s study abroad.
2.2 The Scale of Study Abroad Activities in China Conforms to the Basic National Conditions According to the investigation and comprehensive analysis, it can be concluded that the group of Chinese students studying abroad are “better educated, younger and internationalized”. They have good higher education, at higher level, and get high income; It has nine basic features, such as “fast growth, fast growth and fast development”, and its overall scale ranks among the top in the world. In fact, the overall scale of the total number of Chinese mainland students studying abroad in the proportion of the total population, as well as the number of returned students and other data are basically consistent with China’s economic strength and international status as the world’s largest developing country. Compared with other industries in China, its development speed is basically synchronous, that is, there is too low, medium, and high growth in the past 35 years, but almost no “negative growth”. The reasons mainly include the steady increase of China’s comprehensive national strength and international influence, namely “a large population base, rapid economic development, and gradual upgrading of consumption”, as well as the growing demand for international education. And in many cases, self-funded study abroad behavior, in fact, has gradually become an increasingly normal lifestyle in many Chinese families (See Fig. 2.1). Relevant facts have proved that the international flow direction of high-level talents in China is still in the state of “outflow is greater than inflow” on the whole. Specific data also show that China is still one of the countries with a high rate of highend talent turnover. China, for example, had the highest retention rate, at 92%, of students who earned Ph.D.’s in science and engineering in 2002 but were still in the U.S. 5 years later, according to U.S. government research. Again as the central personnel work coordination group, said publicly in 2013, the head office in China the scale, structure, and quality of the contingent of talents and so on, compared with advanced countries in the world and economic and social development needs, there are many don’t adapt to the place, especially the lack of high-level innovative
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The number of Chinese students studying abroad from 2007 to 2019
66.2
70.35
60.8 52.4
54.5
2015
2016
46 40
41.4
2012
2013
34.4 28.5 22.9 14.4 2007
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2008
2009
2010
2011
2014
2017
2018
2019
Fig. 2.1 The number of Chinese students studying abroad from 2007 to 2019
talents, talent innovation ability is not strong, the personnel structure and layout is unreasonable, talent development institutional obstacle has not been eliminated, the talent resources development and investment; Although China has developed from a country with relatively insufficient human resources to the world’s largest country of human resources, the number of top talents lost ranks the first in the world, among which the retention rate in the field of science and engineering reaches 87% on average. At the same time, many developed countries continue to reform their immigration policies and increase their efforts to attract or retain talents. Some developing countries are not to be outdone and have joined in the global talent competition. Over the past 35 years, more than one million students have returned to China after finishing their studies, but only about 20,000 of them are high-level talents. Domestic researchers on talent policy also said that China’s talent program is still inadequate, with some measures focusing on short-term effects rather than sustainability. Only considering the way of introduction, paying no attention to the growth mechanism after the introduction of talents. These problems cause that many talent plans do not really introduce top talent, leading to China still facing the reality of top talent introduction difficulty, lack of competitiveness (Li, 2012; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2020; Liu, 2008; Yin, 2017). “Study-abroad diplomacy” is gradually becoming a new development direction of study-abroad policy. In the face of the rapid increase in the number of overseas students, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in early 2011 put forward a series of principled opinions on how to further improve the work of overseas students. Xi Jinping, on October 21, 2013, General Secretary homecoming was established in one hundred in Europe and the conference stressed that “to care for students studying abroad to work, study and life, reflect the desire, safeguard the legitimate rights and
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interests, enhance attraction and cohesion”, the policy of studying abroad and puts forward the work of 16 words, namely “support to study abroad, encouraging home, come and go free”. “Study in diplomacy” means, with the rising number of Chinese studying abroad personnel, accumulated over a long period of students studying abroad and total returned people grow steadily, and the gradual formation of the positive energy has become China’s public diplomacy, public diplomacy power an important part of, and to undertake the role of unique foreign soft power increasingly. As part of the public diplomacy or folk diplomacy, to study in foreign is also through the role in the perceptual psychology of people abroad, thus improving other countries’ attitudes toward China, won understanding and support, make China in the international arena, more politically influential, the economy more competitive, image more affinity, moral, and charismatic. Through the study abroad diplomacy, the foreign public can be more directly and widely faced, so as to enhance the communication power and influence of Chinese culture more effectively, improve the environment of international public opinion, safeguard national interests, and express the true national image. Therefore, the importance of study-abroad diplomacy has become increasingly prominent, and it has become an effective form of diplomacy to build national image, strive for international understanding and realize the global strategy. In the process of studying abroad, students have been extensively involved in cooperation and exchanges between countries, playing an important role in enhancing the understanding and friendship between the Chinese people and the people of other countries. Decades of practice and even lessons have proved that millions of Chinese students are good at tapping out the main soft power of China’s civilian diplomatic wisdom and will play an increasingly important role in China’s civilian diplomatic activities in the future. In this regard, General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward four hopes for overseas students: stick to the spirit of patriotism, study hard, strive for innovation and creativity, and actively promote foreign exchanges. “Promote foreign exchange” expressed the strategic intention to carry out the “study in diplomacy”, namely, continue to promote friendly exchanges between China and foreign countries of civil ambassador, multi-purpose foreign people to hear, understand, ways and means to listen to, good Chinese story, spread the good voice of China, let the world to understand China more and more support (Li, 2012; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2020; Liu, 2008; Yin, 2017). In the face of increasingly open, diversified, and international higher education, more and more people are not satisfied with the guidance of traditional domestic education. A large number of high school students and college students as the mainstream have chosen the way of “studying abroad” to improve themselves. Leading foreign teaching quality, open teaching environment, and diverse ethnic culture are all factors for students to choose to study abroad. Among them, the appreciation of the RMB has to be mentioned as an incentive. According to a 2014 survey of educational institutions, 80% of college students are willing to go abroad. This shows that studying abroad is still the mainstream choice for college students. One important reason is the influence of the appreciation of the renminbi, the present study cost has already been fading out of reach, moreover, the generalization of college students result in intense domestic employment, there are
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many jobs and a few phenomena, many colleges graduates get the chance to choose to study abroad for further study, increase their own competitiveness, to avoid “cold winter” obtain an employment, so studying abroad is the hot buzz. Among college students, those who have the intention of going abroad have stable incomes of their parents, and the majority of them live in cities. This shows that although the big prospect of studying abroad is very good, individuals are still closely related to their family economic situation and ideology. Among college students who do not want to go abroad, the cost of studying abroad is the key to hinder them from going abroad. In addition, it requires objective costs to contact schools, obtain visas, prepare some necessary living expenses, and buy articles for daily use. Some students are discouraged by the lack of affordability. (Li, 2012; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2020; Liu, 2008; Yin, 2017). Although the United States is more expensive than other countries, it is still the top place to study, accounting for half of the respondents. The UK is next at 30% and the rest at 21%. It can be seen that Chinese students still prefer European and American countries in their choice of study destinations. Although the United States has a short history, it has many universities, strong academic atmosphere, high level of university education, and advanced educational resources. With the increase of China’s comprehensive national strength and the improvement of its international status, the living standard of the Chinese people has been raised rapidly and the quality of life has been greatly improved. People pay more and more attention to the level of education. Many students choose to study abroad to further improve and improve their academic abilities. “When Chinese students and their parents choose to study abroad, the choice of study countries and majors presents a trend of ‘diversification’ and ‘rationalization’.” Comparing with 2015 data, the white paper found that the proportion of Chinese students applying from “big countries” such as the US, the UK and Canada had all declined slightly, while Asian countries such as Singapore and Japan were gaining interest. In terms of major selection, “school ranking” became the second most important factor for students, dropping to 41%, while referring to “appropriate major” rose to 46%, up from 43% last year. A whopping 77% of students said they would choose a major that “interests them”. This data shows that Chinese students are becoming more rational in their choice of studying abroad. Compared with last year, the proportion of “education level” and “comprehensive national strength” in the choice of destination for overseas study has decreased significantly, while “national culture”, is a more perceptual factor of overseas study, and “language environment”, a more practical factor of overseas study, are also on the rise. At the same time, students remain “rational” while being “emotional” and pay more attention to the most intuitive advantage of “improving language ability” of studying abroad. In addition, the demand for “future employment prospects” and “improving foreign language skills” among overseas students has increased compared with 2015, and they have a clearer attitude towards the purpose of studying abroad. In recent years, with the continuous development of China’s economy, more and more Chinese students choose to return to their motherland for development. The
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survey shows that the difficulty of finding a job for overseas returnees has worsened. In terms of time spent looking for their first job after returning home, 40.3% found a job within a month and 36.8% found a job within a quarter, far lower than the 65.3% surveyed in 2013. The problems that returnees face in finding jobs are: first, their social network is not perfect, especially the “weak relationship”. 47% of returnees said that “their domestic network has been broken because they went to school abroad”. Second, due to the differences between Chinese and Western semester systems, the time of job-hunting for international students and the time of recruiting for domestic enterprises are misplaced. Third, international students lack career planning awareness and training before going abroad, so they do not know what career they should be engaged in when they graduate. Fourth, the comparative advantage of returnees has weakened, with 29.7% saying that “professional skills do not have obvious advantages compared with students from famous universities in China”. The characteristics and trends of overseas consumption of Chinese students reflect the financial literacy of this group. Visa International, based on bank card consumption data, found that the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and France accounted for more than three-quarters of the overseas transaction volume of Chinese students in 2015, and these countries were also the major destination countries for Chinese students. According to the survey, online trading has penetrated the daily life of Chinese students studying abroad from all aspects. On the one hand, Internet commerce and mobile commerce have been very mature in developed countries such as the UK and the US. They not only have a complete range of products with high quality and low price, but also sound consumer protection clauses can avoid all kinds of potential concerns. On the other hand, because of the continuous progress of online payment technology. According to a white paper on New Oriental Vision for Chinese Overseas Students in 2019, students’ research intentions at all stages are stable and they still focus on college students. The proportion of students’ intentions increased from 58% in 2015 to 61% in 2019. As college students study abroad becomes more and more popular, Chinese parents pay more and more attention to their children’s studies and are mostly willing to send their children to study abroad. At present, China has the largest number of overseas students in the world. In the past 20 years, there have been 58. 20,000 Chinese students studied in 103 countries and regions. According to “Guangming Daily” report, the United Nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization, according to a survey of more than 160 international students, including Chinese students points exist all over the world, and the beauty of the two countries has become the largest feeder nation/the number of students studying abroad is growing almost four times within 3 years, the total number of breakthroughs in more than 10,000 people, but studying abroad also faced a series of problems. Economic pressure. First, there must be sufficient financial security. For a family, the cost of studying abroad is not a small figure, so the family needs to have an objective assessment of their financial situation before sending their child abroad to ensure that their financial situation can support their child’s study abroad career
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for several years. Studying abroad needs a large amount of capital to back up, just like in the UK, the overall cost of a master’s degree is about 300,000 yuan a year. Australia and the UK are about the same. In the US and Canada, it is about 400,000 yuan. In addition to the cost of education, renting a house, eating, and socializing in a foreign country can also be expensive. Foreign high consumption will often leave you with a tight budget, and you will always have to choose the cheap goods that others do not look up to and will be despised by others. The cost of studying abroad is high, and the Commonwealth countries must have at least one million yuan to complete their high school. Compared with the domestic environment, the foreign environment is more open and more seductive. Students with poor self-control are easy to be tempted and go astray. If you don’t learn real knowledge, you’ll waste years and a lot of money. Of course, parents should also guide their children in the management and use of large amounts of money. Overseas consumption level is high, especially in some developed countries, the living expenses and tuition fees of college students are several times higher than those of similar schools in China. For an ordinary family, this is not a small amount, and many of them are unable to support it. According to statistics, more than 90% of students studied abroad at their own expense in 2011, which indicates that many students study abroad with financial support from their families. From the analysis of the questionnaire survey, family economic conditions are the most important reason for restricting college students to study abroad, accounting for more than 70%. According to the comparison of the sum of money for studying abroad summarized on the Internet, it can be seen that a year’s study abroad in the UK is about 200,000 to 350,000 yuan, and that in the US is 350,000 to 500,000 yuan, while other European countries are about the same as the UK. If it is Asia, it also needs at least 50,000 to 100,000 yuan to go to Japan and other countries. In addition, in addition to the tuition fee that should be paid to the school, we may pay higher prices for the same goods due to the different prices in life. Faced with the high cost of studying abroad, many college students have to give up the idea of studying abroad due to family economic reasons (Li, 2012; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2020; Liu, 2008; Yin, 2017). Language communication barrier. In a completely strange language environment, almost everything needs to rely on English to communicate, if the English level is very weak, in the beginning, it will have some adverse effects, so we should try to lay a good foundation of English and learning ability before going abroad. Even if the language scores are very good, there will be some problems in listening to lectures and communicating after going out, which is experienced by many people who go out. Moreover, studying abroad must be the child’s own subjective desire to go abroad, rather than being forced to go abroad by his parents’ wishful thinking. Only if you want to study abroad subjectively, have thirst for knowledge and an enterprising spirit, can you set up a good learning attitude and grasp the opportunity to study hard to achieve success.
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Theoretically speaking, Chinese students have been exposed to English since primary school and have passed numerous English tests, both large and small. Moreover, their test-taking ability is stronger than that of students from foreign countries, and they even have passed IELTS and TOEFL. However, a few of them can communicate with foreigners normally. There are significant differences between the two countries in teaching language, teaching method, and thinking mode, which many Chinese students cannot adapt to and feel great pressure in their studies. Because of the language barrier, they can’t communicate with the people around normally, resulting in loneliness and autistic tendency, the psychological ability of college students is a great challenge. Before going abroad, college students may invest more time and energy to strengthen their foreign language learning. They have to pass the English test first. At this time, students will be under great pressure because they have to learn both academic knowledge and prepare for the examination for studying abroad. Although they may be well prepared, many college students become “semideaf and dumb” when they first arrive abroad––with a language barrier. Because although we students have a certain basis of English, the level of spoken English is generally low, only some daily language, sometimes even useless. This is likely to lead to the class cannot understand, want to speak, not to mention good communication with others, which may lead to a serious setback in confidence, and thus a significant decline in academic performance. Cultural impact. Nowadays, many college students blindly follow the “going abroad craze”. When they go abroad, they find that the reality is totally beyond their imagination. They feel overwhelmed and unable to adapt to the pressure from all sides. Due to regional and cultural differences, the ideas and values of each country are also different to some extent, which will have a certain impact on students’ original consciousness. In terms of life and psychology, different cultural backgrounds and living customs will have a great impact on overseas students. The educational mode, educational concept, and teaching methods in foreign countries are quite different from those in China. The classroom in foreign countries emphasizes autonomous learning, while Chinese education is mainly based on infusion. Many students cannot adapt to teamwork and dare not express their own opinions, which makes them feel great academic pressure. During the period of studying abroad, due to the differences between the Chinese education and foreign education received since childhood, students often fail to get along well with their classmates in the early stage of studying abroad and are even likely to have their own personality affected by contradictions and conflicts in life, leading to excessive or pessimistic. However, western capitalist values of life, high consumption life, and racial discrimination will cause many Chinese college students to have a strong sense of fear and loss, leading to physical and mental exhaustion. To sum up, the impact of culture shock on different age groups is different. The characteristics of each country’s culture make students have different judgments on the acceptance, application, and abandonment of culture. If the culture shock is not good, all kinds of ills will be exposed, may lead to losing confidence, difficult to a friend, cannot be in, the language barrier, unable to complete their studies, lost jobs, his homesickness and so on, and even some students are in
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the adolescence, radical and rebellious, earlier left the parents, vulnerable to outside influence, emotional instability, various cultural factors work together makes them up again. The independent and free aspects of foreign culture enable them to face life independently, while affairs always have two sides. Some negative aspects of foreign culture will also be encountered by young children, who are difficult to control themselves and easily fall to the brink of degradation if they lack proper guidance. Chinese students face the “western use of Chinese and foreign sports”, “foreign for Chinese”, “overall Westernization”, and other situations, which are formed under the special historical background, special cultural background, special economic situation, and special cultural environment of contemporary China. Chinese students in different eras face different tests in different directions. Students need to absorb and utilize foreign cultures well without losing themselves so that they can better accept and study abroad (Li, 2012; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2020; Liu, 2008; Yin, 2017). Psychological gap. Going abroad is not as beautiful and brilliant as you think. There are bitterness, depression, missing, and inconvenience. Life abroad can be very different from what you might expect. Many European countries have sparsely populated areas, deserted streets, low bungalows, and cities that look less beautiful than Shanghai and Shenzhen or even the countryside. The gap between imagination and reality may make you lose the motivation to stick with it. It is possible that studying abroad is different from what you imagine. Many people think that studying abroad is just a group of friends from all over the world sitting happily on the grass talking about learning and life and dreams, while reality may beat you to death. What it must be like to be alone in a foreign country without friends, without family, with yellow hair and blue eyes every day. In addition, it is really difficult for a Chinese stomach to adapt to American food. Hamburgers and French fries are not like a change of taste once in a long time in China but become daily food similar to rice and steamed bread in China. Many overseas students often live on instant noodles. Have you ever seen a streetlight and burst into tears? Leaving parents and relatives, alone in the face of a foreign strange environment, the streets of thousands of lights, not one is waiting for me. Hidden safety problems. There are many reports about the safety of studying abroad. When we come to a strange country, we should integrate into our study and life as soon as possible and protect ourselves safely, which is the basis of studying abroad. The first idea to go first, to study the law. Some foreigners have a strong sense of xenophobia. Regardless of the country, there are always some people who have nationality discrimination and racial discrimination. The news on the Internet is full of information about the killing of Chinese students, which makes people feel a cold sweat. Students who choose to study abroad should have a good understanding of the local laws and regulations and relevant policies of the countries where they study and learn to use the law to protect their legal rights when they encounter problems. Second, the Embassy keeps a record to protect itself against natural and man-made disasters. Experts suggest that when you arrive in the country of destination, you should register at the Chinese embassy in a foreign country so that you can get timely protection in case of disasters similar to the Tsunami in Libya and Japan.
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Many schools now also require students to report to their local embassy and fill in personal and domestic contact details. “The job is very important and necessary”, said Luo Kunrong, who is studying communication at Malta University. A person out, in case something happens, you can timely inform the school and home. In case of war, natural disasters, or other special circumstances, the Embassy can also contact us in time and send us back to China. Third, understand the public security of study abroad area in advance is a poor area. Because in the United States, it is still very easy to get guns, if you accidentally enter a bad area, just the wrong person is eyeing your money, give him, do not repeatedly tangled, when it is dark, try to avoid wandering alone.
2.3 The Policy of Studying Abroad Great achievements obtained in studying abroad policy of our country at the same time, we should clearly recognize the shortcomings of its existence, and carries on the reform, and make it more conform to the requirements of the country, and adapt to social and economic development, aiming at studying abroad policy formulation, execution, and other links exist problems, put forward specific proposals from different angles as follows: 1. Continue to adhere to the policy objectives of “supporting study abroad, encouraging return and freedom of movement”. At present, the global competition of comprehensive national strength has entered a new stage of talent competition based on science and technology and education, and the implementation of science and education to rejuvenate the country has become the inevitable choice of China’s economic development strategy. The Chinese government, while accelerating the internationalization of higher education, will continue to expand the opening up and exchange of education, and will unswervingly implement the 12-word policy goal of “supporting study abroad, encouraging return and coming and going as one wishes”. It is foreseeable that tens of thousands of Chinese students studying abroad at their own expense every year will become the most valuable and valuable talents of the Chinese nation after 5–10 years of hard work after going abroad. Therefore, as a concrete manifestation of supporting study abroad, relevant departments of the state should spare no effort to open up a smoother and more convenient “green channel” for students studying abroad, especially for those studying abroad at their own expense. 2. Constantly improve, standardize, and improve the service system of “selffunded overseas study intermediary agencies”. Since August 1999, the Ministry of Education, together with the Ministry of Public Security, has examined and verified the qualifications of 228 self-funded overseas study agencies, and denied approval to 450 of them. On the whole, the intermediary service market for self-funded overseas study is basically stable and normal. However, there are still problems such as an illegal intermediary, unlicensed operation, subleasing and subcontracting, high fees, unauthorized expansion of business scope, and inferior quality of contracted schools.
