Factors influencing Chinese students’ higher education choices

Abstract

While Chinese students