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Therefore, it will be a long-term and arduous task to clean up, regulate, and perfect the intermediary service market of self-funded overseas study. On the basis of study in China Plan, we should speed up the formulation of supporting policies and specific measures to ensure the implementation of the study in China Plan. To implement the comprehensive administration of study in China, coordinate the relations among the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of State Security, and establish a comprehensive administration department for unified coordination and multi-party cooperation. We will reform the admission methods for students studying in China and adopt internationally accepted flexible admission methods that combine examinations. On the basis of perfecting the preparatory education system, the university has gradually established the learning standards for students to enter the undergraduate major, strictly enforced the electronic registration system for new students’ student status and academic qualifications, and constantly innovated the education and training mode for students to study in China. We will encourage educational and educational institutions in China to actively explore ways to extend overseas education in China in various forms by carrying out trials on flexible academic length of schooling. To study the feasibility of e-learning and distance training in China. We will establish and improve a comprehensive system of policy guarantee, quality guarantee, education management, life service, and social practice for students studying in China (Li, 2012; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2020; Liu, 2008; Yin, 2017). The relevant departments of the state should strengthen the control capacity of macro policies and the strength of administration and supervision according to law, strive to do a good job in macro-management and policy guidance, and gradually form a self-funded overseas study intermediary service market with support for overseas study training as the orientation, fair competition and survival of the fittest as the mechanism. Strengthening quality education for students studying abroad and education in China’s national conditions. Taking an active part in economic globalization and internationalization of higher education is an inevitable choice for China’s social development. The process of education is actually the process of the formation of human resources. We should let young students both consciously and firmly remember: The Chinese nation has a history of 5,000 years, although after suffering still can survive and grow, and created a brilliant Oriental civilization, Chinese civilization is far stream long, broad, and deep. This work is not only a very important aspect of socialist quality-oriented education, but also an important part of studying abroad. (1) Increase investment in education, strive to cultivate core capabilities, and enhance the international competitiveness of institutions of higher learning. The weak international competitiveness of China’s education service trade is the main cause of the deficit. Therefore, improving the competitiveness is the key. On the one hand, the country should further increase the investment in education, which will increase the proportion of education expenditure in GDP, strengthen the infrastructure construction and academic level construction of Chinese universities, and
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build a high level of internationally famous universities. On the other hand, China’s college itself will continue to foster and improve their core competence, perfecting the subject system, in terms of technology and economic management development has the important influence of disciplines and fields to strengthen the research and development, strive to in some areas can reach the international advanced level, improve the visibility and attractiveness in the world. In foreign exchanges, it is necessary to actively integrate with the international community, improve the internationalization rate of the school, and improve the transparency and service level in scholarship, discipline development, talent training, and other aspects, so as to consciously train a large number of senior talents who can engage in international education services. (2) Improve the education management system and enhance the autonomy of colleges and universities in running schools. The development of Education in China has long been subject to administrative management and supervision. The government treats education as a welfare enterprise rather than an industry. In terms of international competition, it is necessary to explore the path of industrialization development, change ideas in time, establish modern educational concepts, carry out appropriate educational reform, enhance the autonomy of universities in recruiting overseas students independently, and encourage them to participate in the international competition of educational service trade. We will improve the relevant systems for overseas students, including the education fee system, talent selection and personnel system, and higher education system. Relevant government departments should proceed from the actual situation and set out to formulate a set of education laws and regulations that are in line with China’s national conditions and in line with international management, so as to provide a strong legal guarantee for China’s education to participate in international competition and carry out international exchanges and cooperation. First of all, strengthen the research and investment in teaching Chinese as a foreign language to help students overcome language difficulties. Secondly, we should improve the management mode of international students’ education. Adhere to the correct goals and values of different overseas studies. Different nature of the study abroad have different goals and value orientation, for professional study abroad, we should pay more attention to studying abroad can bring the potential value of the country, professional study abroad personnel should think seriously about studying abroad for national development, really can have learned something in a foreign country, and gradually according to the national Chuan to complete the task of studying abroad, make oneself of the target combined with the goal of the state, in the aspect of value orientation fully respect national global interests and long-term interests, organized and systematically according to the plan to achieve their goals. For going abroad at one’s own expense, we should realize that first of all, we should complete the standard value of education and realize the value of people. But, to a certain purpose and blindly error under the guidance of thought, people to go abroad at one’s own expenses target value appeared deviation, and gradually has violated the education value of study abroad, go abroad to go abroad phenomenon
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is widespread and go abroad at one’s own expenses between individuals, for the choice of going abroad but also there is bigger blindness, ignore their own education background and advantage, so in education itself it is also a kind of loss. Therefore, it is very necessary to guide the value goal of studying abroad at one’s own expense. Strengthens the study abroad policy legal system and the standardization management. In view of the great role of studying abroad, it is necessary for us to institutionalize it, summarize the past rules and provisions on studying abroad into a comprehensive study abroad policy, change the form of “rules” or “provisions” of studying abroad policy to meet the needs of economic development, and gradually make it legal. The following principles should be followed to improve the legalization of overseas education policy: first, the principle of fairness should be followed so that all qualified personnel can enjoy the opportunity to study abroad; second, the principle of openness should be followed to strengthen the facilitation and guidance of self-funded overseas study and attach importance to both sending overseas students and receiving foreign students in China. At the same time, we should strengthen the standardization of management of studying abroad. First, enhance the transparency of the policy, subject the management process of studying abroad to the supervision of the public, and reduce the illegal operation and deviation of policy implementation. Secondly, special laws and regulations should be formulated, which require a series of supporting facilities, distinct levels, and reasonable structure, so that the selection, dispatch, management, recovery, and funds in the study abroad work can be followed by laws, so as to truly realize standardized and scientific management. Only when the legal framework of overseas study education is basically established, and a series of rules, regulations, and measures are further revised and promulgated on this basis, can the standardization and order of overseas study education be guaranteed, and all overseas study activities have rules to follow. At present, the sources of public funds for studying abroad in China are not wide enough, and the ways of financing are relatively simple. The number of applicants for the national study abroad fund increases every year. The country has only so much money and the number of applicants is limited every year. Therefore, the number of government personnel will be stable. At the same time, with the development of foreign exchanges and their own development needs, as the main body of the market, enterprises, and units will be more active and efforts to invest in overseas education. We may encourage domestic social forces, including enterprises, institutions, and social organizations, to set up funds for overseas study education, so as to make overseas study education more “funded” and funds more diversified. Cooperation projects can be set up with local authorities and departments to jointly fund and cultivate talents in urgent need for local authorities and departments. New mechanisms should be used to strengthen the management of the selection and dispatch of personnel, and the initiative of local governments and departments in training personnel in urgent need should be fully mobilized so as to make good use of the limited funds of the state. It can even be partially funded by individuals and sent in cooperation. We should also actively attract foreign funds and use their funds to train
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the talents urgently needed for our economic construction according to our needs (Li, 2012; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2020; Liu, 2008; Yin, 2017). Diversification of dispatch levels. At present, most of the students in the program are visiting scholars of 3 months to 1 year. It is practical to send visiting scholars abroad for further study or cooperative research in the short term, but from the perspective of long-term interests, in order to make up for the lack of talents in some disciplines and professions, it is appropriate to send graduate students abroad. Study for a degree to ensure that they can master the cutting-edge knowledge of the relevant disciplines and specialties have learned, return to work, so that the teaching and research team building successors. This is also an important channel for cultivating high-level talents and top-notch talents. The fundamental purpose of studying abroad education is to attract outstanding talents back to China. Send on demand, for my use is the most fundamental starting point. We should constantly improve the guiding mechanism of “encouraging students to return to China or serve the country”, and constantly expand the fields in which students studying abroad serve the country. We will adhere to the principle of both returning to China for work and serving the country, encourage overseas students who are temporarily unable to return to China for permanent residence and work to take appropriate measures to contribute their efforts to the country’s socialist modernization. We should strengthen the construction and management of the innovation park for overseas students and make it an important base for attracting overseas students and transforming scientific and technological achievements. At the same time, we should also strengthen the construction of talent introduction projects dominated by “project funding”. Outstanding overseas students generally have a strong sense of career ambition, and they are most concerned about the success of their career and the reflection of their personal value after returning home. Thus, providing opportunities and an environment in which their talents can be displayed is one of the most effective means of attracting them back home. At present, the biggest problem many overseas students face when they return home is the lack of start-up capital. Because they have not established a reputation at home, they have difficulty getting bank loans and lack access to other funds. Overseas students who return to China to start their own businesses are characterized by large investment, long cycle, and high risks. They can raise funds through multiple channels and set up a “venture capital fund for overseas students to start their own businesses”, which adopts the operation mechanism of venture capital. After a period of operation and development, the invested capital is gradually withdrawn to make it operate independently according to the law of the market. This work could be done in several regions first. Strengthen the informationization of overseas study and unblock the channels of information about overseas study. To study abroad at one’s own expense, which is an irreversible, high-cost, and highrisk educational investment decision-making behavior, it is particularly important to obtain relevant reliable information through multiple channels for rational study decisions. And study abroad is a scarce resource, its relevant information is still a
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little lack of congestion. In order to avoid the blindness of decision-making caused by lack of information, government departments, schools and network media organizations should take active and effective measures to strengthen the informatization construction of studying abroad, improve the public service ability, and provide a relatively sufficient decision-making environment for the majority of self-funded students studying abroad. First of all, at the national level, we can start from the government departments, improve the information construction system of education authorities, statistical and publicity departments and other relevant institutions, implement the publicity efforts of overseas study policies, and expand the degree of information disclosure. Timely, full, and accurate to publish to the society as soon as possible the cost of receiving overseas colleges and universities information, application conditions, employment, social demand for professionals in information related to dynamic, advisory, hot questions and answers, and policies and regulations, such as convenient to study the subject according to their own conditions expected behavior make proper adjustment, improve the quality of studying abroad. Relevant government departments can also organize international education exhibitions regularly, strictly check the standards of overseas participating universities, expand the space for direct information exchange between the public and target universities, and overcome decision-making errors and even frankness caused by information asymmetry. Secondly, the school should cooperate with the government to publicize and implement relevant policies for studying abroad and provide information help and guidance for those who need to study abroad. Specific practices are as follows: (1) regular public activities such as organization related lectures, salon, even the social public to all students including foreign institutions and foreign life information and other services, so that the students can be more clear and get a detailed understanding of the study abroad life (2) create a direct communication platform between people who have gone abroad to study and demand for people to study abroad, unimpeded information communication channels, and learn from each other about related study abroad experience; (3) Strengthen communication and guidance between teachers and students on academic and career planning. Finally, network media and other mass media should give full play to their functions of information dissemination and public opinion guidance to promote the social rationality of studying abroad. In the face of the huge economic interests hidden in the overseas study market, the news media should hold an objective and fair position, avoid misleading the public with its own convenience due to the inductions of interests, and make truthful and objective reports and comments, so as to create a rational atmosphere of public opinion for overseas study (Li, 2012; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2020; Liu, 2008; Yin, 2017). Standardize overseas study intermediaries and improve service standards for overseas study. Studying in “hot” under the background of rising, as a kind of commercial agents teaching services arises at the historic moment, connect closely at home and abroad to study in the abroad market: it not only masters relevant departments and overseas study application and comprehensive information, can carry on the study planning effectively, but also can help the demanders smoothly
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to study, to improve the efficiency of the individual to apply for visa, such as study abroad formalities. Therefore, in order to help individuals and families who need to study abroad to make investment decisions and assist them to study abroad smoothly, it is particularly necessary to further standardize study abroad intermediary agencies and improves the service standards of the industry. Specifically, we can start from the following points: Overseas education investment is a kind of high-risk investment behavior, which not only needs to pay huge costs, but also has an irreversible process. At the same time, as the main body of investment decision, most of the high school students studying abroad at their own expense are immature in thinking and lack of social experience, so it is very important to improve their and their parents’ cognition level of decision. Therefore, decision-makers should be helped to improve their decisionmaking level and make good academic and career planning. The state should guide the society to view the environment of studying abroad rationally, face up to the behavior of studying abroad, clearly understand the actual situation of oneself and family, and choose the most suitable education form with the highest expected benefit. We should actively encourage the establishment of specialized family education investment guidance institutions and the development of individual career planning and consulting industry, so as to make up for the shortcomings of family investors in investment decision-making knowledge and decision-making ability with professional services. It is also possible to establish a third-party “study abroad assessment system” with self-funded overseas students as the main test group, and scientifically determine whether students are suitable to go abroad and the appropriate school and major based on their personality characteristics, motivation, and family background, etc., so as to reduce the blindness in decision-making and achieve rational study abroad. Expand the opening up of China’s educational service industry to the outside world and establish a complete system of opening up the educational service industry. China should make selective and systematic efforts to open up its education service market in accordance with the specific conditions of China’s overseas consumption, education, and service trade. This can not only increase the utilization of foreign capital scale, the introduction of advanced education and technology and education management method can also foster new competitive advantages, to change the status quo of Chinese international education service trade development lags behind, improve the level of China’s education service trade, expand the scale of foreign student education service trade of China’s exports. Study abroad is the product of cultural integration, and study abroad education is the propeller of the modernization of human society. Sow in spring, reap in autumn. Studying abroad is not an end in itself, and conducting international cultural exchanges is not an end in itself. The purpose is to promote development. On the one hand, it is to promote the development of our country and achieve leapfrog development; on the other hand, it is to promote the development of the whole of mankind and the world. And the promotion of our own development is the basis for
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promoting the development of mankind as a whole (Li, 2012; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2020; Liu, 2008; Yin, 2017).
2.4 Conclusion Chinese overseas students are on the rise, but the global outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 and the shifting international situation are also on the rise. Industrial Bank has released its annual report on an overseas study in China in 2020. The report shows that although affected by the epidemic factors, the domestic part of the study abroad personnel to attend, but according to the research situation, in September this year, the Ministry of Education and allow some Chinese-foreign university and Chineseforeign cooperative project temporary recruitment of students, who are Chinese citizens holding foreign universities offer similar “within the territory of study abroad”, its policy for Chinese students who are studying in international school study provides a new path. Meanwhile, although affected by the novel Coronavirus, Chinese overseas students still have a great desire to study abroad. Why do Chinese students prefer to study abroad? On the one hand, there are more than 4,000 schools in the United States. There are many schools of various types and a great choice. There are many places to learn in the United States. The rejection rate in 2020 was not high, accounting for only 1% of all international students in the United States. On the other hand, it also explains the problems existing in China’s higher education. Although the development of higher education in our country gradually toward the world, open. In Europe and other countries, overseas students can enjoy many countries at the same time they get the bachelor’s degree certificate, but students can rarely get other countries at the same time the bachelor’s degree certificate. Sometimes our students even get a bachelor’s degree certificate, which is difficult to be recognized in other countries. This urges our country should increase higher education, improve the quality of higher education running. American higher education also has another advantage: their Ivy League universities have many campuses on which they can choose to take classes and study. This greatly promotes openness among students, which is conducive to stimulating students’ interest in learning. It is helpful to improve the school’s quality and popularity. In the face of the cultural, linguistic, economic, psychological, security, and other problems brought about by studying abroad, we should solve the problems before studying abroad, so as to truly prevent them from happening. Facing the difference between eastern and Western cultures, we should look for information in magazines, periodicals, the Internet, and other different places before going abroad, so as to understand the culture of other countries and learn and use it in a certain period of time, so as to prevent the sense of gap brought by going abroad. English is the most popular language in the world, we should study English hard before studying abroad, so that we can use English to communicate with others well even in foreign countries. However, this does not mean that English is omnipotent. Although English
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can bring us great convenience, if you want to study abroad in Japan, South Korea, Russia, and other countries, you need to spend a lot of time to learn the language of your own country, so as to prevent the frustration and powerlessness caused by language after going abroad. In the face of financial pressure, we should make a good plan before studying abroad: for example, we should save our study expenses or apply for a subsidy. With the development of our economy, our country provides a lot of help to students studying abroad, and you can also take a part-time job abroad, so as to reduce the financial pressure. After studying abroad, we will inevitably have the corresponding sense of gap, but we should realize that this is an inevitable process, we should actively adjust the mentality, get rid of the negative mentality, to promote their all-round development. China is a peaceful and stable country, but foreign circumstances may coexist with war and insurrection. Just as IP Man said, “The moon in a foreign country is not necessarily rounder than that in China”. In the face of safety hazards, we must do serious research and investigation before studying abroad. Through analysis, our team found that the foreign development of China’s higher education is dominated by studying abroad, which indicates that China should vigorously develop higher education, improve the influence of China’s higher education, and promote the external development of China’s higher education (Li, 2012; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li & Xue, 2020; Liu, 2008; Yin, 2017).
References Li, F. (2012). Current situation and countermeasures of Chinese International Students’ Education Service Trade. Human Resource Management, 22(02), 125–128. Li, J., & Eryong, X. (2020). Unveiling the ‘logic’ of modern university in China: Historical, social and value perspectives. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(9), 986–998. Li, J., & Xue, E. (2020). Returnee faculty responses to internationalizing “Academic Ecology” for creating world-class Universities in China’ Elite Universities. Higher Education. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s10734-020-00599-y Liu, D. (2008). Research on the basic situation, causes and countermeasures of students studying abroad at their own expense in China University of Geosciences. China Geological Education, 28(01), 119–121. Yin, Q. (2017). Problems and countermeasures of Chinese high school students studying abroad. Global Market Information Bulletin, 27(37), 73–80.
Chapter 3
International Education Development in China: Background, Issues, and Challenges
This study examines the international education development in China. With the increasing international status of China, the rapid development of economic society, and the improvement of educational advantages, for China’s education to the world to provide a good opportunity for development, but also for foreign students in China to provide a political, economic, and cultural foundation. In the era of internationalization of higher education, the scale of foreign students studying in China has been expanding year by year, and the proportion of foreign students has become an important basis to measure the degree of internationalization of a university. As we all know, China has become the world’s third-largest host country for overseas students. The number of Chinese students has reached 440,000 since 2016. The countries along the One Belt and One Road are important sources of overseas students in China and the regions with the fastest development of overseas students in China. In the face of important studying education development opportunity in China, it should be adapted to the national development trend, further defined the student’s education work of the strategic position, at the same time thinking about coming to China to study abroad education, enhance the level of our country’s higher education internationalization is not only an important opportunity, promote “area” initiative important booster and build a community of human destiny. This chapter systematically analyzes the current situation and future trends of studying in China from three aspects: background conditions, development characteristics, and policy environment. At the same time, this chapter put forward relevant policy suggestions aiming at the problems that still exist in the development of studying in China, such as low quality, low attractiveness, etc.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li, “Four Branches” of Internationalization of Higher Education in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4205-0_3
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3.1 Status Quo of International Education in China In 1978, the Chinese government made the decision to send a large number of students to study abroad, a major decision that attracted worldwide attention. At the same time, the opening up of higher education also attracted attention. Pu Tong Xiu, then viceminister of Education, pointed out, “When we send people, they must send them in. At present, our open majors and schools are very limited, with only 42 open majors and 32 open schools”. This situation is far from meeting the needs of large numbers of exchange students. Against this background, in February 1979, the State Council approved and transferred a report on expanding the scale of foreign students accepted by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Finance, and State Planning Commission, which stated that the total number of foreign students accepted by institutions of higher learning should reach 12,000 by 1985. In 1979, the number of foreign students in China was only 440. This policy goal reflects the Chinese government’s great determination to open schools and increase the scale of foreign students in China on a large scale. After 1991, the Chinese government successively promulgated some policies on the education and management of overseas students, which improved the education system of overseas students day by day, and the education of Chinese overseas students in China entered a period of rapid development. By the end of the twentieth century, due to the promotion of the policy of building world-class universities, Chinese colleges, and universities generally regarded internationalization as an important strategy for school construction, and the recruitment of overseas students turned from passive to active, which also led to the rapid development of overseas students in the ocean. The statistics of the source of foreign students in China. The Ministry of Education held a press conference on December 22, 2020, to introduce the opening of China’s education to the outside world during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. According to the introduction, during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China has been standardizing the qualifications of international students accepted by universities, improving the quality standards and supervision system for study in China, and optimizing the structure of international students in China. In 2019, the proportion of students with degrees in China reached 54.6%, an increase of 7% points over 2016. At the same time, we will build a “safe study abroad” service system, improve the service system for returning overseas students, cancel the certificate of returning overseas students, and steadily improve the scientific, informationized, and humanized service for overseas students. In 2018, a total of 492,185 from 196 countries and regions all kinds of foreign students studying abroad in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) of 1004 universities to study, an increase of 3013 than in 2017, compared with 0.62% growth (the above data are not including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) number of foreign students in China reached 489,200 in 2017, scale growth for two consecutive years in more than 10%. In 2016, more than 420,000 Chinese students came to China. The top 10 countries of origin were South Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, the United States, India, Russia, Japan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Laos. According to the Ministry of Education, in 2017, a total of 489,200 foreign students studied in China’s institutions
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of higher learning, with a growth rate of over 10% for two consecutive years. Among them, 241,500 students with degrees accounted for 49.38% of the total, with a yearon-year increase of 15.04%. In 2018, a total of 258,122 foreign students received academic education, accounting for 52.44% of the total number of Watson students, an increase of 16,579 over 2017, and a year-on-year increase of 6.86%. There were 85,062 master’s and doctoral students in total, an increase of 12.28% over 2017, including 25,618 doctoral students and 59,444 master’s students. In 2018, there were 234,063 non-degree students. In 2017, the number of Chinese students studying in China increased more than in previous years, while in 2018, the number was still on the rise. The top 10 countries of origin for foreign students in China were South Korea, the United States, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Russia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Japan, and Vietnam. The increase in the number of the top 10 countries of origin is due to the growth of China’s economy and the promotion of its political status, some preferential policies offered by the Chinese government for studying in China, and One Belt and One Road proposed in 2013. The development of One Belt and One Road enables coastal countries to have a deeper understanding of China’s progress and profound culture. It can be seen from the above data that the number of master’s and doctoral students studying in China in 2018 has increased a lot, and they are mainly ranked in the top 10 by provinces and cities: 80,786 from Beijing, 61,400 from Shanghai, 45,778 from Jiangsu, 38,190 from Zhejiang, 27,879 from Liaoning, 23,691 from Tianjin, 22,034 from Guangdong, 21,371 from Hubei, 19,311 from Yunnan, and 19,078 from Shandong. Other provinces (regions) with more than 10,000 persons include Guangxi (15,217), Sichuan (13,990), Heilongjiang (13,429), Shaanxi (12,919), And Fujian (10,340). In the Study in China Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Plan), it clearly puts forward the guiding ideology of China’s study in China: “coordinate the scale, structure, quality and efficiency, promote the comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of study in China, and build an international brand of Chinese education” in 2015. Our country has become one of the eight study abroad destination countries of the world, the students not only in the quality and efficiency of the development scale, structure optimization, improvement has made significant achievements and so on, and the “area” all the way along the countries and the developing countries in the world to cultivate a large number of high-level professionals in various fields, for the development and strengthening with made positive contributions to the social and economic development of countries around the world (See Fig. 3.1). The perspective of the scale of study abroad. Statistics from China Education Yearbook show that from 1998 to 2009, the number of students studying in China increased from 43,000 to 230,000, an increase of 5.3 times. The number of government scholarships has risen from 1,711 to 18,245, but the proportion is less than a tenth and declining. And the number of self-funded students still accounts for the vast majority, stable at about 90%. The Regulations on the Acceptance of Foreign Students by Institutions of Higher Learning issued in 2000 is an important sign that the education of Chinese foreign students in China has entered the legal stage. It has become the policy basis for further promotion of China’s study in China in the
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3 International Education Development in China … Total number of Foreign Students in China (10,000) Total number of educated students in China (10,000) Total number of Graduate Students in China (10,000)
60.0 50.0 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 0.0
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Fig. 3.1 The total number of foreign students in China
twenty-first century. In 2004, The State Council approved the Action Plan for revitalizing Education from 2003 to 2007. As a blueprint for future education reform and development, the action plan also defines the policy of “expanding the scale, improving the level, ensuring the quality and standardizing the management” of the education work for foreign students in China. The plan of action, in addition to a continuation of previous efforts to expand the scale of the work, also proposes a “level up” and “quality assurance” approach, reflecting the national policy response to the problems in the education of foreign students in China. In 2009, the year 230,000 for the first time people live in China, and Chinese government scholarship students including a total of 18,245 people, accounting for 7.76% of the total to Watson, self-supported students a total of 219,939 people, accounting for 92.34% of the total to Watson, respectively from 190 countries and regions, in the national 31 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) of 610 universities, research institutes and other teaching institutions of learning. The perspective of the composition and characteristics of foreign students in China. 1.
The proportion of students with education background is low, while language students are more. Although the majors of foreign students have been broadened, they still focus on Chinese. The proportion of students with academic qualifications is low, accounting for 31.8% (50–80% in key universities affiliated with the Ministry). Unlike Chinese students who go to Universities in Europe and the United States to pursue advanced degrees, the majority of foreign students studying in Chinese universities are language students. Although the proportion of students pursuing degrees has increased in recent years, it has not changed substantially.
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2.
3.
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The number of self-funded overseas students accounts for the majority. In 2003, self-funded foreign students in China accounted for 92.08% of the total number of foreign students. Taking the data of foreign students in China from 2005 to 2007 as an example, we can see the composition of foreign students in universities. In 2005, self-funded students accounted for 72% of the total number of foreign students in China, in 2006, accounting for 67%, and in 2007, accounting for 68%. 3. The distribution of foreign students in China is uneven. By 2006, the number of students studying in China by region is 46,000 in Beijing, 31,000 in Shanghai, 10,000 in Tianjin, 8,776 in Jiangsu… Individual provinces and cities less than 200 people. The number of foreign students coming to China from developing countries is growing, and most of the foreign students coming to China are from China’s coastal and developed provinces. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the number of students studying in China has been increasing continuously. However, before 2013, the number of students studying in China has been increasing slowly, and the degree of foreign students studying in China is relatively low. Since the One Belt and One Road strategy was put forward in 2013, the number of overseas students in China has increased, and the number of students with high academic qualifications, especially the number of postgraduate and doctoral students, has increased. Before 2016, most foreign students in China majored in literature, education, language, and other liberal arts. However, since 2016, there has been a change. With the growth of China’s economic strength, international students in China have realized the strength of China’s industry and commerce, so they have begun to change their direction to study China’s industry and commerce. There is a strong correlation between the increase in the number of foreign students in China and the One Belt and One Road proposed by China in 2013. The development of One Belt and One Road enables coastal countries to understand the rapid development of China’s culture and economy, and coastal countries also pay attention to the development of their own national economy and learn from China. As a result, most of them come to China to learn about Chinese industry and commerce and learn about Chinese science and technology. According to the National Health Foundation, in 2008, the top two U.S. universities for PhDs in science and engineering were Tsinghua University (542) and Peking University (435). In this section to source high schools in the top 40, in large, complex denier, large, sea south Beijing Jiaotong university, south up, Zhejiang big, wu3 da4 and big columns with foreign students also learn the knowledge to choose areas mostly in economically developed areas, so that we can learn much knowledge, and can have a better chance of understanding China, see the world. It can also be seen from the data that the number of foreign students studying in China is still relatively large. Before 2013, most countries believed that China was only a developing country, and most of the international students in China were students from developed countries, who came to China to learn some language content. But today, the majority of people still study because they not only want to learn the Chinese language, they also want to learn about the Confucian culture of Confucius in China and
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the ancient Chinese culture of long standing. Moreover, the development of the Belt and Road has continuously spread the Kongjia culture, which makes the coastal countries have great interest in Chinese Confucian culture. We can also learn from the data that most of the overseas students in China study abroad at their own expense. China has many preferential policies and scholarships for international students, thus attracting many students who want to come to China at their own expense (Cheng & Zhang, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Xu & Xie, 2011). The perspective of continent. With the development of internationalization, studying abroad is becoming more and more popular. More and more people begin to study abroad. China’s constant development also attracts people from other countries to study in China, and in recent years, China’s rapid development, the number of People coming to China has increased. It is reported that China has become the largest destination of study in Asia. So students from close to Chinese culture, the geographical position of Asian neighboring countries mostly foreign students, according to the China education yearbook from 1998 to 2009 statistics, the number of foreign students ranked in the top five countries, Asian countries occupy four seats, respectively, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and India, and in the 11 years, increased by 4.2 times, from 31,090 to 161,605. The number of students from Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania was relatively small, with fewer than 40,000 each. However, it is worth mentioning that in 1998, there were only 1,395 African students in China. By 2009, the number had reached 12,436, an increase of about nine times. This is due to China’s policy and measures of continuously increasing assistance to African countries. The perspective of professional categories. From 2002 to 2008, more than half of the foreign students in China studied in liberal arts, accounting for about two-thirds of the total number of foreign students in China. In particular, the proportion of Chinese language majors is relatively high, staying at about 70%, but the number of students has been declining. The second is the high number of medical students, accounting for about one-tenth. The proportion of other majors is less than 10%, especially science, history, agriculture, and philosophy, and the proportion of foreign students is not more than 1%. In 2009, there were 11 majors accepting foreign students in China, in descending order of the number of students. The majors receiving foreign students in China were liberal Arts, Medical Science, economics, management, engineering, law, Education, science, history, agriculture, and philosophy. There were five majors with more than 5,000 students. The total number of liberal arts students is 148,282 (including 30,296 Chinese students, 2,471 art students, and 15,515 others), accounting for 64.3% of the total number of foreign students in China. Chinese majors alone account for 56.5% of the total number of foreign students in China. Students’ preference for liberal arts reflects their yearning for Chinese culture to some extent. In addition, since the reform and opening up, China has made remarkable achievements in economic construction and social development and accumulated valuable experience, attracting more and more international students to study management,
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economics, and law in China. However, science and agriculture, which occupy a certain scale in China’s higher education, do not have advantages in their chosen majors (Cheng & Zhang, 2020; Xu & Xie, 2011). In terms of regional distribution, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Liaoning, and Jiangsu accounted for about 60% of the total number of international students in the top five regions in 2009. Among them, only the number of Students from Beijing accounted for 26% of the total. It is worth thinking that colleges and universities in Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Fujian do not accept a large number of foreign students in China, which obviously does not match the status of higher education in China. The number of foreign students in marginal and inland provinces such as Qinghai, Ningxia, Guizhou, Shanxi, and Tibet autonomous regions is less than 500, and even universities in western provinces have not yet accepted foreign students. From the perspective of university distribution, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Wuhan University, and other key comprehensive universities give full play to their advantages of complete disciplines and strong strength, and the number of foreign students in China increases year by year. Tsinghua University, for example, has more than 1,200 international students enrolled in 98 master’s programs and 78 doctoral programs in 34 departments and departments. In sharp contrast, the phenomenon of “zero” enrollment of foreign students in universities and colleges in China’s inland and marginal provinces often exists. There is a serious imbalance in the inter-school distribution of International students in China, and a large number of them are concentrated in coastal and economically developed provinces and cities. This is related to the uneven development of higher education in China. The level of educational background. International graduate student groups to reflect the world’s top talent flow trend according to the statistics, the students graduate students a total of 1000 or above, major in colleges and in universities only 1 university, Tsinghua University, 2010, 2018 to 13 colleges and universities, only degree students training in colleges and universities and institutions in China (837) of 1.6%, accounting for postgraduate training in colleges and universities and institutions in China (458) by 2.8%. “2015 education overview”, according to studying in the eight largest destination countries, high-level international master and doctor in Australia accounted for 40 and 34%, respectively, the ratio was 9 and 35% in the United States, and China accounts for only 2.3 and 3.9%, the proportion of our country in the eight study abroad destination countries, high level of graduate student of national level with the proportion of students are at the lowest. To a certain extent, the endogenous driving force for the development of postgraduate education in China needs to be strengthened. In 2017, a total of 204 foreign students from different countries and regions were studying in 935 institutions of higher learning in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, among whom 241,500 were educated students, accounting for 49.38% of the total, an increase of 15.04% over the previous year. There were about 75,800 master’s and doctoral students, an increase of 18.62% over 2016 (Cheng & Zhang, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Xu & Xie, 2011).
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The perspective of discipline distribution Over the past 10 years, postgraduate education in China has been developing steadily, and the development layout of disciplines and regional structure of students’ origin region have been rationalized day by day. The distribution of disciplines of graduate students studying in China has broken the pattern of traditional specialties, and the discipline structure is more reasonable. Compared to 2008, in 2018 engineering, management, education, science, agricultural science, Chinese language has the growth of the students graduate accounted for the fastest growing disciplines of engineering and management, increased by 10 and 4.1%, respectively, the top three enrollment disciplines of engineering (26.0%), management (21.1%), and economy (9.7%), the total accounted for 56.8%, but coming to China to study in the graduate student study in science, agricultural science, education, literature, law, medicine, and other advantage is not obvious, Chinese language, Chinese medicine, the arts, history, philosophy, and other characteristic is not obvious (Fig. 3.2), there is a gap between international students in developed countries who prefer STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and FAME (finance, accounting, management, and economics), which have broad career prospects. The perspective of the choice of the study area In terms of the attention paid to the application of overseas study in China, the attention paid to the application of overseas study in third-tier and lower-tier cities has been greatly improved in recent years, but the number of students admitted is relatively low. From the perspective of enrollment volume in individual cities, first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are still in a leading position in the volume of overseas students, and there is a huge market potential for overseas students in second and third-tier cities in the future. Xi general secretary was put forward: “to create more international competitiveness study in education, leading student centers will be built in our country and the world outstanding youth study abroad destination, attract top talent to China to study abroad, global elite”. In retrospect, “the previous round of globalization, in terms of economic development, talent flow formed in Europe and the United States developed countries as the center of the trend”. To Europe and the United States international students every year millions of people in developed countries, and in governing thought, economic development strategy and financial policy, social public opinion tendency, etc., are influenced by western countries, the developing countries such as Asia, Africa and Latin America on the social, historical and cultural know very little about “looking to the future, the new era of foreign student’s education faces a difficult dilemma (Cheng & Zhang, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Xu & Xie, 2011)”.
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a.Distribution of disciplines in 2008 Science 5%
Western medicine 6% Economic 10%
Chinese language 3% Art History 3% 2%
Vocational school of agriculture 2%
Education 2% Philosophy 1% Physical education 2% Education
Chinese medicine 9%
Philosophy
Engineering 16% Law 10% literature 12%
Physical education Engineering
Management 17%
Management literature Law
b.Distribution of disciplines in 2018 Sience 6% Chinese language 6% Art 1%
Western medicine 6% Economic 10%
Vocational school of agriculture 4% History 1%
philosophy4%
Chinese medicine 2%
Education 3% Education
Philosophy Engineering 26%
Law 8%
Engineering
Manageme nt
Literature 6% Management 21%
Literature
Law
Fig. 3.2 Distribution of disciplines in 2008 and 2018
3.2 Problems and Challenges of Studying in China Because of China’s political and economic strength increasing, to enhance the comprehensive national strength, the student’s study abroad is increasing in China, however, some problems also appeared at the same time, to study in our country is one part of the graduate students, graduate students is an important part of the
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students in China, however, there have been some problems and challenges at the same time. 1. The international students in China are mainly from Asia, and the regional structure of the international students’ origin is unbalanced. The country structure of international students in China has an obvious imbalance problem. Due to the lack of attraction for European and American students in China’s higher education, the proportion of European and American students in China’s higher education is relatively small. China is a developing country, and we have all seen the rapid development of China. However, the teaching level of higher education is slightly lower than that of developed European and American countries. For some European and American countries, China may not be developed enough, and students from these countries are more willing to study in developed countries like the United States. This is also the main reason why few European and American students come to China. For other developing countries, China is a developing country. According to data from the Ministry of Education, countries along the “One Belt and One Road” route have become major sources of foreign students in China. According to statistics from the Ministry of Education, a total of 351,900 Chinese have studied in countries along the Belt and Road since 2012. In 2016, 207,700 students from countries along the Belt and Road came to China, up 13.6% year-on-year. With the continuous advancement of projects along the “One Belt and One Road”, the total number of Southeast Asian students studying in China ranks the first among the regions along the “One Belt and One Road”. The “One Belt and One Road” countries along the belt and road have become growth points for overseas students in China. According to the data, the number of overseas students in China has been growing fastest in South Korea, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Laos, with an average increase of more than 20%. Most of them come from countries with a relatively low level of economic development in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Africa (Cheng & Zhang, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Xu & Xie, 2011). 2. Lack of endogenous impetus for the development of postgraduate education in China. Although now in China the number of foreign students is increasing, students choose single discipline is not excessive, toward a more balanced development, but compared with developed countries such as America, Australia, for graduate students in China, the developing countries to the high-level development of ratio is relatively low, the developed countries in the development of economic strength are very strong, the investment for scientific research is also very much, and in the field of education research, investment is very big, for students in other countries are more attractive, so that the students graduate education development of endogenous power remains to be strengthened. 3. The educational structure of graduate students studying in China is not perfect. With other Asian countries that have similar cultural factors, cultural degree of recognition of sex is higher, Asia is one of the most foreign students, because of its “neighborhood” all the way, we help to many countries, along with some African countries, in particular, and we also has cozied up to them, but with some more
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fierce competition between the European and American countries, Europe and the United States some countries believe that the development of our country a certain threat to their political and economic, also has some influence on education, so in the study in the proportion of graduate students in China, Asia accounted for the largest, followed by Africa, then the European and American countries, presents the perimeter, Obvious geographical advantages should be further optimized. 4. The quality assurance system of postgraduate education in China is not perfect. First consulting services are not available, there is no extensive propaganda, make the students graduate not enough very clear understanding to the school, which may cause are not satisfied with the selected school, not suitable for yourself, the second is the teacher’s selection mechanism is not sound, some teachers trained to fish in troubled waters, again has not been eliminated, instead of into the teaching profession, there is no corresponding certificate for teaching, these are a very serious problem, then there is no study in the graduate student in China professional tutorial, there are some students with a poor foundation, should be targeted for teaching, should also let them into a real Chinese classroom teaching. Finally, I felt the teaching atmosphere in China, and the follow-up feedback were not sound enough. I could not communicate with overseas alumni in a timely manner, so that the school could not keep track of the development of alumni in a timely manner, so that international educational exchanges and cooperation could not be carried out (Cheng & Zhang, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Xu & Xie, 2011). Under the background of “double top” construction in our country, the student’s education also has some problems, first of all, foreign students education level is low, part of the cause of this phenomenon should also have a low degree requirement for foreign students, not too strict, the threshold is loose because is foreign students in China, most is to communicate, and will return to time limit, the education system of each country is different; therefore, it is not easy to divide by grades, so, for students in the attitude of most of them are more relaxed. Second, is the lack of characteristic specialty, compared to before students choose medicine, the situation of the Chinese language, literature, in recent years, the selection of subject is more widely, there are more and more people choose the economic, management, engineering, etc., more is chosen according to the requirement, the cause may be before the advent of China in many parts of the abroad set up Confucius institute to learn Chinese culture, such as some foreign students have some understanding in their own countries, become dependent, also have plenty of some countries cozied up to China, the establishment of active learning Chinese school, allowing them to better understand China, To establish better cooperative relations with China, because many countries have set up Chinese language schools, so in China’s Chinese language, literature and other majors are no longer a feature. Then, is foreign students in China are mostly state government support, few foreign students at his own expense, from that on the one hand, we can also see, may be compared to many foreign students need not at his own expense, is responsible for by the national government, it is free for foreign students to go abroad to means of communication, neither at his own expense, also can go abroad to see other countries education culture, is a rare good opportunity,
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but we should think about it, except at this a benefit, we should enhance their school education culture attract foreign students, schools should intensify efforts to promote and propaganda, Let foreign students in China know more about the school, and at the same time to improve the educational mechanism, improve the quality of education. Finally, part of the college students scale cut, and part of the class A first-class school students degree is lower than the national average, though the number of foreign students is on the increase in China, this shows that for foreign students in colleges and universities, in general, is very attractive, but more and more students choose to other colleges and universities, and don’t choose some first-class schools, illustrates the first-class schools to attract foreign students need to be enhanced, in general, our country’s foreign students is higher than the national average, but some first-class school is below the national average, the first-class school represents the education quality and education of our country power, Therefore, these top schools should improve their teaching standards(Cheng & Zhang, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Xu & Xie, 2011). 5. China’s policy of studying in China is insufficient. China is the world’s largest source country for international students, international students study abroad is beneficial to promote exchanges between the countries, learn the excellent culture of other countries, therefore, studying abroad has been the domestic experts’ warm discussion topic, a large number of scholars to study abroad policy attention is higher, also in all aspects of the study abroad actively promote effective policy implementation, but does little to study relevant policy in China to explore, slightly insufficient. The education in China usually only focuses on how to attract students, focuses on the number and scale of students in China, rarely makes in-depth exploration, and only puts forward some macro ideas about the scale and structure of students in China, lacking detailed discussion and paying little attention to the implementation effect. In the face of some problems of studying in China, the discussion is limited to the surface and not thorough enough. This leads to the quality of study in China. In the hidden trouble, some problems cannot be solved in time, which will lead to the accumulation of existing problems for a long time, while some problems that have been questioned by the public for a long time cannot be solved, which will cause more public dissatisfaction. Scholars should strengthen the discussion on the policy of studying in China, which specific details to discuss, what measures to implement, and what long-accumulated problems to solve are also important issues for studying in China (Cheng & Zhang, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Xu & Xie, 2011).
3.3 Challenges of Studying in China 1. Foreign students in China encounter language learning difficulties. The language learning difficulties are common among international students in China. Because there are few universities offering Courses in English in China, language difficulty is a common problem encountered by almost all international students
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studying in China. The level of Chinese is not high enough, leading to the difficulties encountered by many graduate students studying in China, or even unable to successfully complete the graduation defense, facing the dilemma of graduation. First of all, reading is the most important way of self-study. When foreign students in China cannot fully understand what teachers teach them in class, browsing textbooks and reading materials after a class becomes an important way for them to learn. Because their Chinese level is not high enough, they may encounter some language communication problems when they consult their teachers. Secondly, at present, Chinese colleges and universities do not require a high Level of Chinese language proficiency for foreign students. Meanwhile, the assessment standard is relatively simple. Since the Chinese Language Proficiency Test does not involve the professional terms required by various disciplines, it is not enough to make them reach the level of professional learning. Therefore, even students who have passed the HSK test in China will often encounter some difficulties in their professional study and research. On the other hand, there are few English-only courses in Chinese colleges and universities, and the proportion of Chinese-English teaching for foreign students in Chinese colleges and universities is very low. Moreover, foreign students in China are involved in many countries, so it is not convenient to unify teaching materials. The lag in the development of the English curriculum leads to the necessity for postgraduate students to study in Chinese. For foreign students with a weak Chinese foundation, the language dilemma will be very obvious. Finally, for nonNative English speakers, when they cannot read English, they can translate according to the letter input in the mobile phone software. However, due to the special structure of Chinese, when they cannot read Chinese words and phrases, they cannot translate by typing Chinese words and phrases. 2. The distribution of foreign students in China is unbalanced. “In terms of the distribution of study in China, the major distribution of foreign students is still very uneven, mainly majoring in liberal arts”. Learning the Chinese language and Chinese culture is the main motivation for students studying in China. According to data from the Ministry of Education, the number of students studying liberal arts in China still ranks first, accounting for 48.45% of the total number. The number of students studying engineering, management, science, art, and agriculture all increased by more than 20% year on year. This kind of change, benefit each university to innovate ceaselessly in an educational teaching way, method. According to the Statistics of the Ministry of Education, the liberal arts majors account for 69%, the medical majors for 13%, and the science and engineering majors for 8%. According to the individual subject, the Chinese language and literature major in China is the largest number of foreign students. 3. The economic and social benefits brought by Chinese students in China are obviously insufficient. The education of international students can bring great economic and social benefits to the receiving countries, but China has been paying more attention to the scale and quality of foreign students in China for a long time, ignoring the issue of benefits. First in terms of economic efficiency, an increasing number of studies in recent years with the development of globalization, our country
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in recent years by “One Belt And One Road friendly exchange policy” also attracted a large number of foreign students, become the world’s third largest international students receive the American and British, and become Asia’s largest study abroad destination countries, according to research, however, the foreign student education economic contribution accounts for only 1% of GDP in our country, the small, to our country economy is not very big. In recent years, many people in China choose to study abroad, which is the largest source of overseas students in the world. However, the cost of overseas students in Britain, the United States and other countries is huge, which forms a sharp contrast. However, in Western developed countries, the education of overseas students is clearly regarded as an export industry and attention is paid to the statistics and analysis of the economic benefits generated by overseas students, which indeed drives their economic development. Secondly, in terms of social benefits, foreign students in China have insufficient social benefits for Our country. After finishing their studies in China, many of them choose to return to China for work and development. In recent years, Chinese traditional culture has become popular in many countries. Many foreign students are attracted by Chinese characters and culture, and some want to learn Chinese characters. This can be seen from the professional structure of foreign students in China. Secondly, China has a friendly policy on tuition fees and scholarships for international students, which is also the reason for attracting a large number of international students. In addition, they are attracted by the rapid development and development prospect of China. Studying in China is likely to bring them better job prospects so that they can come to China to get a degree so that they can find a job when they return home. How to make foreign students in China drive the economy, what are the reasons that hinder the economy brought by studying in China, how to attract more foreign students to stay in China, and how to attract foreign students in China are extremely important issues. 4. The scholarship policy for international students in China has been questioned by the public. China develop friendly relations with many countries in recent years, the Chinese government through a number of policies to attract a large number of foreign students to China, and China’s scholarship policy is an important one of attracting foreign students, especially in the “area” initiative is raised, China promises to increase to the students from the countries along the “area” scholarships, countries along the attracted a large number of foreign students in China, Thailand, Pakistan, and other countries in recent years, international students accounted for the rapid increase, so does promote the friendly exchanges between countries. However, in recent years, the education budget of Overseas Students in China has been increasing year by year, and the number of foreign students in China has been constantly attracted. However, the proportion of self-funded foreign students who come to China for education is relatively low. A large number of foreign students enjoy scholarship subsidies, and their expenses in China are very low. At present, this method of exchanging capital for talents in China has caused a lot of public doubt. International students in China enjoy a large number of welfare benefits, and the proportion of overseas students in China enjoying scholarship treatment is
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increasing. How about the training quality of international students? Will this reduce the investment in other education stages in China? Many in the public doubt that the big-spending will pay off. How to strengthen the publicity of study in China, attract students with the strength of education, attract high-quality students, and attract more self-funded students is the problem we are facing now. 5. Graduate students studying in China do not agree with China’s teaching methods and examination methods. Due to the differences of Chinese and foreign education concepts, a lot of students are coming to China to study in the graduate student of Chinese classroom teaching content and evaluation approach in enough recognition, accustomed to their own national student-centered teaching method, interactive classroom teaching mode, critical and innovative oriented evaluation mode, etc., and difficult to adapt to the Chinese teachers’ teaching and teaching evaluation method. First of all, foreign education pays more attention to the cultivation of teamwork spirit and the cultivation of students’ ability of communication and cooperation, so there will be group work projects in almost every course. In this case, foreign students in China are more inclined to cooperate with each other to complete the examination of group work. Secondly, foreign teaching methods are more flexible, the examination methods are relatively diverse. For example, some professors prefer to have students learn in real life. Therefore, most foreign students in China have the critical thinking, while the evaluation standards and teaching assessment of Chinese education are significantly different from those of foreign countries, and the assessment method is mainly memory oriented. Finally, in the general teaching mode in China, classroom discussion is less, and students’ classroom participation is less. Teachers mainly teach, while in foreign countries, classroom teaching mode is more inclined to the discussion. The goal of most courses is for students to synthesize the materials they have learned and form their own opinions.
3.4 Countermeasures for Studying in China With the rapid development of China’s higher education, there are more or less problems and challenges in the recent stage. For example, the scale of foreign students in China is expanded, the educational structure is optimized, but the educational level is low. The international students in China are mainly from Asia. The structure of the regions where the international students come from is unbalanced, the distribution of disciplines tends to be balanced, and the specialty lacks advantages. The proportion of government scholarship students increased, self-funded education students less; The total number of foreign students in the first batch of first-class universities increased, but the proportion of foreign students and the number of foreign students in some universities decreased. The educational level of foreign students in some first-class A-level universities is lower than the national average. These are our problems to be solved at the present stage, in this context, based on national strategic positioning in
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the new period, from the Angle of international comparison of the student’s educational development in scale, structure, quality, and benefit of dimension analysis, and based on this is very important to make further strategic positioning and strategy choice, we can adopt many kinds of countermeasures, as follows: 1. Improving the construction of first-class universities the scale and educational level of overseas students in colleges and universities. It is the basic characteristic of world-class universities to gather talents and cultivate them. The construction of first-class universities is an important part of attracting high-level students to China. In order to promote the development of overseas education in China, we should fully realize the strategic role of overseas education in China and increase the enrollment index of overseas students and academic degree education in the construction of firstclass universities. At the same time, we should properly liberalize China’s market for overseas study in China, encourage Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, allow private schools to carry out an overseas study in China, gradually delegate the power to adjust the price of overseas study in China, give full play to the market role in the development of overseas study in China, and encourage universities to provide educational services for overseas students in China(Cheng & Zhang, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Xu & Xie, 2011). 2. Raise the threshold of overseas education. China’s Education Modernization, clearly states: “Implement the Study in China Plan, establish and improve the quality assurance mechanism for study in China, and comprehensively improve the quality of study in China”. Improving the quality of enrollment is the basic guarantee for comprehensively improving the quality of study in China. We need to improve the existing policies, incorporate the enrollment quality index into the original enrollment plan evaluation, strengthen the supervision of college enrollment, and appropriately improve the admission requirements for foreign students in China. At the same time, we will vigorously develop education in China at the graduate level to attract more high-level overseas students to study and research in China. On the other hand, in order to promote the development of overseas education in China, we should fully realize the strategic role of overseas education in China and increase the enrollment indicators of overseas students to China and academic education for the construction of first-class universities. At the same time, we should properly liberalize China’s market for overseas study in China, encourage Chineseforeign cooperation in running schools, allow private schools to carry out an overseas study in China, gradually delegate the power to adjust the price of overseas study in China, give full play to the market role in the development of overseas study in China, and encourage universities to provide educational services for overseas students in China. We will improve the mechanism for ensuring the quality of students, and set up strict mechanisms for admission examination, interview, and assessment. Through strict and standard examination, interview and assessment, students will be comprehensively evaluated from the aspects of ideological and moral comprehensive quality, language ability, professional foundation, scientific research quality, ability, etc., and the best students will be admitted.
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3. Strengthen the investment and guarantee of overseas study in China and improve the quality of overseas study education in China. Under the background of the construction of “double top”, our country’s higher education schools will further enhance the quality, on this basis, first of all, to attach importance to foreign students in the construction of “double top”, combining with the foreign student’s education of the currently existing problems, and further open the high quality of higher education resources, attract high-level foreign students studying in China and gain. Secondly, the internationalization of higher education teachers should be further strengthened. The high level, the internationalization teacher troop is guaranteeing the high-level talented person training quality the basic condition. In the process of developing education in China, we must further enhance the internationalization of the teaching staff, equip professional teaching assistants for foreign students, and improve the supply quality of education in China. In addition, increase the investment in the education of foreign students in China to improve the attractiveness of international high-quality students. It is necessary to further increase the strength and amount of national government scholarships, expand the coverage of scholarships for study in China, and expand channels such as scholarships for institutions of higher learning, local governments, and enterprises, so as to attract high-quality students of different levels to study in China. 4. To build world-renowned universities and enhance the international recognition of China’s higher education. The overall ranking and teaching quality of universities are the key reasons for international students to choose the destination country. Chinese universities put more focus on the current set up a variety of scholarships material rewards and hardware conditions, such as construction quality, but also should be more will be coming to China to study the education quality to matriculate quality, preparatory education quality, training quality courses, the teacher’s troop quality, subject quality, quality, alumni development quality of graduation practice, to build China’s “quality of colleges and universities, with Chinese characteristics, a world-class” international education brand, attract international talents to China to study, promote the student’s education regional structure, the structure of academic disciplines such as optimizing the development, improve the students in our country education development of endogenous power. Therefore, in order to attract more talents to study for master’s and doctor’s degrees in China, as well as visiting faculty and staff of institutions of higher learning, it is necessary to build world-famous universities and disciplines and enhance the international recognition of China’s higher education. The higher the level and the higher the quality of the foreign students, the more they value the teaching quality and discipline ranking of the selected school when choosing the destination country. Therefore, the proportion of foreign students with academic qualifications in first-class universities is higher than the national average level. So our country should use the opportunity of construction of “double top” colleges and universities, according to the construction of the first-class university school and first-class professional disciplines as a starting point, improve China’s institutions of higher learning and disciplines of the rankings, in the true sense of the world to create first-class schools and first-class discipline,
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especially Chinese language, Chinese medicine, literature, etc. The Chinese characteristic of the advantages of discipline and to improve our country’s higher education of international recognition and the value of degree education for foreign students in the international market competitiveness, and to establish a good brand and image of the universities of China. Only high-quality output can really improve the international competitiveness of China’s higher education. International recognition really plays an important role in the national strategy of education service in China. 5. Develop distinctive disciplines to make Chinese fine culture more attractive. We should use our excellent traditional Chinese culture to attract foreign students to China. Culture is the essential attribute of overseas education, and cultural education for overseas students is also the direct embodiment of this essential attribute. Foreign students in China cannot receive education without learning, edification, and experience of Chinese culture. To literacy, to education is not only the essential request of coming to China to study abroad education in colleges and universities, but is also the value embodiment of coming to China to study abroad education in colleges and universities, but the students’ cultural education in colleges and universities cannot simply be understood as to Chinese cultural knowledge teaching and teaching students, should not only have a choice of extracting the essence of the Chinese culture teaching, the part should also consider the foreign students from all over the world, who have a different cultural background. Students with multicultural backgrounds should be treated equally in cultural education, and cultural edification rather than cultural indoctrination should be given to them. We should build local disciplines in line with Chinese characteristics and build a base for Chinese cultural experience. Domestic discipline requires discipline and culture research experts and so on to strengthen exchanges and cooperation and use of Chinese excellent traditional culture, with the help of our country the opportunity of construction of “double” first-class universities, highlight the characteristics of Chinese language, Chinese medicine, literature, etc. The Chinese discipline advantage is to improve international recognition of our higher education and the value of degree education for foreign students in the international market competitiveness, and to establish a good brand and image of the universities of China. Combined with the reality of modernization and globalization of education, we will create unique and attractive disciplines and majors for international students to choose from. The only high-quality output of study in China can truly improve the international competitiveness and recognition of China’s higher education, and truly play an important role in serving the national strategy of study in China. We can also promote studyabroad programs on the Internet platform to enhance visibility. Enhancing the sense of cultural experience, cultural experience is a beneficial supplement of classroom teaching activities, is an effective way to study in China. Further, expand the ideas and countermeasures of China’s educational opening to the outside world, and make use of One Belt and One Road to make “study in China” a platform for exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign scholars.
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6. To diversify sources of funds and improve the system of funding services. At present, the government scholarship is the main scholarship for overseas international students in China. It can be predicted that with the deepening of the internationalization of higher education in China, there will be more and more overseas students studying and communicating in China, and the demand for scholarships is bound to increase. It should be combined with China’s national conditions, and therefore, to explore other countries merit of internationalization of higher education funding system, attract and encourage from civil society organizations, enterprises, and private funding for international students, establish relevant safeguard mechanism, integrate management from the resources of non-governmental organizations, the establishment of special funds, or in the name of the enterprise or individual scholarships, grants, etc., to fund overseas international students in study and life. On the other hand, China should make full use of the favorable conditions brought by globalization, rationally integrate and optimize the allocation of educational resources worldwide and serve the internationalization practice of higher education in China more effectively. In addition, if international students in China can apply for student loans from their home country to pay for tuition and living expenses in China, it will help Chinese universities recruit and sponsor more international students. We should keep up with the trend of the area along the way and the community of human destiny, to accelerate the process of the development of higher education internationalization, make by with runners into a leader in our country, only the education of high-quality output in China can really improve the international competitiveness of China’s higher education and international recognition, really give play to the important role of national strategy study in education service in China. The “One Belt and One Road” initiative is a major idea that China is committed to further opening up from an international perspective. The education of overseas students in China is the basic and guiding link of the “One Belt and One Road” construction and an important pillar of the overall national strategy. It is a new starting point to improve the level of education internationalization; It is a new opportunity to enhance the endogenous pull of education and improve the quality of education. In the past few years, the number of students coming to China from countries along the “Belt and Road” has increased rapidly, becoming the main region supporting the continuous growth of international students in China. There is no doubt that to achieve the development goal of “building China into the largest destination country for overseas students in Asia by 2020”, the scale of overseas students in China from countries along the “One Belt and One Road” should be expanded. Under the background of “One Belt and One Road”, the education of foreign students in China also needs a series of strategic and overall adjustments, so as to reasonably avoid many problems in the education of foreign students in countries along the belt and road and strive to make study in China a platform for exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign scholars. 7. To adapt to the national development trend and define the strategic position of study in China. We should be clear that the development of international students’ education is the embodiment of a country’s hard and soft power, as well
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as the comprehensive embodiment of the quality, international reputation, and influence of a country’s education system. Meanwhile, international students’ education can promote the quality and influence of the education system. In recent years, many countries have launched many internationalization strategies aimed at attracting overseas students, aiming to provide high-quality international education, and attract more international students to study at home. China is the world’s largest exporter of overseas students, and the scale of overseas study is on the rise. There is a huge “deficit” in overseas study education. To reverse this, it needs to be clear from the policy level to study the strategic position of education, and determined the match the national image of the students’ education strategy, the government should further develop and perfect the relevant laws and regulations of the study in graduate education in China, in order to make clear the strategic orientation of study in education in China, the central and local government, schools, and the power and responsibility division of the society, research and develop specialized subjects in colleges and universities to promote resources create international education brand advantage characteristics. To sum up, in order to promote the development of overseas education in China, we should fully realize the strategic role of overseas education in China, further strengthen the construction of educational quality assurance mechanisms for overseas students in China, enhance the reputation of overseas education in China, and build a national brand of overseas education in China. 8. Improve the policy system for studying in China, improve the educational quality assurance system for overseas students in China, and better carry out international education. Policy is a hard guarantee for studying in China. We will further improve the funding system and employment policies for international students in China and promote the normalization of the educational quality certification and evaluation mechanism for international students in China. Establish a big data management platform for studying in China and combine regular review with irregular sampling inspection to enhance the competitiveness of studying in China. We should further improve the mode of combining government-sponsored and selffunded study abroad represented by government scholarships, reform the existing system of financing for study in China and encourage institutions of higher learning and the society to set up special scholarships. The competent department of education in our country should improve the funding system and employment policy, strengthen various forms of international cooperation in running schools, to achieve flexible credit transfer and degree mutual recognition, expand the study abroad education in our country in international competitiveness, the education quality in China culture, efforts to build outstanding youth of the world to study target schools, contribute to achieving “study in power”. 9. Developing innovative and new ideas for education. Colleges and universities should innovate the concept of international education, improve the quality guarantee mechanism, build a quality culture, and enhance the cultural consciousness and scientific planning of overseas education in China. Innovation has always been the driving force of development, and it remains so in the development of higher education. According to the characteristics of graduate students studying in China,
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the students should be trained according to the requirements of academic, applied, and skilled talents, and the students should be taught according to their aptitude to ensure the cultivation of international talents with better knowledge, ability, and accomplishment structure. Will quality requirements on quality of teaching staff construction, shall establish a high-quality staff repository, with international vision, the ability of teaching and scientific research level is high, the ethics of comprehensive quality of teachers are eligible for coming to China to study in the graduate student’s classroom teachers and teachers have contemporary value, the meaning of the world, with Chinese characteristics, advanced teaching ideas, scientific method, high quality, good effect, in the same course has a certain influence and strong demonstration course, build online courses, open sharing more international students through these high quality courses, We will have a thorough understanding of the essence of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese characteristics for a New Era and his strategy for governing the country, and we will disseminate the innovative achievements of contemporary Chinese culture that inherit traditional fine culture and carry forward the spirit of The Times, and are based on China’s own culture and open to the world.
3.5 Summary China has been opening to the outside world for more than 30 years. It is facing increasing globalization in economy, culture, science, education, and other aspects, and globalization is also the only way for a country to develop. At the same time, the graduate education in China bears the responsibility and obligation of cultivating elite talents of “Zhihua, Youhua and Aihua” and providing important human and intellectual support for the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Therefore, in my opinion, actively absorbing foreign students to study in China can not only promote cultural exchanges between different countries but also show China’s acceptance and tolerance and show China’s excellent educational resources in this way. In this way, it can also build a bridge for win–win cooperation with other countries. And the foreign students who can come to Study in China are also quite outstanding. Their arrival can also bring different cultures and thoughts to Chinese students, so that we can receive more excellent things while maintaining our own national traditional culture. In general, the ways in which Watson contributes to China’s economic development are diversified. As long as it is beneficial to the economic development of China and other countries, it should be desirable. Looking forward to the twenty-first century, Chinese students studying in China should give full play to their own advantages and characteristics, and seek greater market share and development in the fierce international education market competition, so as to make young people more open-minded and broader in vision. Therefore, China should actively improve the internationalization level of higher education, take the increasing number of international students as an important goal of the development of higher international education, and call on colleges and universities to actively
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participate in international cooperation and internationalization construction, so as to further improve the quality and internationalization level of higher education. At the same time, will increase the international language teaching courses, training international teachers as the direction of efforts, and so on. Carefully comb the students are willing to go where, what university, or in a country are willing to choose which colleges, education, and management of the internationalization of the area is known to play how many points, and from around the Watson’s acceptance, internationalization in our country, at least, is the academic scope of internationalization, the trend is optimistic and positive. At the same time, “the more national, the more global”, the wisdom in the blood of the Chinese nation will also make its due contribution to solving different problems for all mankind. Time will surely prove gradually that the contribution of the Chinese civilization to the development of the entire human society is irreplaceable. If there really is a day of internationalization in the academic field guide is a “no walls university”, then the current leave pipe work will have periodic historical significance, for China’s other international problems in the field of processing also provide valuable reference and sample, it can help China in a more profound impact on the world stage (Cheng & Zhang, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Xu & Xie, 2011).
References Cheng, W., & Zhang, H. (2020). Opportunities, Challenges and Reflections on the Development of Postgraduate Education in China in the New Era. Research on Postgraduate Education, 20(02), 27–33. Jin, C., & Zhou, M. (2020). Development trend and strategy selection of overseas education in China. Higher Education Development and Assessment, 36(04), 21–33. Xu, G., & Xie, A. (2011). Research on The Strategic Countermeasures of China’s Higher Education opening up [J]. Teaching and Educating, 20(09), 4–7.
Chapter 4
Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools: Backgrounds, Problems, and Suggestions
This chapter concentrates on exploring Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools from the scopes of backgrounds, problems, and suggestions. In accordance with the regulations on Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, foreign educational institutions and Chinese educational institutions jointly organize educational and teaching activities within the territory of China with Chinese citizens as the main enrollment target in accordance with the law, which is called Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. For the convenience of understanding, we can from (1) the main body is Chinese and foreign educational institutions; (2) Cooperation; (3) The object is the Chinese citizens within the territory of three aspects to understand, grasp. In addition, according to the provisions of the regulations, Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools shall also be operated in the form of education and teaching plans formulated jointly by Chinese educational institutions and foreign educational institutions of corresponding levels and categories, the issuance of Chinese educational qualifications or certificates of foreign educational qualifications or certificates of foreign academic qualifications or certificates of academic degrees, and the implementation of some educational and teaching activities outside the territory of China. However, Chinese educational institutions have not substantially introduced foreign educational resources, and the educational and teaching activities carried out with foreign educational institutions only in the form of mutual recognition of credits are not classified as Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. A Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school refers to a Chinese-foreign educational institution that initiates, proposes and is specifically responsible for the establishment of a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school or project by means of investment or other means. Operators setting up the stage in the school is responsible for raising funds, provides conditions for offering education, establishes the school organization and the articles of association, and a series of responsibilities and after school set up by the school board of trustees, the board of directors or other forms of decision-making body directly, influence the school matters, and responsible for the stability of the sources of funds for schools. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li, “Four Branches” of Internationalization of Higher Education in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4205-0_4
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4.1 Status Quo In recent years, China’s higher education exchanges with the outside world continue to expand, the internationalization of China’s higher education institutions gradually deepened, the internationalization trend of China’s higher education institutions is also more and more rapid, and achieved ideal results, among which higher education cooperation is an important carrier of China’s higher education opening up. China’s higher education introduces foreign teaching resources through Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools, so as to realize international development of teaching teams, improves their own competitiveness, promotes the cultivation of international talents, expands their international influence and promote the development of modernization. At the same time, after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the state introduced relevant policies to encourage Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, escorting the foreign exchange of China’s higher education. Therefore, to understand the status quo of Chinese-foreign cooperation in higher education in China is very necessary for our institutions of higher learning to better introduce resources, expand opening up, and enhance international competitiveness. From the basic situation, discipline construction, faculty, school mode, graduate direction, and employment aspects of understanding. (1) Basic information. 1.
2.
Changes in the number of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run universities and colleges. Since 1994, a total of 962 Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and projects have been approved by the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, of which 51 have ceased running schools, stopped recruiting students, or merged into other schools. By the end of 2019, there were a total of 2,238 Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools or projects, among which 37 were Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and 872 were Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools. There was only one cooperatively run school and one project between the Mainland of China and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Of the existing institutions and projects, 316 were approved before 2010 and 595 after 2010. Distribution of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools in colleges and universities. In the eastern region, 581 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government have jointly run schools, accounting for half of the total, with Jiangsu, Beijing, Henan, Shanghai, and Heilongjiang ranking in the top five. In the eastern region, except for Hainan province, which has no Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, other provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government have Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and projects. The number of cooperative schools in the central region was 398, a small proportion of the total, and the number of Chinese-foreign cooperative schools in the western region was 87. Among them, Tibet, Qinghai, and the western
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4.
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Mingxia autonomous region have no Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools or projects. Among them, in terms of higher vocational education, higher vocational education exist in Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools cooperatively run schools and distribution area of uneven phenomenon, in 2018, for example, most regions of the country are working on Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools project or organization, including the number of the top five provinces: Jiangsu 55 19, 22, Zhejiang province, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Shandong are 16, in Sichuan province and Hebei province are 12, visible in higher vocational colleges of China’s economically developed areas in east, central Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools more and broader extension project (Hu, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021; Xu, 2005). Distribution of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools in universities. The partners of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and projects in Chinese universities come from 30 countries and regions, and there are a total of 485 foreign educational institutions participating in Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools. The top 10 countries in the number of cooperative schools are 115 from the United States, 79 from the United Kingdom, 50 from Russia, 35 from France, 34 from Australia, 27 from Canada, 26 from Germany, 13 from South Korea, and 12 from Japan. Enrollment scale of Sino-foreign cooperative schools. At present, there are 788 Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, accounting for most of the total number of institutions and projects, and most of the enrollment is less than 100 students. There are 109 institutions and projects with 101 to 500 students, accounting for only half of the total number, and 11 institutions and projects with more than 500 students, accounting for a small number of institutions and projects. Among them, the enrollment of more than 500 students is all Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools. Among the 137 “double first-class” universities, most of them have Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools or projects. There are 45 Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and 189 Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools set up by universities under the “double first-class” construction, accounting for about half of the total number of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and projects at the undergraduate level, making them the main forces of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. In addition, three Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and projects have not announced the size of their enrollment. Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and programs in colleges and universities that offer a wide range of specialties.
(2) Discipline construction. 1.
The undergraduate majors are dominated by the categories of economics and management, with serious convergence of major Settings. In 2004, the distribution of specialized subjects in Chinese-foreign cooperatively run undergraduate programs. In 2004, there were 136 undergraduate majors in total in
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China, including 67 in economics and management, while only 7 in agriculture and medicine. There are 7,549 undergraduate students in China, including 4,075 in economics and management, while only 598 in agriculture and medicine. (including international business finance, international economy, and trade), information management and information systems, accounting, business management, marketing, tourism management, computer science, technology, etc. 8 professionals accounted for only 249 undergraduate professionals released by the Ministry of Education is very small, and the eight professional total enrollment of 4,550 people, accounting for a total of 7,549 people, most of the undergraduate admissions specialties convergence phenomenon is serious (Hu, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021; Xiao, 2003; Xu, 2005). Higher vocational Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and programs offer professional is very extensive, published in 2015 by Ministry of Education of higher vocational education of ordinary colleges and universities (specialist) professional catalogue will be cooperation in running schools project classification of statistics is carried out in accordance with the list of 19 major categories, different categories of professional fields to develop higher vocational Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools project, a total of 1008 (including projects of a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school), one of the top ten major categories are: 314 financial business categories, equipment manufacturing major categories, 108, 113, electronic information categories tourism major categories, 92, 59, culture and art categories There are 55 categories of civil buildings, 51 categories of education and sports, 46 categories of medicine and health, 44 categories of transportation, and 25 categories of energy power and materials. The major of higher vocational college is dominated by finance and economics and electronic information, and the convergence phenomenon of specialty setting is also serious. In 2004, the Ministry of Education issued the Catalogue of Guiding Majors for Higher Vocational Education in Ordinary Institutions of higher learning (Trial), which divided higher vocational majors into 19 major categories, 78 major categories, and 531 major categories. Chineseforeign cooperation of recruit students of higher vocational professional in 2004, a total of 104 national professional, including 48 kinds of finance and economics, tourism categories, the six categories of agriculture and forestry, medicine and health care categories: only three, accounts for only a few of the total, the higher vocational college enrollment, the national total of 4,967 people, including 2,082 kinds of finance and economics, tourism types, accounting for less than half of the total, the 6 categories of agriculture and forestry, medicine and health care categories of only 215 people, accounted for only a small portion of the total. Financial accounting, business administration, economy and trade, fiscal financial, marketing, tourism management, automation, computer, communications, electronic information, such as 10 professional class, only a tiny part of the 78 professionals, and that 10-total enrollment of 3,770 people, professional class accounts for most of higher vocational college recruit students a total of 4967 people, professional class set convergence as serious.
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(3) Faculty. In the twenty-first century, China’s opening to the outside world has developed rapidly, among which Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is an important part of China’s higher education. On the basis of scale development, Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools has entered a stage of development dominated by “connotation construction”. The construction of teaching staff is the core of connotation construction. The quality of teaching staff has a direct impact on the level of running a school and the quality of personnel training. The rapid expansion of school scale leads to the shortage of teachers in colleges and universities and the lagging construction of teacher’s team, which is one of the main bottlenecks restricting the development of higher education in China at present. In addition, due to the late start of the development of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, there is more room for improvement in the construction of local teachers’ teams in higher vocational colleges. The local teachers are the main teachers in Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, and their quality level is one of the important factors to ensure the quality of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools. Among them, the foreign language ability of local professional teachers is not high, leading to a low level of English-only teaching of professional courses, even. Bilingual teaching is not up to the standard, and cooperative courses are often changed into Chinese courses, resulting in the embarrassing situation of low level of professional foreign language teaching and unprofessional foreign language teaching. The ability to use a foreign language for understanding and analysis is not strong enough, resulting in errors and omissions in teaching resources, etc., and the lack of a good comprehensive ability to use a foreign language. Compared with undergraduate colleges, teachers in higher vocational colleges have few opportunities for international exchange, and their foreign exchange programs are relatively single and very scarce. In the past 10 years and more, Chinese-foreign cooperative-run schools in higher vocational colleges have developed rapidly, but the construction of local teachers in Chineseforeign cooperative-run schools has not received enough attention, which is not commensurate with the development needs. Vocational colleges generally equate the training of local teachers in Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools with the regular training of teachers in schools, without fully considering the particularity of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools (Wang, 2004, 2006; Yang, 2003). (4) The mode of Chinese-foreign cooperation in higher education. 1.
Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools with independent legal persons, having independent civil capacities and legal persons, may independently enroll students and issue academic and degree certificates. At present, there are nine such schools in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. Among them are Kunshan Duke University and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Jiangsu. This type of educational institution has the following characteristics: The participating Chinese and foreign universities are all high-level well-known universities with abundant educational resources and teachers, which is conducive to the integration of educational resources and the improvement of higher education
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level; The school level and professional classification are relatively complete, which basically covers the three levels of the master and the doctor, and the major also covers engineering, science, liberal arts, etc. Most of the university sites are located in the eastern region. Even if there are cooperative universities in the central and western regions, the places of cooperative universities are in the east, such as Xi’an Jiao Tong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, Jiangsu. The independent legal person of a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school, this kind of school-running pattern is better than a lot of cooperatively run school early with independent legal person qualification, as early as the yangban university of science and technology institute, established in 1991, after more than 30 years of development, this kind of school-running pattern in the quality of personnel training, recruit students number, education teaching form has made great progress. As of June 2020, there are 61 such schools in China, such as Reading College of Nanjing University of Information Technology. This type of school has the following characteristics: From the perspective of both Chinese and foreign partners, the scope of foreign cooperation is broader, including not only the United States and the United Kingdom but also South Korea, Italy, Japan, and other countries. Chinese partner institutions are not only “985”, “211”, and “first-class” universities, but also local institutions. At the level of running a school, some only include undergraduate education, some include postgraduate and doctoral education and other stages of education, all types have; Educational institutions are located in the east and central regions, but most of them are concentrated in the northeast and eastern regions (Hu, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021; Wang, 2004, 2006; Xiao, 2003; Xu, 2005; Yang, 2003).
(5) The whereabouts and employment of Chinese-foreign co-graduates of higher education. In recent years, with the large-scale expansion of college enrollment in China, the number of graduates from 2011 to 2012 reached more than 6 million, with the number of graduates increasing year by year, and the number of graduates in 2013 reached 7 million. The contradiction between supply and demand of college graduates’ employment is increasingly acute in our country, and college graduates are facing more and more severe employment situations. In September 2003, the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools regulations of the People’s Republic of China, Chineseforeign cooperation in running schools on the standardized management, the development of the orbit of legalization, declared the establishment of a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school and cooperation in running schools continue to increase the number of projects, by 2012, the Ministry of Education in the education of foreign regulatory information network announced the approved bachelor degree or above level of a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school or a project has more than 400, the specialized subject of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and project more, covering most of the country’s provinces, city, district, and municipality directly under the central government, among them, There are many cooperatively run schools and projects in Heilongjiang, Shanghai, Beijing, Shandong, Jiangsu, and
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other coastal economically developed provinces, and relatively few in the central and western regions. 1. Where the graduates go. The overall employment rate of graduates from Sino-foreign joint universities has reached over 90%. About 50% of them work directly after graduation from national (local) institutions, public institutions, and fortune 500 enterprises. About 50% of them choose to go abroad for further study. Wenzhou Kean University, for example, has 212 graduates in 2017, with five majors, most of them majoring in international economics and finance. 51.6% of students choose entrance to graduate school, enter the world top 100 schools, not only limited to the partner schools Ken university in American schools, students attending schools throughout the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, China, Japan, and other mainstream studies abroad countries, including the Johns Hopkins University, University of Toronto at King’s College London and Peking University, Fudan University of Sydney, etc. Through the international college of human agricultural university and other colleges and universities, more Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools graduates graduate to statistics found that the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools under the system of graduate students to the general can be divided into four categories: go abroad for further study, employment, domestic employment abroad, domestic continue their education, of which more than 90% of the students choose the domestic employment after graduation. In addition, the admission scores of Chinese-foreign co-sponsored universities are all above the first-grade line, and the students’ sources and teachers can be fully guaranteed. The overseas famous teachers plus the domestic 985 and 211 teacher’s system, 24-h English immersion exchange, and the quota of study and exchange with the foreign headquarters can be ensured (Hu, 2020; Wang, 2004, 2006; Yang, 2003). 2. Employment status of graduates. Since the formation of the Chinese-foreign cooperative-run school system in China, the education sector and the general public have shown great concern. There are also some disputes. Some education experts even question the teaching quality of Chinese-foreign cooperative run school programs. They believe that only top foreign universities’ cooperative programs in China can demonstrate high teaching quality, while many other universities’ cooperative programs can achieve the goal of training senior talents. This paper investigates and analyzes the employment status of the graduates of International Business School of Shenyang Normal University from 2010 to 2011 and compares the employment status with that of ordinary schools and departments and finds that international business school is similar to ordinary schools and departments in terms of enrollment rate and employment rate, and some majors are slightly better than that of ordinary schools and departments. This reflects the teaching quality and employment prospects of Chinese-foreign schools, but also indicates that the Chinese-foreign teaching system is not enough to fully show its differences from ordinary schools and departments, but also does not reflect a strong advantage. The employment rate of graduates from colleges and universities in China
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has been basically maintained at over 70%, with schools or departments with high employment rates reaching 80% or even more than 90%. In terms of the employment rate of graduates from Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, the employment rate has been basically maintained at around 80% in recent years, slightly better than that of ordinary colleges and universities in China. The first employment rate of the 2012 graduates of The International College of Hunan Agricultural University reached 85%, ranking among the top of the schools. The statistical data of the Education Department of Henan Province in 2006 showed that the employment rate of undergraduate and junior college graduates of Sias International College of Zhengzhou University was 98.87 and 99.20%, respectively, ranking top in the province. In 2007, the employment rate was still among the top in the province. The Sino-Australian cooperative education program of the Taiyuan University of Technology adheres to the training idea of “going abroad, pursuing higher education and seeking employment simultaneously”. In July 2008, the first batch of graduates only went abroad for further study accounted for 50% of the total number of graduates. Han Ying etc. By comparing the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools of Shenyang normal university international business school of law, marketing professional are the same with the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools graduates employment rate and graduation rates, found that under the condition of the same teaching hardware, Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools under the mode of college students’ employment situation and other traditional education modes of university students’ employment situation, does not reflect obvious advantages, but the system of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools are more likely to encourage students to continue their education, especially to graduate school abroad, thus showed obvious advantages in graduation rates. For students under the system of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, there is a big advantage is the good language learning environment, there will be some teaching in Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools and teachers’ resources, encourage and urge students to familiar with using your professional direction of language, encourage students through a foreign language examination, language tests. The prestigious McKinsey & Company predicts that within the next 5 years, there will be a huge demand for people with both technical backgrounds and good language skills. From the above data and analysis, it can be seen that the modes of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools in higher education are becoming standardized and diversified. It can be seen from the current situation analysis of graduates’ whereabouts that most of them are mainly employed, while some of them go abroad for further study. The employment rate of graduates has increased steadily, and the employment units are good. Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is getting better and better (Hu, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021; Xiao, 2003; Xu, 2005). The first part, the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is in the interests of the driven, characteristics must be abide by national laws, safeguard national interests, cooperator, under the premise of the interests and consumer education, standardize business to rapid coordination health development, the current international understanding does not reach the designated position, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools behavior regulation also lags behind, causing some Chinese-foreign
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cooperation in running schools of higher education institutions in the operational irregularities. 1. Quality issues of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools. At present, most of the foreign partners in Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools are secondtier or third-tier foreign institutions with little reputation, whose curriculum quality and academic reputation are difficult to judge and guarantee. Moreover, most of the leading universities are still holding a wait-and-see attitude, which makes the overall level of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools not high. In terms of specialty settings, both non-degree adult education and higher degree education are characterized by more economic management and less science and engineering. From the perspective of discipline construction, these Chinese-foreign cooperative-run programs have fewer characteristic specialties set up according to the characteristics of the university, resulting in the failure to optimize the educational resources of the university. In the long run, this kind of situation is unfavorable to the development of our society. The number of foreign teachers is not stable. Most of the existing teachers cannot meet the requirements of teachers. The vast majority of Chineseforeign cooperative-run schools do not have formal libraries. In terms of teaching, a scientific system has also been formed. The introduction of curriculum and teaching materials is very random, and the management of teaching by copying the foreign credit system. All these practices cannot make Sino-Kazakhstan education maximize the unique effect of the combination of Chinese and Western education. To solve the problem that the overall level of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools is not high, the government departments should, on the one hand, raise the market access threshold and set a reasonable lower limit of investment for foreign cooperative educational institutions, and on the other hand, speed up the development of specific preferential measures to attract high-quality foreign educational resources into the Chinese market. In terms of the establishment of specialties, government departments should also give full play to their two functions of examination and approval and macro-control and introduce as soon as possible programmatic documents such as catalogues that highlight the advantages of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, so as to effectively manage and guide Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. The Chinese and foreign partners should make a longterm discipline development plan, so as to fully integrate the high-quality resources of both sides and avoid the repeated setting of low-level school-running projects. The government, media, schools, and students may be required to supervise the delivery of foreign teachers, the supply of education funds and equipment, the implementation of teaching plans, and the guarantee of teaching quality. In the introduction of foreign advanced courses and textbooks, we must combine the current situation of our school to introduce appropriate courses and textbooks to reduce blindness (Hu, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021; Wang, 2004, 2006; Xu, 2005). 2. Management of Chinese-Foreign Cooperatively Run Schools. The characteristics of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools are the inevitable result of exploring the industrialization of education and the drive of investment
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income. In order to achieve rapid, coordinated, and healthy development, Chineseforeign cooperatively run schools must regulate their operation and management on the premise of not violating the laws of the State, not damaging the interests of the state, the interests of both the cooperators and the education consumers. Due to the insufficient understanding and lagging supervision of the operation of Chineseforeign cooperatively run schools by the state, some institutions of higher education in Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools have irregularities in operation and management. This is mainly reflected in the unclear property rights of Chineseforeign cooperatively run schools, which makes the interests of investors and partners unable to be effectively protected. Poor accounting and asset management; The decision-making mechanism is not perfect, and the decision-making is random; The leadership system is not smooth, the relationship between the organizers and the scholars is not harmonious (Wang, 2004, 2006; Xiao, 2003; Xu, 2005; Yang, 2003). 3. The management of foreign teachers in Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. The correct management and rational use of foreign teachers are of profound practical significance for the introduction of high-quality educational resources, the realization of the training goal of internationalized talent model in higher education, the improvement of college English teaching in China, and the acceleration of bilingual teaching reform and innovation. The characteristics of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools are that there are many foreign teachers, and the influx of foreign teachers brings hope to the foreign language teaching which has been time-consuming and less effective for a long time in China, and also objectively activates the huge foreign language training market in China. However, in the use of foreign teaching, many schools are only limited to language classes, or even a single listening and speaking course teaching links, do not pay attention to the development of other potentials of foreign teachers, that is to say, only pay attention to the visible “foreign language”, do not pay attention to the invisible “foreign wisdom”. Foreign teachers’ academic backgrounds are diverse, and their roles should be diverse: in addition to language teaching, they can serve as other specialized courses of teaching or research work; Can also participate in part of the teaching design work; They can also participate in some extracurricular collective activities of students, promote the construction of campus culture, enhance the comprehensive quality of students, and make Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools a genuine combination of Chinese and Western education. In addition, with the blind introduction of foreign teachers, quality cannot be guaranteed. Due to the rapid development of Chinese-foreign cooperative-run schools and the rapid expansion of the domestic foreign language training market, foreign teachers are often in short supply and muddled. As a result, the management of foreign teachers is disordered, and the quality of foreign teachers is not satisfactory. We should strictly follow the regulations on Chinese-foreign Cooperatively run schools: foreign teachers and foreign administrators should have a bachelor’s degree or above and corresponding vocational certificates and have at least two years of education and teaching experience. 4. Moral education in Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools should not be ignored. Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is open to the outside
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world. Its main feature is that the board of directors (or other similar institutions) composed of all parties of the school will jointly discuss major issues such as professional development plan, teaching plan, teaching material construction, and discipline construction. In this case, the first problem is how to reflect the status of moral education. There is no doubt that what Chinese-foreign cooperation trains must also be the construction talents needed by the socialist market economy. Since the overall training goal remains unchanged, the status of moral education must also be guaranteed. Moral education in colleges and universities continues to focus on the cultivation of new talents with “four qualities” and cross-century builders and successors of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In particular, we must firmly adhere to the principle of the party leading moral education in schools and the principle of the primacy of moral education. Secondly, in order to improve the effectiveness of moral education, Marxist theory education and Chinese traditional culture education should be organically combined during the implementation of moral education. While playing the role of “two courses” as the main channel and front in moral education, we should strengthen the education of national excellent traditional culture and stimulate students’ national self-esteem and self-confidence. Finally, teachers at home and abroad should be different. Foreign teachers should be encouraged and supported for their beneficial practices in moral education, while some unhealthy practices should be discouraged and restricted through the standardized management system of moral education. Domestic teachers should strengthen ideological and political education, teach them to keep in line with the Central Committee of the Party, consciously resist the erosion of decadent bourgeois ideas, and keep the important position of moral education. With the rise of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, quality problems of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, management problems of foreign teachers in Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, moral problems that cannot be ignored in Chinese-foreign cooperation. The problems keep cropping up. Let’s see what we can do about them. In accordance with the Regulations on Chinese-foreign Cooperation in Running Schools, foreign educational institutions and Chinese educational institutions shall, in accordance with the law, jointly run educational and teaching activities within the territory of China with Chinese citizens as the main enrollment target, which is called Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. For the convenience of understanding, we can from (1) the main body is Chinese and foreign educational institutions; (2) Cooperation; (3) The object is the Chinese citizens within the territory of three aspects to understand, grasp. In addition, according to the provisions of the regulations, Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools shall also be operated in the form of education and teaching plans formulated jointly by Chinese educational institutions and foreign educational institutions of corresponding levels and categories, the issuance of Chinese educational qualifications or certificates of foreign educational qualifications or certificates of foreign academic qualifications or certificates of academic degrees, and the implementation of some educational and teaching activities outside the territory of China. However, Chinese educational institutions have not substantially introduced foreign educational resources, and the educational and teaching activities carried out with
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foreign educational institutions only in the form of mutual recognition of credits are not classified as Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. How to understand quality education resources? What principles should be followed when introducing quality educational resources? The core of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is to introduce highquality foreign educational resources promote the development of China’s educational cause, which is the main starting point and fundamental guiding ideology for the formulation of the Regulations and the Measures for their Implementation. Many of the guiding provisions in the Regulations and the Implementation Measures provide us with some criteria for understanding and judging quality educational resources. For example, Article 3 of the Regulations stipulates that the state encourages Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools in the fields of higher education and vocational education and encourages cooperation in running schools with wellknown foreign institutions of higher education. Article 30 of the Regulations stipulates that the State encourages Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools to introduce courses and teaching materials that are urgently needed domestically and advanced internationally. In addition, as stipulated in Article 3 of the Measures, the State encourages Chinese educational institutions to cooperate with foreign educational institutions whose academic level and educational and teaching quality are generally recognized. To encourage cooperation in running schools in new and urgently needed disciplines and specialties in China, etc. In the second part, with the development of economic globalization, “internationalization of local talents and localization of international talents” has become the trend, and the internationalization of higher education has been recognized by people. In recent years, as the main form of internationalization of higher education, Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools have been continuously implemented in various colleges and universities, with rapid development, gradual expansion of scale and level, and diversification of modes. The essence of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools lies in the introduction of high-quality educational resources from abroad, the acceleration of educational reform and opening up, the narrowing of the gap between China’s education and that of developed countries, the cultivation of international talents, and the establishment of a lifelong education system. However, there are still some major problems in Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. I. Misunderstanding of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools. (1) misapprehension that a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school is a Chineseforeign cooperatively run school. Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools refer to the educational and teaching activities jointly carried out by Chinese educational institutions and foreign educational institutions with Chinese citizens as the main target students in terms of disciplines, specialties, and courses, in a way that no educational institution is established; A Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school shall meet the basic requirements stipulated in China’s education laws and regulations, and shall generally have the status of a legal person, and shall have the corresponding articles of association and management structure. There are strict
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differences between the subjects of enrollment, school roll management, educational responsibility, and diploma awarding. If the differences are ignored or confused, the order of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools will be disturbed. (2) Mistakenly believing that a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school is Sinoforeign cooperation. Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is an international cooperation in education, which includes more connotation than Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. In the international cooperation in education, only the main body of cooperation is the educational entity. The cooperation mode is based on the Introduction of high-quality educational resources from foreign countries, the cooperation behavior is education and teaching, and the cooperation goal is to cultivate international talents by combining Chinese and Western cultures. A Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school shall, in accordance with the provisions of the regulations and rules for implementation, be submitted to the competent department of education administration at or above the provincial level for examination and approval for the grant of a permit for Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school. Educational activities involving foreign participation are not necessarily Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, and cooperatively run schools without the participation of educational institutions are not (Hu, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021; Wang, 2004, 2006; Xiao, 2003; Xu, 2005; Yang, 2003). (3) Mistakenly believing that Chinese-foreign cooperation in running a school means “studying abroad” or “exchange abroad”. Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools shall be held at the sites of Chinese educational institutions, with the purpose of introducing advanced ideas, teaching materials, teachers, teaching modes, and management experience of foreign educational institutions, and cultivating talents with an international perspective. During the education period of the cooperative program, students can go abroad for training or exchange at the cooperative university, which is usually called “overseas training” or “overseas exchange”. If the students have graduated from the cooperative program, neither China nor foreign countries can organize the students to study abroad, otherwise, it will violate the relevant regulations of China. Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools must grasp this standard from signing agreements, recruitment publicity to education management, so as not to mislead students and parents. (4) It is not considered that Chinese-foreign cooperation in running a school means “strengthening foreign languages” or “teaching in all foreign languages”. Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is one of the core contents of imparting professional knowledge, professional skills and to develop “strengthen the foreign language” is just groundwork for professional students, a foreign language is a tool for professional learning, it is better than the general learning requires students to have good foreign language level, students need to strengthen the foreign language using ability, but can never point. Since the implementation of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools in China, we should safeguard China’s sovereignty over
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education and prevent westernization and differentiation. Except for one-third of the professional courses and necessary foreign language extracurricular, it is impossible to implement the so-called “all-foreign language teaching”, still less to realize the “all-foreign language environment”. Opening to the outside world is a principled opening, and cooperative education is a cooperation that adheres to the sovereignty of education. (5) Mistakenly believing that a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school is a copy of the European or American teaching model. The state has a stipulation of “one third” on Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, that is, one-third of the specialized course materials of the foreign cooperation universities shall be used, one-third of the specialized course teachers of the foreign cooperation universities shall be arranged to teach, and the teaching hours of the foreign university teachers shall not be less than one-third of the total class hours of the specialized course. This is a hard and fast rule to prevent fake Chineseforeign cooperatively run schools. The necessary Chinese teaching mode is needed to cultivate international talents with Chinese characteristics. It requires students to be “familiar with Both domestic and foreign countries”. It is feasible and necessary to understand both domestic and foreign countries. (6) Mistakenly believing that a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school is to cultivate students’ professional knowledge and skills. Professional skills education is one of the core contents of Sino-foreign cooperative education programs, but it is also very important to improve students’ comprehensive quality, which should not be ignored. Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools should create their own cultural mission, focus on cultivating students’ innovative spirit and international cooperation consciousness, emphasize moral cultivation, enhance students’ sense of mission, and encourage students to have vision, foresight, passion, and courage. If you can’t do a person well, it is useless to have good knowledge and skills. (7) Mistakenly believing that Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools charge high fees driven by economic interests. Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is a public welfare undertaking and an integral part of China’s educational undertakings. From the perspective of policy, it cannot be driven by economic interests and impose high fees. But in fact, each Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school charges higher fees than similar domestic education standards. The fee rates for Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools shall be approved by the state price administrative department in accordance with law. When approving the charging standards for Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, the state price administrative department should not only adhere to the choice of public welfare education, but also take into account the actual cost of running schools. It is impossible to overemphasize economic interests while neglecting the public welfare of education.
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(8) mistakenly believing that a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school means obtaining a diploma or degree from a foreign educational institution. Students who enter Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools should set up correct study goals and strive to cultivate themselves into international talents that meet the needs of the development of economic globalization. Believe the record of formal schooling, a degree that our country education organization issues, do not idolize the record of formal schooling, degree of foreign education organization blindly. The State shall neither restrict nor recognize foreign academic qualifications or degrees granted by Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools. But the record of formal schooling that foreign country issues, degree should be admitted in its home country, and the photograph that its school issues are consistent from form and level, the name that forbids foreign boundary Sino-foreign cooperation runs a school is issued in disorder certificate.
4.2 Risks of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running the School Risks of introducing high-quality educational resources from foreign colleges and universities. The introduction of high-quality educational resources from foreign colleges and universities is the essence of Chinese-foreign cooperative education projects. The purpose of our introduction is high-quality educational resources, while the purpose of exporting educational resources by foreign colleges and universities is complicated. The inconsistent purpose of China’s introduction and export may affect the quality of resources. The quality of resources may be greatly reduced due to the constraints of both sides’ culture, conditions, and other subjective and objective factors. The analysis of introducing risks is the premise and foundation for realizing the introduction of foreign efficient and high-quality educational resources in Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools. Risks of execution of the terms of the Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school contract. After the Chinese and foreign parties have a strong desire for cooperation and sufficient preparatory work, they are bound to sign the terms of the cooperative school contract. The true meaning of the terms of the contract is to guide future work. The terms and conditions of the Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school contract are foreign-related contracts and should be written in both Chinese and foreign languages. Due to the differences in willingness, culture and other factors, there are naturally some errors in the understanding and implementation of the terms and
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conditions. The differences of various operating mechanisms, management responsibilities and other factors directly affect the coordination and timeliness of the implementation of contract terms. It is an inevitable requirement for the sound development of Sino-foreign cooperative education to control the risk of the implementation and execution of contract terms from all aspects (Hu, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021; Xiao, 2003; Xu, 2005; Yang, 2003). Quality risks in the management, education, and teaching process. The main line of running a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school is the talent cultivation scheme and teaching plan jointly determined by Chinese and foreign universities through consultation. To carry out and implement the training programs and teaching plans of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, it is necessary to have organizers with international cooperation ideas, teachers with international education backgrounds, rules and regulations in line with the teaching rules of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, educational systems and corresponding teaching hardware that are suitable for the requirements of Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools. These conditions for our country to carry out the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools project of colleges and universities, some basic have, some still under construction, this leads to the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools project, conducted by either too dependent on foreign, China can’t fully grasp the initiative, the education of public welfare cannot get an effective guarantee, affect the quality of education; Either the Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school in form is run by both sides, but the real situation is that the Chinese side is running the school, which cannot guarantee the educational quality of the Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school. Or reluctantly, the quality of education is impaired. The risk of realizing the goal of cultivating international talents. The goal of the Sino-foreign cooperative education program is to adapt to the trend of economic globalization and to cultivate interdisciplinary talents with international vision, cross-cultural communication ability, proficiency in foreign languages, and professional knowledge in relevant applied disciplines to meet the requirements of international competition. The realization of this goal requires the “four pillars” of Chinese-foreign cooperative-run schools, such as campus culture with international characteristics, strengthening platform of foreign language learning, internationalization platform of professional learning, and management platform of international concept. The Chinese and foreign cooperation parties should jointly build and perfect the “four pillars” and make them develop in a coordinated way. Any bias may affect the realization of the goals of the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. Risks arising from the realistic connection between the source of students, fees, and social expectations. Compared with domestic universities, the enrollment quality of Sino-foreign cooperative education projects is generally lower, but the fee standard is higher. The contradiction between low and high determines the high investment and difficulty of Sino-foreign cooperative education projects, and the participation of foreign parties makes the cooperative education projects more
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complicated. These inherent characteristics of Sino-foreign cooperative education projects show that Chinese universities have been concerned by the society since the beginning of Sino-foreign cooperative education. The source of students is the internal cause of the success of the Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school and plays a decisive role. High input is the condition for the operation of the Chineseforeign cooperatively run school and plays a supplementary role. Social expectation is both the driving force and the pressure of the cooperatively run school.
4.3 The Sustainable Development of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools Insufficient introduction of foreign high-quality educational resources. In the process of introducing foreign high-quality educational resources, there is a lack of comprehensive investigation and in-depth comparison of foreign cooperative universities. Most of them stayed in language courses and prospective courses, without introducing the core courses that would promote our development. Teachers from foreign cooperative universities promised in the agreement either do not come to China to give lectures on schedule or come to China for a period of time, which is difficult for students to digest and absorb. The school idea is not correct, eager to profit. Some Chinese-foreign cooperative education projects are keen to obtain student organization fees for providing students to foreign cooperative universities. Some projects charge too much but the educational facilities and teaching environment are not perfect. Some projects are suspended for some reasons but cannot give students due apologies and economic compensation. The issue of cultural infiltration from outside China. There are basically two purposes for Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools: one is to compete for the current international market; the other is for long-term strategic considerations, including the influence of political culture and future market competition. The former is mainly the behavior of the government, while the latter is mainly the behavior of large enterprises led by transnational corporations. Institutional issues concerning Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. There is a contradiction between the marketability of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools and the planning of higher education. The training mode of higher education in China is basically still in the state of planning system. It is mainly reflected in the relatively fixed teaching plan, the relatively old teaching form, the relatively backward management mode, the enrollment, and graduation system which is difficult to go to school and easy to graduate. As a form of higher education in China, Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools are still bound by some outdated educational concepts from time to time. The Chinese consulate general in the United
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States a group education on the part has been carried out in China cooperation in running schools of American universities and education institutions concerned conducted an investigation and research, on how to understand and grasp the opinions and Suggestions were put forward for the high-quality education resources, think high-quality education resources are in the world advanced level or school characteristics, and can maintain a certain advantage of curriculum, teaching material, teaching idea, teaching method, teaching form, teaching management system, evaluation methods, the teachers troop construction, personnel training mode, etc. To be specific, the quality education resources in the skill area mainly include: 1. Disciplines and majors with international characteristics or successful experience in running schools; 2. Famous universities; 3. Advantageous disciplines and majors or other resources of general colleges and universities; 4. Non-well-known disciplines, majors, or other resources of general colleges and universities that are urgently needed in China; 5. Courses and teaching materials with advanced features that are urgently needed in China; 6. Educational characteristics and successful management experience of foreign educational institutions, such as advanced and distinctive teaching concepts, teaching methods, teaching forms, or evaluation methods; 7. Advanced experience in teacher team construction and teacher training, etc. Quality educational resources are relative. As far as foreign educational institutions are concerned, first of all, they are geographically relative. Some schools are not necessarily internationally renowned, but they are first-class in their home countries; some are not necessarily well-known in China, but they are among the best in provinces and states. The second is relativity at the educational level. Universities implementing higher education and kindergartens implementing preschool education cannot be compared. There are well-run schools at all levels of education. The third is the type of running on relativity, for example, some American universities to recruit undergraduates is given priority to, small students, enrollment condition is strict, with good teaching conditions and students all work, the quality of education and social reputation is very high, it cannot compare research university and Harvard University had such whose resources more quality; The fourth is the relativity of disciplines and majors. Not all disciplines and majors of first-class universities are first-class, and some disciplines and majors of some state universities in the United States surpass those of famous universities. When it comes to MBA education, schools from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, and other top schools certainly rank high. But when it comes to undergraduate education in international trade, a state university like the University of South Carolina has consistently ranked among the top three in the United States in recent years. In the introduction of high-quality educational resources, attention should be paid to the following aspects: first, closely combined with the national and local economic construction and development of all kinds of personnel at all levels, especially senior specialized personnel needs. The school should understand the external environment of the school, what kind of talents are needed by the country and the market and must conduct a thorough feasibility study before carrying out a Chinese-foreign cooperation in running a school. Second, in combination with the development and construction of the school itself, we should deepen the reform of education and
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teaching, strengthen the discipline construction, improve the quality of teachers and improve the quality of personnel training by introducing advanced foreign educational concepts, teaching contents, training modes, and management experience. Third, we should always keep a clear head and choose our foreign partners carefully. In contact with the foreign party, to discuss cooperation in running the school, we must make clear the purpose of the other party’s cooperation, and the foreign party’s background and credit conditions for in-depth understanding, to prevent fraud. In the possible conditions to seek the convergence of common interests, advantages, and disadvantages, for our use. At the same time, it is necessary to guard against foreign hostile forces and religious organizations exploiting Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools for political and religious infiltration, so as to safeguard state interests and educational sovereignty. Fourth, we should earnestly strengthen the leadership over Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, adhere to the law-based management and standardized management, and the foreign affairs department of the University should strengthen centralized management, overall planning, and policy guidance. According to the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools regulations of Article 38 of this law, the measures for the implementation of the regulation on Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, the provisions of Article 43, a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school or project the charging items and standards of determined and publicized in accordance with the provisions of the relevant state government pricing, therefore, a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school or project execution state pricing, the school shall be determined by way of government audit fees or standards specified in the recruit students general rules or recruitment advertising. According to the provisions of Article 38 of the Regulations, the fee rates and items for Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and projects shall be determined in accordance with the relevant state government pricing regulations. A Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school or a project shall, after obtaining the approval of an educational administrative organ at or above the provincial level, apply to the relevant state department for the fee items and standards for the cooperatively run school, and collect fees upon the approval of the fee item permit and the approved standard. Without the approval for record keeping, the scholars shall not increase the fee items or raise the fee standard without authorization (Wang, 2004, 2006; Xiao, 2003; Yang, 2003). Due to the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running school’s agreement the parties belong to two or more than two countries (regions), therefore, Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools also belong to a foreign-related contract agreement, in view of the law of the country belongs to the parties to a contract is different, can produce the applicable law, shall be governed by the laws of our country is still apply foreign laws, international treaties, and international practice. Unlike domestic contracts which are fully applicable to China’s Contract Law and relevant civil laws, foreign-related contracts do not naturally apply to China’s Contract Law and other civil laws as domestic contracts do due to foreign-related factors. Their application is determined by the selection of parties to foreign-related contracts or in accordance with relevant provisions. In accordance with the international practice, in general,
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except for the applicable laws clearly stipulated by national laws, the parties shall choose the laws applicable to a foreign-related contract at the time of concluding the contract. Chinese law stipulates that Chinese law shall apply to all Sino-foreign joint venture contracts, Sino-foreign cooperative contracts, and contracts for Sino-foreign cooperative exploration and development of natural resources performed in China. This is a mandatory rule and cannot be changed by the parties. Therefore, in order to avoid different interpretations of contract behaviors by different laws in case of disputes, provisions on the application of law shall be made when signing foreignrelated contracts. It shall be stipulated that Chinese laws shall be applied in case of disputes arising from this contract as the applicable law of the contract. A Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school refers to a Chinese-foreign educational institution that initiates, proposes and is specifically responsible for the establishment of a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school or project by means of investment or other means. Operators set up the stage, in the school is responsible for raising funds, provides conditions for offering education, establish the school organization and the articles of association, and a series of responsibilities and after school set up by the school board of trustees, the board of directors or other forms of decisionmaking body directly influence the school matters, and responsible for the stability of the sources of funds for schools. According to the school-running agreement, (1) fulfill the corresponding investment obligation in time and in full amount, including capital contribution, management contribution or intangible assets contribution; (2) Exercise management of the school by participating in the board of directors in accordance with the articles of association; (3) Ensure that no funds are withdrawn or misappropriated; (4) Dispose the assets of the university according to law and obtain reasonable returns (Hu, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021; Wang, 2004, 2006; Xiao, 2003; Xu, 2005; Yang, 2003). Establishing a stable mechanism of cooperation and communication between China and foreign countries and making joint plans on the basis of common development is indispensable. Although each Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school project has cooperation documents, the changing situation requires both sides to establish a stable cooperation and communication mechanism and timely discuss new issues arising under the new situation. The cooperative communication mechanism should include reciprocal communication at different levels, including the communication mechanism at the level of president, department leaders, and professional project leaders. The mechanism of exchange of visits between school leaders, regular consultation mechanism between school leaders, and regular communication mechanism between project leaders should be established. Dialogue and communication at different levels solve problems at different levels and enhance understanding and friendship among people at different levels. For example, the reform of domestic college admission methods will directly affect the enrollment situation and enrollment quality of Sino-foreign cooperative programs, and thus affect the future development of cooperative programs. To solve such a big problem, it is necessary for principals to have exchange visits and communicate with each other. Only when both sides fully analyze the new situation and problems and continuously enhance understanding can they reach consensus and lay the foundation for continued cooperation.
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Only after the direction is determined in the principal level meeting, can the leaders of the school and department and the person in charge of the cooperative project conduct operational consultation on the problems in teaching operation, management, graduation practice, etc. Only communication and understanding can solve the problems and enhance confidence. In order to avoid the difficulties of the division of labor and communication between different departments, an international college can be established in the university, which is in charge of the work of Sino-foreign cooperative projects. It is easier to establish the corresponding communication mechanism through the window of international college. With the deepening of the reform of China’s college enrollment system, colleges and universities have begun to pilot the mode of independent enrollment. In view of the particularity of Sino-foreign cooperative-run school, adopting an independent enrollment method may solve the existing enrollment dilemma to a great extent. From the perspective of the source of students, independent recruitment is in advance, so students who are interested in becoming international talents and parents who are interested in cultivating international talents can make choices in advance. From the perspective of student quality, there are some positive factors in learning motivation and motivation to recruit students who are willing to register in advance. In addition, from the perspective of enrollment conditions, the enrollment of Sino-foreign cooperative programs can be moderately inclined to those with excellent foreign language scores, so that the students recruited in this way, to some extent, can more adapt to the Sino-foreign cooperative teaching mode (Wang, 2004, 2006; Xiao, 2003; Yang, 2003). The characteristics of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running a school lie in its internationalization, and its foundation lies in the foreign language ability of students. Therefore, in terms of curriculum, the unique status of foreign languages is obvious and unshakable. On the one hand, foreign teachers should be responsible for at least one-third of the core courses in Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools, and there are a large number of bilingual courses. It is hard to imagine that foreign language students without good foreign language skills can adapt to foreign language teaching mode and master professional knowledge and skills. On the other hand, foreign language ability is indispensable for students to study and live abroad after graduation. The strengthening of foreign language teaching should be reflected in the number of foreign language lessons, teachers, teaching conditions, foreign language environment, and other aspects. In the first school year, foreign language teaching should be emphasized, and foreign language classes should be no less than 12 periods per week. Experienced Chinese and foreign teachers should be assigned to jointly undertake teaching tasks. Classroom layout is best to use hexagonal desks, easy for students to carry out group learning. In addition, teachers and students should work together to create a good foreign language atmosphere, hold foreign language salons and lectures regularly, and hold foreign language competitions every semester (Wang, 2004, 2006; Xiao, 2003; Yang, 2003). The policy of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is relatively backward, which is mainly reflected in the time lag of policy formulation and policy content lag. In terms of the timing of policy formulation, the Interim Provisions on
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Chinese-foreign Cooperation in Running schools promulgated in 1995 only defined Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools as “a supplement to China’s educational undertakings”. For the next seven years, there were no new laws or regulations. It was not until March 2003 that the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-foreign Cooperation in Running Schools was promulgated, and then, in June 2004, the Measures for the Implementation of the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-foreign Cooperation in running schools was promulgated. In fact, after China’s accession to the WTO in 2001, Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools has emerged on a large scale. During this period of time, there is an obvious lag in policies, which is not conducive to the guiding role of policies and regulations. Up to now, our country still has not worked out to encourage to open in the western area, outlying and impoverished area (Hu, 2020; Li & Xue, 2021; Wang, 2004, 2006; Xiao, 2003; Xu, 2005; Yang, 2003).
References Hu, J. (2020). Brief analysis of the current situation and development strategy of Chinese-foreign cooperative school-running mode in private colleges and universities. 20(02), 55–60. Li, J., & Xue, E. (2021). Mapping the education policy of foreign faculty for creating world-class universities in China: Advantage, conflict and ambiguity. Educational Philosophy and Theory. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1863213 Wang, M. (2004). Strategic thinking on Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. Teacher Education Research, 24(2), 63. Wang, M. (2006). On the issue of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools and the management of foreign teachers. Heilongjiang Higher Education Research, 20(9), 48–50. Xiao, D. (2003). Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools from the perspective of globalization. Heilongjiang Higher Education Research, 23(5), 9–12. Xu, S. (2005). Philosophy and social sciences edition. Journal of Zhengzhou University, 25(2), 153–156. Yang, H. (2003). Market supply and Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools. Education Science, 20(12), 52–55.
Chapter 5
Foreign Exchanges and Cooperation in China: Situations, Issues, and Strategies
This chapter examines the foreign exchanges and cooperation in China from the perspectives of situations, issues, and strategies. With the development of economic globalization, the internationalization of higher education will also become the inevitable trend of world education reform and development, society and even the world will also put forward new requirements for higher education. All the way in the new period of reform and opening up as well as in the “area” initiative, since the implementation of the higher education is endowed with new connotation and mission, this is an opportunity for higher education, but all the colleges and universities in the theoretical research and practice of understanding are different, the internationalization of higher education in higher education opening up to the outside world also has many problems and loopholes. Foreign exchange and cooperation, as one of the important embodiment of the internationalization of higher education, in order to improve the level of higher education in China, China’s top priority should be to the enhancement of concept of internationalized education in common colleges and universities at the same time, speed up the internationalization of Western universities, learning the foreign advanced experience, and develop their good experience, fully funds for higher education at the same time; In order to achieve the goal of internationalization of higher education, to expand the influence of China’s higher education in the international community, and to promote the sustainable development of China’s higher education, we should cultivate educational talents comprehensively to achieve the national strategic goal. This chapter aims to discuss the foreign exchange and cooperation of China’s higher education, mainly involving the current situation, problems, and countermeasures of foreign exchange and cooperation.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li, “Four Branches” of Internationalization of Higher Education in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4205-0_5
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5.1 Current Situation of Foreign Exchange and Cooperation in China’s Higher Education Cultural Exchange and Cooperation in Higher Education between China and Foreign Countries in the Global Context. Globalization refers to the increasing global connectivity, the development of human life on a global scale and the rise of global consciousness. The internationalization of higher education means that the higher education of each country pays more attention to the development trend of facing the world on the basis of facing the domestic. Internationalization of higher education and globalization of higher education are two concepts with original differences. Although the connotation and extension of the concept of internationalization of higher education have been discussed in depth and detail, it is confused with globalization of higher education. With the promotion of world economic globalization, international exchanges and cooperation in higher education are becoming more and more frequent and more and more accepted by people. Many countries have also seen the benefits and actively joined the ranks of the internationalization of higher education. In terms of China’s higher education, since the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China has made great progress in the foreign exchange of higher education. In terms of regional cooperation, we will continue to expand educational cooperation with Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with countries along the “One Belt and One Road” routes and East Asia as the core, relying on organizations and institutions such as Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and ASEAN. From 2008 to 2019, the China-ASEAN Education Exchange Week was held in Guizhou for 11 consecutive sessions, and more than 1,000 educational cooperation agreements or memorandums of understanding were reached. These agreements not only cover the 10 ASEAN countries, but also extend to West Asia, Europe, America, and other regions in the form of special invited partners. Therefore, “One Belt and One Road” strategy is China’s national development strategy of “going out” facing the world, which puts forward unprecedented new requirements and new tasks for China’s education. However, each country has a different understanding of the internationalization of higher education in the theoretical research and practice, so each country makes the strategy development suitable for its own country. For example, the international openness of educational policies, the international pertinence of educational objectives, the international standardization of educational content, the international modernization of educational methods, the international standardization of the evaluation of educational achievements, the internationalization of educational sources, the internationalization of educational research cooperation, and so on. Although each country’s culture is different, it can keep its own characteristics in cultural value, so as to enrich and develop the cultural diversity of the world. Therefore, we want to constant efforts, to promote the development of the internationalization of higher education, strengthening international exchange and cooperation in higher education, in order to open our education market, but also make full use of the international education market, absorbing advanced education ideas and thoughts, reform teaching contents and methods, to adapt to the
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needs of the development of international communication and, promoting a global consciousness, the cultivation of high-level talents for international communication ability. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is a very important congress held at a crucial juncture as China finishes building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and as socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era. It is a milestone in the history of the development of the Party and the country and in the history of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The congress established the historic status of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and embarked on a new journey to build a modern socialist country in all respects. We must fully grasp and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the guiding principles of the 19th National Congress of the CPC and seize the hour instead of the hour to open up new prospects for education reform and development in an all-round way. New tasks for higher education development in the new era. Since the Eighteenth Congress, comrade Xi as the core of the party leadership, put forward a series of new ideas about education of higher education to make some big decisions, scientific answer to what higher education with Chinese characteristics and training which road to take, how to cultivate and train a person for who the fundamental problem, to promote awareness of the law of higher education development to new heights. In recent years, the investment in higher education in China has been increasing, the level of higher education has been greatly improved, and the sense of gain that higher education brings to people has been significantly enhanced. With the development of The Times, higher education must also enter a new era, focusing on solving problems such as the shortage of high-quality talents and the imbalance in the distribution of educational resources, and constantly meeting the needs of the country’s development and the needs of the people. New transformation of higher education development in the new era. Entering the new era, China’s higher education should also realize “four changes". First, the development ideas from the focus on the expansion of scale and quantity to focus on the quality of the change. Second, the evaluation method is transformed from a single index to a systematic synthesis. Third, the allocation of resources from the distribution of differences to balanced distribution. Fourth, its international status has changed from following and running to running and leading. The realization of these “four transformations” will transform China from a big country in higher education to a powerful country in higher education, so that everyone can receive higher education. And we can build world-class universities and first-class disciplines. We will enhance China’s ability and confidence in higher education and gradually become a leader in higher education in the world (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li et al., 2017; Liu, 2018; Song & Liu, 2019; Sun & Li, 2020; Xu et al., 2020).
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New actions for higher education development in the new era. “The need for higher education is more urgent than ever before, and the thirst for scientific knowledge and outstanding talents is stronger than ever before” Xi said in a speech at the National Conference on Ideological and Political Work in Colleges and Universities. In the face of the new era and the new mission, higher education must follow the guidance of Xi Jinping’s thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, implement the education policy of the Party in the new era, persist in taking root in the land of China to run universities, adhere to the goal of world-class Chinese characteristics, and make China become better tomorrow.
5.2 The Development of Foreign Exchange of Higher Education in China Since the “One Belt and One Road” Initiative International students from countries along the Belt and Road. In terms of numbers, the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative has brought new opportunities for higher education. From 2013 to 2016, the number of international students from B&R countries was 160,784, 171,143, 183,182, and 207,888 respectively, showing an increasing trend year by year. From the specific geographical analysis, the number of foreign students in East Asia Mongolia and the 10 countries along the ASEAN line is the largest, with an average annual number of more than 70,000, followed by 8 countries in South Asia, followed by 5 countries in Central Asia, 7 countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and 18 countries in West Asia. Finally, an average of 4,458 students from the 18 CEE countries study in China every year (See Figs. 5.1 and 5.2). Acceptance of Chinese students by “One Belt and One Road” countries. Statistics from the Ministry of Education show that in 2017, the number of Chinese students studying abroad totaled 608,400, an increase of 11.74% year on year. Among them, 31,200 were government-sponsored students in 94 countries, 12,800 were visiting scholars, and 13,200 were postgraduates for master’s and doctoral degrees, remaining the world’s largest source of foreign students. Since the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, statistics from the Ministry of Education show that 2,653, 3,291, and 3,679 Chinese students from 37 “One Belt and One Road” countries were sent to countries along the Belt and Road in 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively. In addition, the number of students who voluntarily went to countries along the Belt and Road has increased significantly. For example, in 2017, the number reached 66,100, an increase of 15.7% over the previous year, exceeding the overall growth rate of students studying abroad (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li et al., 2017). The number of higher education institutions participating in foreign exchanges. By the end of 2016, China has established educational cooperation and exchanges with 188 countries and regions, carried out educational cooperation and exchanges
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Number of overseas students from countries along the route in 2013—2016 250000 207888
number
200000 160784
171143
2013
2014
183182
150000 100000 50000 0 2015
2016
Fig. 5.1 Number of overseas students from 2013 to 2016
4458; [PERCENTAGE]
East Asia Mongolia, 10 countries along ASEAN 40000;35% East Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, etc 70000;61% 18 central and Eastern European countries
Fig. 5.2 Number of students studying in China
with 46 important international organizations, and signed agreements for mutual recognition of academic qualifications and degrees with 47 countries and regions. Since the implementation of the “area” initiative, the domestic participation in higher education institutions of higher education external exchanges increased year by year, increased from 2013 in 746 to 2016 in 829, the domestic institutions of higher education (including the institutions of higher learning, higher vocational colleges, and institutions), and received a total of 442,273 students in China, of which 751 institutions of higher education received by senior education, general education, and short-term study abroad; There are 674 higher education institutions that receive
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undergraduate, master’s, doctor’s, and specialist students and provide both academic and non-academic education services. The current situation of foreign exchange and cooperation programs in Chinese colleges and universities. Current situation of external cooperation and exchange of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In terms of cultural and academic exchanges, according to the Yearbook of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in 2014, Shanghai Jiao Tong University held 106 international and bilateral academic conferences, attended by more than 3,700 international representatives. Shanghai Jiao Tong University has six cultural exchange centers, which regularly hold cultural activities with different national characteristics, helping Chinese students to have a better understanding of foreign cultures (Li & Eryong, 2020; Liu, 2018; Song & Liu, 2019; Sun & Li, 2020; Xu et al., 2020). In terms of international projects, SJTU has established 8 international cooperative research centers and 5 international joint research funds. SJTU now has 10 Sino-foreign cooperative programs and institutions, of which 6 are in business administration, 2 are in medicine and 2 are in engineering. In terms of academic exchange, SJTU offers a total of 18 international summer and winter programs. In addition, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has signed student exchange agreements with 73 international universities in 19 countries (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li et al., 2017). Current situation of Tsinghua University’s international cooperation and exchange. In terms of international conferences, Tsinghua University holds nearly 80 international (bilateral) academic conferences every year, with a total attendance of nearly 10,000 person-times, including nearly 5,000 person-times of overseas representatives. In terms of the exchange of teachers and students, each year about 450 people from Tsinghua University go to about 20 countries and regions for more than half a year for further study, further study, and cooperative research, and about one-fifth of them are teachers. In terms of international students, there are more than 3,000 foreign students from about 100 countries studying at Tsinghua University, 70% of whom are pursuing bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees, and 30% are visiting students pursuing professional courses, cooperative research, or further study in Chinese language and culture (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li et al., 2017). Present situation of Wuhan University’s foreign cooperation and exchange. At present, Wuhan University has signed cooperation and exchange agreements with more than 200 universities in more than 60 countries and regions, including Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, Oxford University, Cambridge University, University of Tokyo, University of Toronto, and so on. In terms of cultural and academic exchanges, the university has a strong atmosphere of international academic exchanges. It receives 2,500 foreign visitors every year, employs about 100 foreign experts to teach on campus for a long time, and holds more than 30 international academic conferences every year. In terms of the exchange of teachers and students, Wuhan University has a total of 9 summer short-term programs, involving the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Wuhan University has established 83 university-level student exchange programs with institutions of higher learning from 18 countries. The above three universities are
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representative of top universities in China. Their foreign exchange and cooperation data can represent the international cooperation trend of China’s top higher education, from which more accurate statistical conclusions can be drawn. The conclusion is that Chinese higher education is now establishing an international strategy, actively promoting close ties with world-class universities, committed to building an international faculty, supporting international research cooperation, enhancing cultural diversity on campus, cultivating international diversity of students, and enhancing the reputation of the university in the world. Colleges and universities in Xinjiang, Guangdong, and Fujian have established a certain foundation for educational exchanges and cooperation with neighboring countries and have higher visions in the general trend of national promotion of “One Belt and One Road” construction. Based on an in-depth investigation of three universities and two primary and secondary schools, four seminars and exchanges were organized, attended by more than 80 people including leaders of relevant institutions, teachers and researchers, and cadres from the mainland to aid Xinjiang. In Guangdong and Fujian provinces, we organized six seminars in five universities and one education and research institute, attended by more than 120 people including overseas students. The institutions of higher learning in Xinjiang, Guangdong, and Fujian make full use of their geographical advantages and focus on regional cooperation with neighboring countries to actively carry out bilateral, multilateral, and regional exchanges and cooperation in education (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li et al., 2017). Education and exchange and cooperation between institutions of higher learning in Xinjiang and Central Asia have been established and further plans have been made. At present, the Xinjian normal university in Xinjian university are established for central Asia and national research institutions, initially formed a professional research team, the combination of research areas in central Asia, ethnic and national political and economic, history, law, language, education, culture, and so on each aspect, have some Gugu with higher research level, has and the Xinxiang Yugur autonomous region to the nation about the important decision-making consultation. The Confucius Institute, Laozi Classroom, and Confucius Institute Teaching Center set up by the two universities in Central Asia have become the major forms of educational exchanges and cooperation between Xinjiang and Central Asia and are well received by the host countries. At the same time, Xinjiang Normal University, Xinjiang University, and Central Asian countries exchange visits between teachers and students, short-term exchange of academic exchange activities is also relatively rich. As early as July 2009, the College of International Cultural Exchange was established in Xinjiang Normal University. The College has departments such as the Department of Foreign Chinese Language, the Language and Culture Teaching Center of the Department of Chinese Language, the Information Center for Foreign Students, and the Institute of Central Asian Languages and Cultures, which carry out the training of international master’s students of Chinese and the exchange of language students in each period. The Center for International Education of Chinese in Central Asia has initially completed the database of International Education of Chinese in Central Asia (teaching, research, and case studies), set up a translation
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center, cultivated two professional translation teams in Russian and English, and translated and collated a large number of research materials. In 2013, the Institute of Central Asian Studies was established in Xinjiang Normal University to integrate the original research institutions and strive to establish a strong academic group of humanities and social sciences with distinctive features and outstanding advantages (Li & Eryong, 2020; Liu, 2018; Song & Liu, 2019; Sun & Li, 2020; Xu et al., 2020). As of September 2015, Xinjiang University has signed agreements on educational exchanges and scientific research cooperation with 38 foreign universities and educational institutions. The university carries out educational exchange and cooperation programs with foreign universities, such as faculty exchange, student exchange, joint training, scientific research cooperation, jointly holding international conferences, and establishing overseas scholarships. We will continue to expand the number of students studying abroad, improve their education level and teaching quality, and actively promote the Chinese language abroad and build Confucius Institutes overseas. The university has become the president of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization University Regional Project School and the Chinese and Russian Universities of the Ministry of Education. Asia University, East Asia University President Forum Program School, Chinese Government Scholarship Independent Enrollment School, Confucius Institute Scholarship, Silk Road Scholarship Program School. Xinjiang university of central Asia institute, founded in 2002, Tsinghua University and Xinxiang University in 2012 and jointly form the University of Xinxiang-Central Asia Development Research Center, Tsinghua University, focus on “China and central Asian cooperation, development”, for Central Asia and around the specific country’s geopolitical politics, economy, culture, education, diplomacy, security and other fields of research. In addition, Xinjiang Normal College (Xinjiang Institute of Education) serves as the base and center for the cultivation and training of primary and secondary school teachers in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Under the good situation of the national promotion of “One Belt and One Road” construction, Xinjiang institutions of higher learning make full use of regional advantages and existing foundations to actively plan educational exchanges and cooperation with Central Asian countries. They also have a high vision for future related research and practice and put forward development plans (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li et al., 2017; Liu, 2018; Song & Liu, 2019; Sun & Li, 2020; Xu et al., 2020). Xinjiang Normal University, spent 1 million yuan every year to strengthen the construction of the central Asia institute, and set the target: strive to 3~5 years to cultivate a batch of domestic well-known academic experts, introduce a batch of discipline construction and the autonomous region and even the country’s decisionmaking has important academic value and practical significance of scientific research achievements, the central Asia research become the theory exploration and the focal point of subject construction, innovative point, and the foothold. After 5–10 years of construction, we strive to build the Central Asian Research Institute into an interdisciplinary theoretical innovation research center, talent training center, information center, and consulting service center serving the development strategy of the
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autonomous region and even the country, and strive to build it into a leading, wellknown and influential comprehensive research institute on Central Asian issues in the autonomous region. Xinjiang Normal University has become a “think tank” for the study of Central Asian issues and the theoretical innovation center of peripheral international relations in the autonomous region and even the country. Xinjiang Normal University has also further increased the funding and input of research funds for the Center for International Education of Chinese in Central Asia. At the same time, the university also plans to set up the Central Asia Education Research Center, highlighting the advantages of education in Xinjiang higher education institutions. Xinjiang university proposed the “advanced west central Asia first-class, internationally renowned” construction goal, in central Asia institute (University of Xinxiang, Central Asia Development Research Center, Tsinghua University) as a platform, further study on the Xinxiang University in central Asia’s important features and advantages of disciplines, with the construction of multiple disciplines, high level, open research base as the goal, strive to after 5–10 years of efforts, the central Asia institute at Xinxiang University, Xinxiang University, Tsinghua University Central Asia Development Research Center) construction become world famous. The leading comprehensive research institute on Central Asian issues in China has cultivated a group of academic experts and academic teams with domestic and foreign influences, actively serving the decision-making on major issues of the state and autonomous region and striving to become the think tank and think tank for the national research on Central Asian issues. On this basis, Xinjiang University plans to establish the Silk Road College to give full play to the school’s comprehensive strength among colleges and universities in Xinjiang with a full range of disciplines. Xinjiang Normal College (Xinjiang Institute of Education) is also actively striving to set up a Confucius Institute in Central Asia, making use of the school’s advantages in languages and languages, planning to set up a language institute, and striving to make breakthroughs in educational exchanges and cooperation with Central Asia. The educational exchange and cooperation between colleges and universities in Guangdong and Fujian and Southeast Asia have been established and further planned. Due to the coastal location, Guangdong and Fujian have a relatively high level of economic development, especially Guangdong and Fujian are both famous hometowns of overseas Chinese. The institutions of higher learning in the two provinces have made full use of their own advantages and actively carried out educational exchanges and cooperation at various levels and in various ways with the institutions of higher learning in Southeast Asian countries (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li et al., 2017; Xu et al., 2020). Fujian Normal University from 1984 began receiving foreign students, conduct work for teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and in 1992 became a national face to South Asia, one of the four bases of teaching Chinese as a foreign language by Hanan appointed 2001 countries to support around the national key university of Chinese language teaching, have carried out Vietnam, India, the Philippines localization degree of Chinese teachers to teach (2 + 2, 3 + 1), 30 years ago, Fujian normal university has received Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, the United States, Germany, France, Russia, Turkey, and so on more than 30 countries of foreign students to study Chinese. It has also trained a large number of Chinese
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language teachers for East Asia and neighboring countries. In 2010, Fujian Normal University cooperated with the Philippines and Indonesia to establish the Confucius Institute of Longxi Lisha University in Pennsylvania and the Confucius Institute of Ara University in Indonesia. In 2012, “China-ASEAN Education and Training Center” was officially established in Fujian Normal University. Shortcomings and difficulties in foreign educational exchanges and cooperation among institutions of higher learning in Xinjiang, Fujian, and Guangdong. First of all, China’s education cooperation with foreign countries has been dominated by non-academic education, and there are obviously no institutions of higher education with academic qualifications, and the educational influence and attraction are extremely limited. At the same time, the overall strength is not strong, in the higher education colleges and universities in Fujian and Guangdong also exist problems, the foreign student’s education features professional lack attractive to surrounding countries students studying in China is not enough, between colleges and universities, institutions of higher learning institutions in the study “area” of lack of cooperation mechanism is the education of colleges and universities is facing in Central Asia in Xinxiang professional talent shortage and the difficulties in practice education cooperation of colleges and universities set up Confucius Institute in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, in the aspect of teachers’ teaching material there is a certain problem of “water”, the primary and secondary schools in Xinxiang are still lack of education communication (Li, 2019; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li et al., 2017; Liu, 2018; Song & Liu, 2019; Sun & Li, 2020).
5.3 Problems in Foreign Exchange and Cooperation of Higher Education in China Problems existing in China’s foreign exchange and cooperation under the “One Belt and One Road” initiative. Since the implementation of “One Belt and One Road” initiative, the opening space of China’s education to the outside world has been extended, and the opening of education has been endowed with new missions and connotations, entering an important period of strategic opportunities. As an “area”, the content and the way of cooperation, education opening to the outside world not only means to continue learning the foreign advanced experience our advantage, and also provides good experience sharing the world education development in our country with platform, through the discussion of countries along the co-construction and sharing service of education and social development, thus achieve the goal of the symbiotic win–win situation. However, there are still many problems in China’s foreign exchange and cooperation. The concept of international development lags behind. In some places, the concept of colleges and universities lags behind. They think that foreign exchanges and cooperation are not necessary, but there are still some ideas that are not necessary. So, they didn’t pay enough attention, they didn’t put enough effort into promoting the cause.
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The lack of attention from the ideological perspective will inevitably lead to the lack of corresponding management mechanism construction in the practical response. Even the international exchanges of many universities are limited to dealing with daily affairs and reception of foreign affairs, without macro guidance, clear goals, specific realization approaches, and powerful safeguard measures. There is no certain standard for the selection system of foreign exchange students or teachers, and there is no strict examination and approval. Moreover, the management mechanism is outdated, and there is a lack of international working mode. Management team needs to be strengthened. Due to the late start of foreign exchange and cooperation in colleges and universities, and the lack of attention, and other reasons, the construction of management team has not kept pace. Many foreign exchanges and cooperation in colleges and universities are only spoken, but few are actually carried out. Some foreign exchange offices in colleges and universities only have one or two managers who are proficient in foreign languages to handle business. Some of the daily tasks are willing to but insufficient, most or from other departments, or engaged in the frontline teaching teachers to undertake. Not to mention innovative development. Moreover, the school training for management staff is not only so simple as translation but also needs to master certain etiquette. Lack of exchange programs between teachers and students. The international communication service of some schools only stops at handling the application and approval procedures for them, and no one is responsible for the communication and coordination with overseas universities and relevant departments for them. Therefore, this project is also lacking. Lack of language and cultural knowledge. Due to their lack of a solid foundation of foreign language knowledge, lack of understanding of foreign culture and customs, and lack of systematic and professional training, teachers and students often encounter communication barriers when they communicate and interview abroad. They cannot understand the class and it is difficult for them to adapt to life. Culture is the reaction of a country’s politics and economy, and it is an important relationship for all countries in the world to formulate cultural strategies and national strategies. It is more special and important for any country to enhance its political, economic, military, and other hard power while enhancing its cultural soft power. Funding is not available. International exchange and cooperation need financial support. Due to the limited strength of the school, local colleges, and universities in China are generally short of funds, lack of funding sources, and insufficient funds, resulting in the construction of foreign-related facilities is not in place, unable to develop favorable conditions for international exchange and cooperation, and slowing down the development of international cultural and academic exchanges. Different cultural exchanges. Now foreign students proportion still choose language learning of the project, belong to “separate” culture in the campus life, separate accommodations, classes, activities, etc., with domestic students live in harmony is not really, learning model has failed to get through, it and some developed countries in the cultivation of students is a big gap, also reflects our country university experience much less on internationalization, low degree of internationalization. At the same time, due to the long-term influence of the West, international students have
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some negative preset impression of China, and the training programs of universities still need to be continuously improved to improve international students’ cognition of China. In addition, China has trained engineers and other high-level professionals for countries along the Belt and Road. Compared with developed countries, China’s advantages are still not very prominent. Students’ international awareness and innovation awareness are relatively weak. Nowadays, college students pay more attention to professional study and skill improvement, are addicted to book knowledge, are bound by teachers’ teaching, and only take the success of career as the ultimate goal. They do not pay much attention to the current internationalization trend and the awareness of international communication. At the same time, the students’ innovation consciousness is seriously insufficient, and their thoughts are not liberated enough. In the survey and research center, it is found that students are not willing to spread the excellent traditional culture of their own nation. This “unwillingness” is not from the objective, but from the subjective lack of international awareness and unwillingness to take the initiative to participate in the process of internationalization. Innovation is the driving force for the continuous development of a country and a nation. It is found that students lack innovative thinking, are not good at using and creating conditions, and lack of knowledge in the activities. Colleges and universities are an important part of China’s education opening to the outside world, and the international cooperation and exchange of colleges and universities have a great impact on the opening of national higher education to the outside world. Due to geographical location, resource allocation, and other historical reasons, the external development gap between universities is large, there are many problems. This is not only bad for the sustainable development of colleges and universities, but also bad for the comprehensive training of talents and the realization of national strategic goals. Uneven distribution of resources among universities. Due to the different levels of regional development and the different levels of development between key universities and ordinary universities, there are great differences in the process of foreign exchange and cooperation among universities. The developed regions in the east coast and the key universities, which started earlier, have certain strategies in terms of relevant facilities and experience, and built their international reputation earlier, are able to attract more international students, and the state has invested more funds in these universities. However, in the central and western regions and colleges and universities, international cooperation and exchange started late, the foundation is weak, the development history is not long, the foundation is weak. Therefore, the school has corresponding software, hardware facilities, and bilingual teachers. Compared with the eastern developed regions and key universities, both of them need to be further improved. Shortage of bilingual teachers. Due to historical reasons, many teachers with outstanding professional achievements lack foreign language ability and bilingual teaching ability, and the level of foreign students in related majors is lower than that of domestic students, so they cannot give full play to the professional ability
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of teachers. With the development of internationalization, teachers’ awareness of internationalization is constantly improving. More and more teachers apply for statesponsored programs, but most of them are disqualified for admission because their foreign language proficiency is not up to standard. Due to the weak bilingual teaching ability of teachers in colleges and universities and the shortage of bilingual teachers’ resources, the recruitment and training of international students are greatly limited. The university lacks foreign affairs talents. Due to the large number of overseas students studying in China in recent years and the increasing awareness of domestic students studying abroad, higher and higher requirements have been put forward to universities and foreign affairs personnel. In the international cooperation and exchange of colleges and universities, it is necessary not only to have excellent foreign language ability but also to have high political accomplishment and professional ability of foreign affairs personnel. Many colleges and universities have teachers who can speak foreign languages but lack faculty members who understand foreign policy and procedures. The foreign affairs work of the school is an extension of the country’s diplomatic work. To some extent, the performance of foreign affairs work represents the image and interests of a country in the world. Foreign affairs personnel not only need to safeguard the interests of the university but also need to safeguard the national image and collective interests. Therefore, the shortage of foreign affairs personnel is a major problem faced by ordinary colleges and universities. Colleges and universities lack understanding of international cooperation and exchanges. Schools, departments, departments, and teachers and students have little understanding of international cooperation and exchange, little understanding of relevant policies and procedures, and a low degree of participation and cooperation in issues related to international cooperation and exchange, resulting in the insufficient understanding of international cooperation and exchange issues in many universities. The lack of publicity on international cooperation and exchange, the lack of cooperation and support from various departments, departments, and teachers and students in colleges and universities have impeded the development and promotion of internationalization and foreign exchange in colleges and universities. The slow process of internationalization of colleges and universities is caused by the lack of understanding of the international and exchange work of relevant departments and personnel and the failure to form joint efforts among various departments of the university. Low level of international exchange and cooperation. Compared with developed regions and key universities, international exchanges and cooperation in central and western regions and colleges and universities are relatively late. The level of cooperation is mostly superficial, and the breadth and depth of exchanges need to be further improved. The intercollegiate cooperation between many universities and foreign universities is mostly on the surface of publicity, without carrying out specific cooperation. The cooperation carried out by most universities is mostly on the level of mutual visits between teachers and students, which has no substantial promoting significance for the exchange and development of universities. Large-scale or deeplevel cooperation in scientific research, cooperation in running schools and other
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international exchanges and cooperation projects with distinctive and innovative features are few and far between, which are mainly distributed in developed regions and key universities. Relevant policies need to be improved. The problem of foreign exchange and cooperation of Chinese colleges and universities also includes the problem of the lack of legal and policy guarantees. The practice mode of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools in Chinese colleges and universities basically adopts the traditional education mode, which has little effect on the study achievements of foreign students in China, the international vision, and the intercultural communication ability of graduates. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore the mode of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools and the methods of foreign exchange and cooperation, and to improve the relevant policies, so as to strengthen the promotion of overseas students’ study in China and the foreign exchange and cooperation of universities. The structure of international students needs to be optimized. Since the “Belt and Road” initiative was put forward, the government, universities, and all sectors of society have paid more attention to the development of overseas education in China, and the number of overseas students in China has shown an increasing trend. According to statistics in recent years, non-degree students are still the majority of international students studying in China, and the proportion of graduate students with bachelor’s degrees or above is relatively low. Although the majors of international students are divided into multiple disciplines, they are still mainly liberal arts. The majority of overseas students are from Asia, with a small number from Europe and the United States, and the quality of overseas students is not high. This has a certain adverse effect on China’s internationalization process and the development speed of foreign cooperation and exchange. The unbalanced development of the structure of overseas students not only affects the foreign cooperation and exchange of Chinese colleges and universities, but also hinders the process of China’s higher education and economic development. Common problems existing in foreign exchanges and the cooperation of colleges and universities. With the in-depth development of reform and opening up, China has made a gratifying step on the road of internationalization of higher education. It has also carried out multi-form and multi-level exchanges and cooperation in the aspects of teachers and students exchange, joint running of schools, mutual visits of scholars, and reform of specialty setting and curriculum content. From 1978 to the end of 2013, China sent 3.0586 million students to developed countries such as Europe and the United States. Since 1998, the number of overseas students in China has also increased year by year. However, there are still some problems in the foreign exchange of Chinese colleges and universities. In the field of foreign exchanges, we need to strengthen our management and increase our financial input. In terms of external communication management, there is no clear system between the functional departments and these units in the university, there is the phenomenon of overlapping and repeated management of functions, and the mutual connection is not close enough, and the work efficiency is low. The foreign
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exchanges of many colleges and universities stay in the routine work and passive reception, tired of dealing with the level of a little to establish a comprehensive and effective international school system. Foreign exchanges are still guided by administrative orders and lack overall strategy and independent research capacity. At the same time, there is also a lack of cooperation and communication among the foreign exchange departments of universities. In terms of funds, universities and colleges are short of funds due to the vigorous expansion of enrollment, leaders have not paid enough attention to foreign exchanges, foreign affairs funds are from a single source, and government funds for education are low. In terms of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools and scientific research, a large amount of funds is needed as the necessary support. So, there is a big question about the investment of money. In China’s foreign education cooperation, non-diploma education is the main focus. There are obviously few or even no institutions of higher education with a diploma, and the educational influence and attraction are extremely limited. For example, for Xinjiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and other institutions of higher learning, there are also many deficiencies and difficulties in foreign exchanges and cooperation. The “One Belt and One Road” strategy is China’s national development strategy of “going out” facing the world, which puts forward unprecedented new requirements and new tasks for China’s education. When it comes to education, we also need to adopt this “going global” strategy. Compared with other countries, China has not paid enough attention to the overseas education of colleges and universities, the relevant policies are lagging behind, and colleges and universities also lack the awareness of taking the initiative to go out. At present, one of the characteristics of overseas education of Chinese institutions of higher learning is to set up Confucius Institutes, which are relatively simple in running schools. Because Confucius Institutes do not belong to the higher education with formal qualifications, their functions are obviously different from those of overseas branches of institutions of higher learning with formal qualifications. Therefore, the level, scale, and influence of overseas education of Chinese universities still need to be improved. Xinjiang has full geographical advantages with Central Asian countries, but at present China has not set up a higher education institution here, on the contrary, many countries have established overseas higher education institutions in Central Asia. In some regions, there is a lack of characteristic majors for overseas students, which is not attractive enough for students from neighboring countries to study in China. For example, overseas students from Xinjiang are mostly subsidized by government scholarships, with fewer self-funded students. From the perspective of Xinjiang University and Xinjiang Normal University, students from Central Asian countries study here mainly for short-term language exchange, and only a limited number of students receive academic education. Colleges and universities in Fujian, Guangdong compared strength is strong but compared to the European and American institutions of higher learning to open a lot of feature specialty, to open the relevant degree programs in Chinese universities, was more in the field of language and literature and medicine, the international talent training type is unitary, far cannot satisfy the strategy of “area” under various talents for the economic development of
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China and Southeast Asia countries(Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li et al., 2017; Liu, 2018; Song & Liu, 2019; Sun & Li, 2020; Xu et al., 2020). There is a lack of cooperation mechanism in the research of “One Belt and One Road” among institutions of higher learning and among institutions of higher learning. For some regions, the think tank and research base of the research, the international cooperation mechanism is relatively weak, personnel constitutes single research more confined to the platform, the lack of school and the school, cooperation between school and enterprise, and less in countries along the think-tank and expert of exchanges and cooperation, limiting the function and effect of a think-tank. In some regions, the research on countries in Central Asia and Southeast Asia is scattered and fragmented. Lack of systematic planning based on “One Belt, One Road” strategic thinking. For example, the current country studies of colleges and universities in Fujian and Guangdong are mainly focused on Singapore and India, while for other Southeast Asian countries, there is still a lack of research on the education system and education policies. Communication channels need to be expanded. How to effectively improve the way of foreign exchange, really from the strategic and overall height of reasonable planning, orderly development, and constantly broaden the channel of foreign exchange, is another problem to be solved in the current foreign work of colleges and universities. Most collaboration between universities and outside institutions is limited to narrow technical issues, rather than collaboration in a broader field. Problems in the International Exchanges and Cooperation of Universities in Western China. 1. International cooperation and exchange started late and had a weak foundation. Compared with the developed areas in the eastern coastal areas, the international cooperation and exchange of universities in western China started late and has a short development history, so the foundation is relatively weak. Take China West Normal University as an example. The Foreign Affairs Office, a department specializing in international exchanges and cooperation, was founded only around 2009. It was renamed the International Cooperation and Exchange Office in 2016, which is only about 10 years old. In terms of international student enrollment, the first batch of undergraduate students began to be enrolled in 2015, and the corresponding hardware and software facilities and bilingual teachers of the school need to be further improved. 2. International cooperation and exchange work require high requirements and personnel are in short supply. To a certain extent, the foreign affairs work of colleges and universities is also an extension of the national diplomatic work, and it is a work with strong political and policy nature. Foreign affairs personnel must have firm political faith and a high degree of political responsibility, and resolutely safeguard the interests of the country and the collective. As a Chinese saying goes, “There is no trivial matter in foreign affairs”, the foreign affairs work of colleges and universities is heavy in task and responsibility. Any small problem in foreign affairs may become an international problem, which is not conducive to the image and
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interests of a country in the world. Therefore, to engage in international cooperation and exchange in colleges and universities, one should not only have excellent foreign language ability but also have high political literacy and foreign affairs business ability. Many teachers with foreign language skills do not understand foreign policy and procedures. The shortage of foreign affairs talents is a major problem faced by universities in western China. 3. Lack of understanding of international cooperation and exchange, and failure of various departments of the university to form joint efforts. All departments, departments, and teachers and students of the university have insufficient understanding of international cooperation and exchange, and have little understanding of foreign affairs policies and procedures. Teachers and students have a low degree of participation and cooperation in international cooperation and exchange. In Xinhua Normal University as an example, the application for international cooperation and exchanges in 2018 school study abroad fund committee “outstanding undergraduate international exchange programs, approved number 10, although the school international cooperation and exchanges in through the website propaganda, field to preach, directly with the joint efforts of the related secondary college docking way but actually sign up and participate in only one project number. Without the full cooperation and support of all departments, teachers, and students, it is difficult to carry out and promote international cooperation and exchanges. There are many reasons for this situation, but in the final analysis, the relevant departments and personnel do not have enough understanding of international and exchange work, so the enthusiasm is not high. 4. Low level of international exchange and cooperation. The international exchange and cooperation of universities in western China started late, the cooperation level is low, and both breadth and depth need to be further improved. Take China West Normal University as an example, most intercollegiate exchanges and cooperation with foreign universities only stay at the level of agreement signing, without carrying out specific cooperation; Even those that have carried out specific cooperation are only just scratching the surface, mostly at the level of mutual visits between teachers and students, and the number of students is limited every year. Large-scale or deep-level international exchanges and cooperation (such as scientific research cooperation, cooperative education, etc.) are rarely seen, and innovative international exchange and cooperation projects are even rarer. 5. Teachers’ foreign language ability and bilingual teaching ability are weak. With the development of internationalization, teachers’ awareness of internationalization is also increasing. More and more teachers apply for government-sponsored programs, but some of them have been admitted, but their admission qualification is canceled due to their substandard foreign language level. In terms of international student enrollment, due to the shortage of bilingual teachers, international student enrollment and training are severely limited.
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5.4 Countermeasures for the Foreign Exchange and Cooperation of China’s Higher Education 1. Complementary Advantages, Exchange, and Develop Characteristics In the aspect of enhancing our country’s overseas education efforts, we can improve it according to our country’s characteristic industries and strengthen the construction of disciplines. Outside the school it also requires that the domestic colleges and universities for students study communication through channels, and actively carry out all the way “area” national qualification, mutual recognition of credits, cooperative development teaching education resources, and all the way “area” bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreement state universities, build “3 + 1”, “2 + 2” joint training mode, such as encouraging students to swap, short-term exchange, set up overseas research centers, further improve the students’ international competitiveness and to better serve economic construction “area”. On the other hand, to jointly build “One Belt and One Road”, Chinese universities e encouraged One Belt and One Roundrect with “BBB1” national universities with similar disciplines, establish “sister universities” and “friendship universities” in an orderly manner, hold intercollegiate conferences and academic forums on a regular basis, so as to complement each other’s advantage of One Belt and One Road, help each other and boost “BBB2” higher education. Clear positioning, innovative construction, development advantages. Discipline construction is the basis and foundation of promoting the international development level of higher education. In the eyes of most overseas students, a good subject that can bring good education is the main purpose of their study abroad. In order to improve the number and quality of overseas students in China, it is also of great help to improve the overseas study construction of China. Therefore, it is essential to strengthening the discipline construction. In the process of strengthening the discipline construction, the government departments need to give necessary policy inclination and a lot of financial support for the discipline construction of colleges and universities, so as to ensure the adequacy of funds. At the same time, colleges and universities need to define their own positioning, constantly strengthen their own superior disciplines, and vigorously support and cultivate influential key disciplines. At the same time, efforts should be made to train a group of outstanding academic talents and strengthen the cultivation and protection of academic leaders in various fields. In addition, the Ministry of Education’s “Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Science and Technology Evaluation in Colleges and Universities” will be implemented. Colleges and universities will be introduced into classified evaluation, open evaluation, and long-term evaluation mechanisms to vigorously enhance their innovation ability and realize innovation-driven development (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li et al., 2017; Liu, 2018; Song & Liu, 2019). Update the idea, improve the environment, hire talented people. A large number of brains drain, overseas to our country’s modernization has caused a great loss. In order to solve the problem that a large number of talented people go abroad, we should try our best to create a good living environment for them. First, the
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whole society should establish the concept of respecting knowledge, talents, and creativity. Employers should also form the awareness of yearning for, cherishing, using, promoting, and retaining talents, instead of simply taking talents as a tool for their own interests, they should try their best to meet the value, emotion, life, self-esteem, and other needs of overseas students. At the same time, it is necessary to get rid of all kinds of malpractices in the current employment system, such as nepotism, power and money trading, people overdoing things, and other ugly phenomena. Second, we should vigorously develop the domestic economy, science, and technology, strengthen government policy guidance, attach importance to the establishment of the entrepreneurial system, and create more opportunities, a more comfortable environment, and a wider stage for overseas talents. Only if we can put forward a good living environment and relevant policies, can we make more and more talents flow to our country and make all walks of life in our country develop rapidly. Strengthen exchanges, deepen cooperation, and seek win–win results. In view of the phenomenon of regional imbalance, China should strengthen the cooperation of higher education with each region of “One Belt and One Road” and establish a more active and long-term effective way to promote it according to the characteristics of each region. First, in terms of the scope of cooperation, we should continue to attach importance to deepening exchanges and cooperation in education between China and ASEAN and promote high-level multilateral and bilateral exchanges in education in all fields. We will enhance cooperation and exchange in higher education with Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, and other countries, shifting from emphasis on a student exchange to emphasis on teacher exchange, curriculum research cooperation, and overseas education. Second, in terms of cooperation direction, we should attach equal importance to “bringing in” and “going global”, and gradually shift from “bringing in” to “going global". We will actively adjust the development strategies of national and local universities in the internationalization of higher education, strive to increase the output of “One Belt and One Road” education, provide support for enterprises and trade exchanges, and promote the implementation of overseas exchange programs for Chinese students, Confucius Institutes, and educational institutions. Three is at the national level, active docking “in” the national education policy, to build communication platform, promote the local government and the local colleges and universities is committed to “friendly provinces and cities” and “school alliance”, and “in” the national education policy of “one size fits all”, try to seek common ground while putting aside differences, develop diversified cooperation mode. Fourth, establish and improve the exchange and cooperation platform and mechanism, gradually transform from the loose state-to-state cooperation platform to the systematic regional platform, integrate the cooperation platform mechanisms such as university presidents’ forums and university alliances within each region, establish an overall three-dimensional system, and promote the integration of regional higher education. Advance together by national and local as well as the “neighborhood” policy, make Chinese students go study foreign knowledge, let students feel the charm of the Chinese in China, the two together, finally to
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the further development of internationalization of education, and make students feel comfortable in China, in order to attract more foreign students to study in China. Countermeasures for Foreign Exchange and Cooperation of Regular Institutions of Higher Learning. In April 2016, the general office of the central committee of the communist party of China, issued by The General Office of the State Council “about to do a good job of education in the new period opening to the outside of the several opinions and views on emphasis insist on open still wider to the outside world, and stronger Chinese education, promoting cultural exchanges and continuously improving the quality of education in our country, the national soft power and international influence, in order to realize two one hundred goals and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation the Chinese dream to provide strong support”. This has an important guiding significance to the education opening to the outside world. Ordinary institutions of higher learning are an important part of the work of education opening to the outside world. In this context, higher education is facing good development opportunities. Strengthening the international exchange and cooperation of colleges and universities and promoting the internationalization of higher education has become the inevitable trend of the development of higher education in China. In view of the problems of ordinary colleges and universities, the following countermeasures are proposed: 1. Renew previous educational concepts and establish international educational concepts. First of all, colleges and universities should enhance their awareness of international education, observe international education and analyze the system of international colleges and universities from an international perspective. Only by broadening one’s vision and opening one’s mind can the international exchange and cooperation of universities be promoted to a new height. Secondly, open educational resources to attract overseas students from various countries and fields to exchange and study, driving economic benefits and promoting the comprehensive development of our school’s international education. Finally, we will integrate the concept of international education into our daily teaching activities, broaden our students’ international horizons, cultivate students’ innovative thinking, and lay a foundation for cultivating outstanding international talents. This is the premise of accelerating the internationalization of higher education. 2. Expand the teaching staff, optimize the teaching staff, improve the level of teachers. The international faculty includes foreign affairs administrators and international educators. Foreign affairs management personnel’s foreign affairs ability has a direct impact on the exchange and cooperation between our university and international universities. Our school should increase the allocation of foreign affairs management personnel. On the one hand, we should conduct management and professional training for the existing team management personnel; on the other hand, we should hire foreign talents to improve the overall level of the management team, build an international management team, and improve the quality and quantity of the international education teachers in our school. In addition, we focus on cultivating excellent bilingual international educators of various majors and setting up English learning groups to improve our foreign language proficiency through mutual
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learning. The key members of the teaching team will be given the opportunity to go abroad for training and study, so as to comprehensively improve the teaching level: the management staff will learn the efficient and advanced management concepts and methods of foreign countries, while the educators will mainly improve their foreign language ability and learn the advanced education concepts and methods. 3. Improve hardware facilities and provide sufficient funds. Infrastructure refers to the material engineering facilities that provide public services for social production and residents’ life. It is a public service system used to ensure the normal conduct of social and economic activities in a country or region. It is the general material condition that society relies on to survive and develop. If international exchange and cooperation want to make great progress and improve China’s soft power, it is required that the current colleges and universities should pay more attention to foreign exchange, improve infrastructure, and set up standardized international exchange offices and centers. At the same time, international exchanges and cooperation need a certain amount of financial support. The research shows that some university student organizations have a strong desire for such foreign exchanges, but they are troubled by a lack of funds, so that the international exchanges and cooperation of colleges and universities cannot develop as expected. Therefore, institutions of higher learning should broaden the channels of funding sources and seek support from local governments or superior departments. At the same time, a professional body was set up to deal with international exchanges and cooperation as well as various issues concerning international students. 4. Expand cooperation areas and improve the bilingual level. Considering that the majority of electronic and information majors exchange and cooperation projects, while the degree of international education in economic management and humanities majors is low, colleges and universities should broaden the cooperation fields and strive to carry out exchanges and cooperation with overseas schools with high level in economic management and humanities majors. At the same time, on the basis of the existing reform course, increasing the number of bilingual education in time, the internationalization of the teaching material with the introduction of economic management and humanities class professional course, economic management, humanities, such as the institute of professional students as soon as possible and accurately contact international on the latest research results, at the same time to improve foreign language level and the level of foreign exchange. 5. Schools and countries learn from each other and help each other to improve their academic skills. The study exchange among international universities can improve the academic ability of our university in all disciplines and deepen the exchange and cooperation among universities. Retain existing excellent international education mechanism, actively integrating the introduction of international quality education resources, learning from outside the school system, it will be combined with the actual situation in our school “introducing”, simplify the process, improve work efficiency, develop a set of effective international exchanges and cooperation in education management system, including talent introduction and communication mechanism, evaluation reward mechanism, the foreign student education related
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mechanism, etc. Talent introduction and exchange mechanism can accelerate the introduction and absorption of international talents in our university. The evaluation and reward mechanism requires an open and fair evaluation system for international talents, and awards are given to individuals or teams with outstanding assessment results to stimulate their enthusiasm to continue to promote the international education of our school. The education mechanism related to international students mainly optimizes the training and enrollment mechanism of international students on the existing basis, optimizes the structure of international students, improves the teaching facilities for international students, applies to the government for international student scholarship, encourages foreign students to study in China, and gives full play to the international influence of international students. The more distinctive things are, the more attractive they are, and the more competitive they are, the more distinctive they are. The school-running characteristics refer to the unique school-running style, unique school-running philosophy, and the characteristics in personnel training, teaching research, campus culture, and other aspects that the school has shown in the long-term school-running process. Therefore, if colleges and universities want to take the initiative in international exchanges and cooperation, they must give full play to their characteristics and advantages, better promote the excellent culture of the motherland to go out, promote the in-depth integration of 56 ethnic groups and international culture, and achieve “national culture confidence” in the integration (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li & Eryong, 2020; Li et al., 2017; Liu, 2018; Song & Liu, 2019; Sun & Li, 2020; Xu et al., 2020).
References Bao, D., Zeng, X., & Zhang. (2016). Research report on foreign educational exchange and cooperation in the core area of “One Belt and One Road” construction. Comparative Education Research, 38(12), 8–15. Li, X. (2019). Analysis on the foreign exchange of higher education in China since the “One Belt and One Road” initiative. Educational Observation, 28(10), 25–29. Li, J., & Eryong, X. (2020). Unveiling the ‘logic’ of modern university in China: Historical, social and value perspectives. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(9), 986–998. Li, J., Liu, J., & Zhang, N. (2017). New development of China’s education opening to the outside world under the background of “One Belt and One Road” construction. Research on Higher Education in China, 207(8), 45–49. Liu, Q. (2018). Challenges and countermeasures of foreign exchange and cooperation of western universities under the “One Belt and One Road” initiative. Chongqing Higher Education Research, 26(1), 12–19. Song, J., & Liu, B. (2019). Promoting “One Belt and One Road” education opening. Educational Research, 40(12), 131–134. Sun, Y., & Li, P. (2020). Research on Sino-foreign cooperative school-running in higher vocational education under the background of “One Belt and One Road” . Jiangsu Higher Vocational Education, 20(02), 87–91. Xu, X., Kan, Y., & Feng, J. (2020). Facing 2035: The strategic conception of China’s education opening to the outside world. China Higher Education Research, 20(02), 49–55.
Chapter 6
Conclusion on Internationalization of Higher Education in China
This chapter offers the conclusions on internationalization of higher education in China. Internationalization of higher education has become an inevitable trend of the development of higher education in today’s world. It also puts forward the countermeasures to solve the problems and hopes to make the internationalization of China’s higher education healthy and sustainable development, so as to form the higher education system with Chinese national characteristics. We mainly from the background of higher education internationalization, study abroad, study in China, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools, foreign exchanges, and cooperation in five aspects of the challenges and countermeasures to do some summary. Higher education is a kind of specialized education formed on the basis of general education. Higher education is the professional education and vocational education carried out on the basis of the completion of secondary education. It is the main social activity of training senior specialized personnel and practitioners. There are many kinds of higher education in our country, including higher specialty education, undergraduate education, college education, graduate school education, etc. With the development of science and technology, the study object of education has the ordinary primary and secondary schools to save the students of higher education. Higher education has a complex teaching system and diversified teaching forms. Therefore, teaching in the traditional sense has been unable to meet the development requirements of higher education. Therefore, we are working hard to reform and develop, seeking new development ideas, so that the development of higher education can achieve our expected results.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 J. Li, “Four Branches” of Internationalization of Higher Education in China, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4205-0_6
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6.1 Political Background In the current trend of globalization, universities need to firmly establish the concept of international education, constantly improve the legal system of international education, update the course content and management system, and optimize the practice mode of international education. In international exchanges and cooperation, while advanced countries adopted the policy of actively promote, such as to provide a lot of financial support, and improve the information service, but also the full play of government function is provided for the internationalization of higher education institutional, regulatory environment of fair competition, rather than direct intervention and participate in specific activities of international education in colleges and universities. Colleges and universities should give full play to their subjective initiative in the aspects of international cooperation in running schools, cooperative scientific research, internationalization of courses, and international mobility of students and scholars, so as to create their own characteristics and strengthen their own strength in international running schools, so as to absorb students and talents from all over the world. Innovation is the source of power to promote social progress and economic development, and universities play a leading role in the national innovation strategy. It is not hard to understand why various countries have introduced relevant education promotion policies to promote the development of their own science, technology, and economy. At present, the worldwide competition in comprehensive national strength is, in the final analysis, the competition of innovative talents. Only by training, attracting, pooling, and making good use of talents, especially international innovative talents, can a country grasp the strategic initiative in the fierce international competition and seize the first resource to achieve development goals.
6.2 Economic Background Since this year, there have been extensive and in-depth discussions in China’s higher education circles around the “opening up of education” and “One Belt and One Road” initiatives put forward by the central government. Central proposed to deepen opening “education” in the new period and provide education in major initiatives to build “area”; it is the world’s major strategic move under the trend of multipolarization and globalization, education should adapt to the cultural diversity and cultural communication of the important choice, which reveals the education for the construction of a “community of human civilization” unremitting pursuit. Under the background of economic globalization, in order to enhance international competitiveness, the cultivation of international talents has become the primary task of governments and institutions of higher learning, and the cultivation of talents that meet the needs of economic and social development has become an important symbol to highlight the quality of higher education. Only by setting up the concept of international education, can a university perform its functions well in personnel training,
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scientific research, social service, cultural inheritance and innovation, and adapt to the new situation of rapid economic and social development (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li and Eryong, 2020a, b; Liu, 2018; Cheng & Liu, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020).
6.3 Cultural Background The internationalization of China’s higher education is a kind of great education in the new era, which has the historical responsibility of revitalizing the Chinese nation and the characteristics of adapting to the social development in the new century. It is a people-centered, development-oriented, and innovation-oriented education with distinctive Chinese characteristics that goes to the world. People around the world are redefining their identities in cultural terms. In order to arouse people’s attention to cultural factors, higher education is a special education practice to cultivate senior talents, which is closely linked with the generation, development, and inheritance of culture. Although the academic community has not reached a final conclusion on the concept of internationalization of higher education, there is no disagreement on the main components of internationalization of higher education. These elements include a transnational flow of students; Curriculum internationalization; Participate in international research projects and provide international educational assistance; Cooperate with universities in other countries to jointly offer degrees, double degrees, and establish overseas branch schools. Establishes rules and systems that can facilitate communication, exchange between scholars of different nationalities, nationalities, and cultures, and treats individuals and organizations from other countries with different cultural backgrounds as if they were native people. “Openness”, “communication”, and “universality” have become three characteristics of higher education internationalization. In particular, universities should be committed to the pursuit of excellence and diversified development, select specific fields with development potential from an international perspective, establish direct and close cooperative relations, jointly carry out the exploration and practice of talent cultivation and scientific research, and comprehensively enhance the knowledge innovation and international competitiveness of universities. It is necessary to strengthen university system innovation, effectively gather innovation elements and resources, actively build new models and mechanisms of collaborative innovation, promote the sharing and integration of high-quality resources, promote the output of major and landmark achievements, and enhance the innovation ability of the trinity of university talents, disciplines, and research. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen international scientific research cooperation in basic disciplines, arrange cross-disciplinary international exchanges, comprehensively build transnational, cross-university, and cross-boundary joint laboratories, and implement degree programs and exchange programs with flexible academic system and rich curriculum offerings (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li and Eryong, 2020a, b; Liu, 2018). Every country has its own history and unique cultural color. As a nation with a long history, China’s culture is more colorful. If we want to integrate into the big family of world culture, we
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must actively promote the internationalization of China’s higher education, and at the same time, we must give full play to the inheritance of higher education culture.
6.4 Social Background The internationalization of higher education in China starts late and develops slowly. Foreign higher education programs have a long history of development. The internationalization of China’s higher education originated in the second half of the nineteenth century. The invasion of Western powers led to China becoming a semicolonial and semi-feudal society. Under the influence of the trend of “Western learning spreading to the East”, the Westernization School advocated learning advanced science and technology from the West and establishing Western-style schools. In 1861, the Capital Ton Gwen Hall was established to focus on Western learning. It was the first time that China had changed the system of selecting officials for the imperial examinations, which meant that it had taken the first step to learn from the West. The 1911 Revolution established the Republic of China. In order to meet the needs of the development of the emerging bourgeoisie, you have learned from the educational achievements of Western countries and applied them into practice in accordance with China’s national conditions. This is their exploration and development in accordance with China’s national conditions. It has laid a good foundation for the internationalization of China’s higher education. After the reform and opening up, the state put emphasis on the construction and development of colleges and universities. The reform of the economic system has led to the renewal of the education system and expanded the autonomy of running colleges and universities. Therefore, college districts have the enthusiasm to develop and progress in the market economy. It is the key to the reform of the higher education system and the intercollegiate exchange activities between universities and the international academia are increasing day by day. It is an important force to promote the internationalization of higher education in China (Li and Eryong, 2020a, b; Cheng & Liu, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Liu, 2018). In the current trend of globalization development, science, and technology progress with each passing day, the competition of comprehensive national strength is more and more fierce. In recent years, the relations between countries are getting closer and closer, and the world political environment is relatively stable. Under the background of the internationalization of the theme of peace and development, the communication between countries is getting deeper and deeper, which accelerates the internationalization of higher education. The knowledge of contemporary world politics and educational themes provides a favorable environment for the internationalization of education. The world is facing many common problems, such as the environment, population, energy, and so on. The challenges facing education are also becoming more international. At the same time, advanced science and technology provides technical support for the internationalization of education. It provides a wider range of educational opportunities for people. Distance in time and space is no
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longer the main obstacle. Modern science and technology have greatly increased the mutual influence of education in different countries and provided a broad technology platform for the internationalization of education. Second, in the face of the increasing openness, diversification, and internationalization of higher education, more and more people are not satisfied with the guidance of the traditional domestic education mode. A large number of people, mainly high school students, and college students, have chosen to study abroad to improve themselves. The leading teaching quality, open teaching environment, and diverse ethnic cultures of foreign countries are all factors that students choose to study abroad. Among them, the appreciation of RMB is also an incentive that has to be mentioned (Jin & Zhou, 2020). In order to make the selection and dispatch of state-sponsored overseas study more targeted and further improve the benefits of overseas study, the China Scholarship Council (CSC) has identified key funding areas for overseas study with priority support. These key funding areas include communication and information technology, agricultural high and new technology, life science and population health, materials science and new materials, energy and environment, engineering science: applied social sciences related to the WTO-related disciplines, involving more than 130 majors. From the perspective of the funded majors, at present, it mainly funds the national key disciplines and the disciplines and majors urgently needed for the construction and development of majors, with science, agriculture, medicine, and engineering as the main fields, as well as humanities and social sciences. The former amounts to 85% commonly, the latter accounts for 15%, among them the engineering course with a stronger application is in 40% or so commonly, agronomy kind achieves 20%. In 2002, for example, the proportion of subjects funded by China Scholarship Fund was: natural science, engineering technology, medicine, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and other subjects accounted for 70%; Humanities and social sciences 15%, economics and management sciences 10%; Non-common language and other special majors 5%. The application and admission of the National Scholarship Fund (CSF) show that the recipients are mainly in universities and research institutions, while the government, industry, and other departments have few employees. This heavy light of science and the humanities study abroad funding policy, to a large extent, satisfies the demand for talents of science and technology in China’s economic and social development, however, with the deepening of China’s reform and opening up and the socialist market economic system gradually established, especially after joining the WTO, economic personnel, management personnel, the shortage of legal talent is relatively more prominent (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li and Eryong, 2020a, b; Liu, 2018). The adaptability of overseas students’ education is poor due to “not acclimating to the environment". The adaptability of overseas students’ education is mainly manifested in two aspects: one is academic adaptation. At home, universities or departments make teaching plans for students and keep things in order when it comes to learning. However, in foreign countries, students must plan their studies independently, choose courses independently, buy or borrow textbooks and reference books independently according to the requirements of the syllabus, and even negotiate with
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teachers to complete some assignments according to the situation. This difference from the new learning environment in China often makes it difficult for international students to adapt. Second, life and psychological adaptation. The climate, environment, and living customs in foreign countries are very different from those in China. The first step for students to go abroad is to adapt to life and psychology. Moreover, cultural conflicts in different cultural backgrounds have a greater impact on international students. Confronted with cultural conflicts, foreign students will face confrontation in behavior and value, and resist the new culture, which will lead to negative emotions of doubt and anxiety for foreign students, which will directly affect their life and study in foreign countries (Li and Eryong, 2020a, b; Cheng & Liu, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Liu, 2018). Foreign language ability plays an important role in the education of overseas students. Although most of the overseas students in China have attended foreign language training and foreign language tests before going abroad, this is only the first step of language preparation. As is known to all, Chinese students can easily pass all kinds of language tests due to their strong test-taking ability, but the actual language application ability of students cannot be reflected from whether they pass the language tests. Foreign students who study in a non-English speaking country should invest more time and effort in improving their language skills before studying abroad, according to research that suggests TOEFL scores are not a good predictor of future academic success.
6.5 Countermeasures to Solve the Problems Existing in the Education Management of Overseas Students Educational administrative departments should strengthen supervision, closely combine the spirit of relevant policies and documents, and establish strict and precise legal and regulation consultation to solve practical difficulties for students. To promote the reform and innovation of the management system and mechanism of education in foreign affairs, constantly build and improve the quality monitoring and evaluation system of foreign-related education, regularly release foreign-related education quality reports, provide relevant information and early warning information, guide overseas students to choose foreign schools correctly, and reduce or avoid the risks of overseas education. Foreign colleges and universities should broaden their specialties and optimize the discipline structure. In order to attract more overseas students and promote the internationalization of higher education in various countries, foreign colleges and universities must establish a scientific and reasonable curriculum system and teaching contents that are in line with international standards. Talent training is implemented in the teaching process, and the teaching quality is directly reflected in the curriculum structure and teaching. At present, although many colleges and universities have carried on the reform and adjustment in the specialty setting and course content,
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there are still many problems. For example, there are more courses that emphasize theory but fail to solve specific problems; Lessons that are out of touch with reality. With the implementation of “The Belt and Road” and the national strategy of “Going Out” of Chinese culture, the strategic significance of vigorously developing education for overseas students in China has become increasingly prominent. Studying in China is a basic requirement for Chinese universities to build themselves into world-class universities. It is also an important bridge to promote international exchanges and cooperation and a source of international talent reserve. In recent years, China’s education in China has developed rapidly. However, with the rapid development of education in China, there are also many challenges. The competition for international students in the world is becoming increasingly fierce, which leads to great competition and challenge for the education of overseas students in China. Due to the promotion of the education work of studying abroad in China, the problems hidden behind the scale are gradually highlighted. For example, Chen Liping et al. believe that the education of overseas students in China has the overall characteristics of “diversity and imbalance". According to Cheng Jiafu, there is an obvious imbalance in the country structure, major structure, and education category structure of international students. Jiang Kai pointed out that with the development of overseas education in China, problems such as low level, uneven distribution of majors and source countries, and lack of general attention on the strategic position of overseas education in China will become bottleneck problems. In the future, international student education will face two major trends: increasing demand and intensifying competition. This not only brings important opportunities but also poses important challenges to the education of overseas students in China. In the past few decades, with the acceleration of globalization, the scale and growth rate of international students have reached an unprecedented level, and the growth rate of the scale of international students has far exceeded the expansion rate of higher education in the world. According to the data on global student mobility released by the Institute of International Education in the United States, there are two major trends in global student mobility: first, the scale of global student mobility is increasing; second is that international students are more concentrated. In 2017, 8 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, took in 78% of the world’s overseas students. China has now overtaken Germany to become the world’s third-largest recipient of foreign students and the largest destination country for overseas students in Asia. In terms of the origin of foreign students, they are concentrated in a few neighboring countries. In 2008, students from 189 countries and regions came to China, but only 39 countries had more than 500 students. These 39 countries accounted for 92% of the total. Eight of the top 10 countries with the most foreign students in China are Asian. South Korea, India, and Vietnam accounted for the largest share, accounting for 32.1%, 9.4%, and 8.8%, respectively. In 2015, a total of 203 foreign students came from all over the world, but Asian countries still made up the majority of international students, accounting for 60.4% of the total, an increase of 14.64% over the previous year. Seven of the top 10 source countries are Asian.
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The proportion of high-level graduate students in the same level of students in China is the lowest among the eight destination countries. To some extent, it shows that the endogenous impetus for the development of postgraduate education in China needs to be strengthened. The quality assurance system of graduate education in China also needs to be improved. Its enrollment mechanism, training process management mechanism, internship and graduation assessment supervision mechanism, and tracking and feedback mechanism of international graduates and alumni are all imperfect and need to be improved. At present, under the guidance of national macro policy laws and regulations, the national implementation of the construction of the government, universities, institutions of society “the trinity” of the tube to do a review of the separation of the students quality guarantee system construction has been showing results, however, there exist many problems currently, such as study abroad policy exists in China’s policy lag absence, form a complete set of policy and policy implementation, and to study in the graduate education quality of endogenous underpowered, subject to the development of superiority characteristic is not obvious, Chau don’t unbalanced regional structure, the quality guarantee system is not sound, etc., in view of the existing problems, and in the policy for this country. From the perspective of the discipline distribution of international students, the major distribution of international students is still very unbalanced. According to statistics, from 2002 to 2008, international students are mainly studying liberal arts majors, among which language and art majors are the main ones, accounting for about 72% of all international students, followed by medical (traditional Chinese medicine) majors accounting for about 12%, and other majors such as economics, engineering, management, law, etc., accounting for 14%. After nearly a decade of structural adjustment, the major structure of international students studying in China shows a trend of equilibrium. According to the data of 2018 overseas study in China from the Ministry of Education, the number of international students studying liberal arts majors still ranks first, accounting for 48.45% of the total number. The number of students studying engineering, management, science, art, and agriculture increased by more than 20%. In contrast, in the United States in 2016 overseas students attending professional first is STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), accounted for 23.9%, and enrollment in 2016 than in 2015 rose 9.1%, ranking second in the proportion of 20.1% for economic management disciplines, followed by social science class, accounted for 17.3%, relative to character, professional foreign students study for a graduate degree in a more balanced, with 2013 foreign students professional distribution of the students, foreign students to study engineering, management, science, literature is given priority to the above four subject areas account for 60% (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li and Eryong, 2020a, b; Liu, 2018; Cheng & Liu, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020). China develops friendly relations with many countries in recent years, the Chinese government adopted the policy of the scholarship is an important way to attract foreign students, especially in the “area” initiative is raised, China promises to increase to the students from the countries along the “area” scholarships, countries along the attracted a large number of foreign students in China. However, in recent years, the education budget of studying abroad in China has been increasing
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year by year, attracting the number of international students, but the cost of investment in China is very small. This method of exchanging capital for talents in our country has aroused a lot of public doubts, and many of the public doubt whether the large investment will bring returns. How to strengthen the publicity of overseas study education in China, attract overseas students with educational strength, attract high-quality overseas students, and attract more self-funded overseas students are the problems we are now facing. Graduate students studying in China do not agree with Chinese teaching methods and examination methods. Due to the differences of Chinese and foreign education concepts, a lot of students are coming to China to study in the graduate student of Chinese classroom teaching content and evaluation approach with enough recognition, accustomed to their own national student-centered teaching method, interactive classroom teaching mode, critical and innovative oriented evaluation mode, etc., and difficult to adapt to the Chinese teachers’ teaching and teaching evaluation method. We have taken many measures to solve the challenges faced by studying in China. To improve the scale and educational level of overseas students in first-class universities and raise the threshold of overseas education, this policy is put forward in response to the imbalance of international structure and professional structure of overseas students in China. Increasing the scale and educational level of overseas students is conducive to promoting the development of overseas study in China and the internationalization of higher education in the world. Strengthen investment and guarantee of education for students studying in China and improve the quality of education for students studying in China. The problems we are facing now are to pay more attention to overseas education in China, to attract foreign students with educational strength, to attract high-quality foreign students, and to attract more self-funded foreign students. To build world-famous universities and enhance the international recognition of higher education in China, colleges and universities are playing an increasingly key role in promoting overseas education in China. Based on the construction of “Double First-Class”, we should further transform the management mechanism, mobilize the enthusiasm of colleges and universities, and give full play to the influence of “First-Class University” and “First-Class Discipline”. Build characteristic disciplines to enhance the attraction of Chinese excellent culture. The study of characteristic subjects is conducive to the spread of traditional Chinese culture and attract more scholars to China. The education of international students in China shoulders the responsibility and obligation of cultivating elite talents of “knowledge, friendship and love” and providing important human and intellectual support for the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Through the analysis of the current situation of the development of education for students studying abroad for nearly 10 years, we have found the students education is the general characteristics of “diversity and imbalance” coexist, foreign students in the national structure, content area class structure and the classified structure of education is a clear imbalance problem, with the development of the study in education in China, the level is low, and your major source country distribution imbalance, the students education strategic position has not yet been widely attention and so
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on, at the same time, for these problems, we also take the corresponding solutions. It is to innovate and develop the “trinity” mechanism of separation of administration, administration and evaluation of government, university and social institutions, so as to build China’s international education brand of “university quality, Chinese characteristics and world class". Improve the quality assurance mechanism of the whole process of “source of students, preparatory courses, training, internship and graduation—alumni development” for graduate education in China; Construction of graduate education quality culture to study abroad in China, enhance China’s soft power and discourse power and so on (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li and Eryong, 2020a, b; Liu, 2018; Cheng & Liu, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020). Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is a Sino-foreign after reform and opening up in the field of education in the new thing, has experienced nearly 20 years of development, with China’s opening to the outside world expands unceasingly, education reform is deepening, injecting vigor for Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, the scale of higher education institutions has been continuously enlarged and level enhances unceasingly, Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is conducive to the introduction of foreign high-quality education resources, draw lessons from foreign high-quality teaching and management experience, to speed up the pace of the development of Chinese education, cultivate various talents for the country needed, but also promoted the exchanges and cooperation between international education, increased the diversity and selectivity of Chinese education. As an open education mode, Chinese-foreign cooperative school running is bound to face various contradictions and difficulties. These challenges are mainly manifested in the following aspects: There is no domestic consensus on the nature and effect of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. China has always put education as a career to do, know that in 1999 the party’s 15 big after the third time, and the whole church put forward the concept of “education industry”, and on international education as industry management idea already, a view that is a kind of new form in the field of trade in services, in the world, our commitment to the WTO on the field of open education is the framework of trade in services, another view is that education is a kind of special industry has a strong ideology, not completely to the road of industrialization and marketization, therefore, on the operation, The former view regards the relationship between schools and students as that between manufacturers and customers, while the latter view regards the relationship between schools and students as that between parents and children. All these different ideas need to be treated completely and unified, so as to develop an idea suitable for the development of Sino-foreign cooperative education in running schools in China. The society’s expectations for Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools have not reached a consensus. Some students participate in the Sino-foreign cooperative education program to use it as a bridge to go abroad. The educational program is jointly run by the Chinese and foreign institutions, so as to achieve the goal of going abroad. Some students take the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools as a ladder for career promotion, which is called “gold-plated". Some are more flexible than others because of the threshold of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. Some are trying to get rid of the traditional exams through Chinese-foreign
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cooperative education programs or escape from some of the outdated courses in traditional teaching. The language use of students and teachers should be improved. Although many schools set up language training, such as English, in the first year of Chinese-foreign cooperative education programs, many colleges and universities have strict checks on students’ English proficiency and ability. However, it has to be admitted that Chinese students’ ability to accept the original English textbooks and professors is weak. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the publicity, popularize the policies and knowledge of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools, establish a good model of running schools and promote it, and positively support the healthy growth of this new thing. Do not worry about the cultural penetration of capitalism brought by economic globalization and the impact of our traditional culture and negative resistance, we should see that the internationalization of higher education is the inevitable of economic globalization, is an unstoppable world trend. We should take the initiative to meet it, adapt to it (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li and Eryong, 2020a). There is no denying that there are a lot of disorderly and low-level duplication in Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, so schools should establish communication channels, observe the situation in their own language, evaluate the situation, know themselves and the enemy, support and encourage the development of professional and characteristic cooperation in running schools by the strong. We should not only attach importance to the exchange and development at home, but also go to foreign countries to visit, investigate, actively learn, strengthen exchanges, exchange needed goods, so that we can avoid detours on the road of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools. The purpose of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is to cultivate talents who can adapt to economic globalization and information globalization, have international consciousness, international communication and international competition. Therefore, we cannot follow the traditional domestic target standard system, but have a unique curriculum name, curriculum setting and curriculum management. In the 1990s, the United States proposed a new and different approach to enable every student to reach a world-class level of knowledge, improve international exchanges, and enhance students’ “global awareness” and “international awareness.” In order to adapt to the development of internationalization of education, South Korea has put forward efforts to enhance students’ awareness of globalization, including foreign language ability, strengthening international exchanges, and strengthening international mutual understanding. The spirit of the Ministry of Education’s “Some Principles and Opinions on the Adjustment of the Structure of Undergraduate Disciplines and Specialties in Colleges and Universities” runs through the construction of specialty disciplines in Sinoforeign cooperation in running schools. To achieve the training goal of internationalization, we must have a scientific and reasonable curriculum system and teaching content in line with the world. Sino - foreign cooperation in running schools can combine different special characteristics according to different cooperative objects and construct unique teaching design and implementation content. In the curriculum system of higher education in our country and the education content, more emphasis
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on professional and systematic, heavy theory, light practice politics is strong, the characteristics of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is prominent on both sides of the comprehensive advantages, match well of Chinese and Western, cannot be used or copied unified teaching plan and course catalog of Ministry of Education, education departments can’t continue to use this framework to teaching design, for example, on the basic course increase the proportion of foreign language class, add the international common sense, and humanities courses, the introduction of foreign teaching material, adopt bilingual courses, introduction of partner in China and domestic experts and the classroom communication and so on (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li and Eryong, 2020a, b; Liu, 2018; Cheng & Liu, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020). Internationalization of higher education is an important trend of education development in the world today, which requires universities to strengthen foreign exchanges and cooperation in due time. In the new era of reform and opening up and since the implementation of “One Belt and One Road” initiative, higher education has been endowed with new connotations and missions. Foreign exchange and cooperation can improve the level of higher education in our country. To strengthen the foreign exchange and cooperation of colleges and universities under the new situation, we should establish a development strategy suitable for the internationalization of higher education. However, there are many problems in the foreign exchange and cooperation of higher education in China, and our country has put forward corresponding countermeasures. 1. The concept and awareness of international development are not strong enough. International development is a historical trend, but some local colleges and universities for the development of higher education internationalization consciousness is poorer, idea lag, don’t think of foreign exchange and cooperation need, don’t pay attention to, also so-so, when dealing with this aspect of things for granted, and for how to carry out foreign exchange and cooperation work of higher education are not familiar with, the lack of macro guidance, without a clear goal, the lack of certain system and the system. Students pay more attention to professional study and skill improvement, indulge in book knowledge, and pay less attention to the current trend of internationalization and the awareness of international communication. At the same time, the students are seriously lacking in innovation consciousness and emancipation of mind and are unwilling to take the initiative to participate in the process of internationalization. Innovation is the driving force for the continuous development of a country and a nation. Only by innovation can a country move forward better. At the same time, due to the late start of foreign exchange and cooperation in universities, the lack of attention, and other reasons, the construction of management teams has not kept pace. Many colleges and universities have only spoken about foreign exchanges and cooperation, but little is done in practice. Only when colleges and universities pay attention to this, the management of respected leaders and the external exchange and cooperation of the school can be carried out better. In a word, the foreign exchange and cooperation in higher education should start with the senior management and students of universities and colleges. Only by keeping this concept firmly in mind can we complete the work with high quality in this project.
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2. Cultural differences and lack of projects and funds. The culture of every country is different. For different cultures, we should “take the essence and discard the dross". Under the trend of foreign exchange and cooperation in higher education, China’s understanding and Master of Foreign cultural knowledge, languages, and customs have become a major problem. Due to their lack of a solid foundation of foreign language knowledge, lack of understanding of foreign culture and customs, and lack of systematic and professional training, teachers and students often encounter communication barriers when they communicate and interview abroad. They cannot understand the class and it is difficult for them to adapt to life. At present, the international communication service of some schools only stops at handling the application and approval procedures for them, and other things need to be solved by themselves, which is also a negative factor for foreign exchanges and cooperation. Although China’s economic strength has been advancing by leaps and bounds since the reform and opening up, in terms of funds for foreign exchanges and cooperation, the limited strength of schools and the general shortage of funds in local colleges and universities have resulted in insufficient funds and inadequate foreign construction, which has delayed the development of international cultural and academic exchanges. China is a country with a large population. Although its economic strength has been improved, not every school has the economic strength to carry out foreign exchanges and cooperation (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li and Eryong, 2020a, b; Liu, 2018; Cheng & Liu, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020). Different development levels among universities lead to great differences in the process of foreign exchange and cooperation among universities. Many teachers with outstanding professional achievements lack foreign language ability and bilingual teaching ability, and the level of foreign students in related majors is lower than that of domestic students, which cannot give full play to the professional ability of teachers. In recent years, a large number of overseas students’ study in China and the increasing awareness of domestic students to study abroad have put forward higher and higher requirements for universities and foreign affairs personnel. In the international cooperation and exchange of colleges and universities, it is necessary not only to have excellent foreign language ability but also to have high political accomplishment and professional ability of foreign affairs personnel. Many colleges and universities have teachers who can speak foreign languages but lack faculty members who understand foreign policy and procedures. The lack of publicity on international cooperation and exchange, the lack of cooperation and support from various departments, teachers, and students in colleges and universities have impeded the development and promotion of internationalization and foreign exchange in colleges and universities. The level of cooperation is mostly superficial, and the breadth and depth of exchanges need to be further improved. The problem of foreign exchange and cooperation of Chinese colleges and universities also includes the problem of the lack of legal and policy guarantees. The number of foreign students in China is on the rise. The unbalanced development of the structure not only affects the foreign cooperation and exchanges of Chinese universities but also causes certain obstacles to the process of China’s higher education and economic development.
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In the field of external exchanges, we need to strengthen our management and increase our financial input. In China’s foreign education cooperation, non-diploma education is the main education, diploma higher education institutions are obviously lacking, or even blank, educational influence and attraction are extremely limited. In some regions, there is a lack of specialty education for foreign students, which is not attractive enough for students from neighboring countries to study in China. There is a lack of cooperation mechanism in the research of “One Belt and One Road” among universities and institutions within universities. Channels of communication need to be broadened. Most collaboration between universities and outside institutions is limited to narrow technical issues, rather than collaboration in a broader field. The international cooperation and exchange work of universities in western China started late, and its development history is not long, so the foundation is weak. To engage in international cooperation and exchange in colleges and universities, one should not only have excellent foreign language ability but also have high political literacy and foreign affairs business ability. The shortage of foreign affairs talents is a major problem facing universities in western China. The international exchange and cooperation of universities in western China is at a low level and needs to be further improved in both breadth and depth. Most of the international exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign universities only stay at the level of agreement signing, without carrying out specific cooperation. Even if we carry out specific cooperation, there are few large-scale or in-depth international exchanges and cooperation, and the international exchange and cooperation projects with distinctive innovation are even more rare (Cheng & Liu, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020; Liu, 2018). For international cooperation and exchange, the school has not formed joint efforts, and the teaching ability of teachers is weak. All departments, teachers, and students of the university have insufficient understanding of international cooperation and exchange, and have little understanding of foreign policy and process. Teachers and students have low participation and cooperation degrees in international cooperation and exchange. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to carry out and promote international cooperation and exchanges. With the development of internationalization, teachers’ awareness of internationalization is also improving. However, the foreign language level in China is generally not high, and even some teachers fail to meet the requirements, which also poses a certain obstacle to the development of foreign exchange and cooperation in higher education. Moreover, students’ interest in learning foreign languages is not high, which is also a disadvantage. Although the foreign exchange and cooperation of higher education are faced with many problems, China actively summarizes and summarizes a series of countermeasures to solve these problems. Mainly from the “One Belt and One Road” initiative of China’s foreign exchange and cooperation in the existing problems; The problems existing in the foreign exchange and cooperation of ordinary colleges and universities; The problems existing in the international exchange and cooperation of universities in western China are put forward corresponding strategies. Development strategy of “One Belt and One Road” foreign exchange and cooperation. In view of the problems faced by the One Belt and One Road in foreign exchanges and cooperation, we should complement each other with advantages,
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exchange exchanges, and develop our own characteristics. Actively carry out all the way “area” national qualification, mutual recognition of credits, cooperative development teaching education resources, and the “area” countries signed a bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreement, create “3 + 1”, “2 + 2” joint training mode, such as encouraging students to swap, short-term exchange, set up overseas research centers, further improve the students’ international competitiveness and to better serve economic construction “area". We need to define our position, make innovations, and develop our strengths. Discipline construction is the basis and foundation of promoting the international development level of higher education. Only a good education discipline can improve the number and quality of international students. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the discipline construction. Efficient needs to clear their own positioning, constantly strengthen their own superior disciplines, cultivate innovative talents. We will work hard to improve our own innovation capacity and achieve innovation-driven development. We should renew our ideas, improve our environment, and employ talented people. We should create a good living environment for overseas students, establish the concept of respecting knowledge, talents, and creation, and restore the entrepreneurial system and construction to create more opportunities for overseas talents. We need to strengthen exchanges, deepen cooperation, and seek win–win results. Combined with the characteristics of each region, a more active and long-term effective advance path should be established. We will promote multi-field, all-dimensional, and high-level multilateral and bilateral exchanges in education and shift the emphasis from student exchanges to teacher exchanges and curriculum research cooperation in overseas education. We should attach equal importance to “bringing in” and “going global”, and gradually shift from “bringing in” to “going global". We should strengthen exchanges and cooperation among countries to achieve win–win results. First of all, renew previous educational concepts and establish international educational concepts. Colleges and universities should enhance their awareness of international education, observe international education and analyze the international university education system from an international perspective. Open education resources broaden our school students’ international vision and cultivate students’ innovative thinking. Secondly, expand the faculty, optimize the faculty, improve the level of teachers. To improve the overall level of the management team, build an international management team, improve the quality and quantity of the international education teachers in our school, and focus on cultivating excellent bilingual international educators of various specialties. Third, expand cooperation areas, improve hardware facilities and provide sufficient funds. Colleges and universities should expand cooperation areas and strive to carry out exchanges and cooperation with overseas schools with high-level majors in economics and management and humanities. Improve infrastructure, set up standardized international exchange office, standardized international exchange center, etc. At the same time, the government should provide sufficient funds for colleges and universities to carry out foreign exchanges and cooperation in their education. Finally, give play to the school’s own characteristics, learn from each other and help each other to improve academic skills.
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People are always interested in novel things, and things with their own characteristics will be more competitive. Effectiveness should have its own school-running style, school-running philosophy, and characteristics of talent cultivation. Colleges and universities should also strengthen learning exchanges, improve their academic capabilities in various disciplines, and actively integrate and introduce international high-quality education. We need to strengthen top-level design, strengthen departmental coordination, and attach importance to international exchanges and cooperation. Proactively strengthen overall planning, formulate clear objectives, reasonable and feasible international development strategy. Enhance the importance of international exchange and cooperation. Second, we should train a contingent of highly qualified foreign affairs personnel. Open recruitment of staff, by sending staff to participate in business training, policy study, seminars, etc. mention (Bao et al., 2016; Li, 2019; Li and Eryong, 2020a, b; Liu, 2018; Cheng & Liu, 2020; Jin & Zhou, 2020).
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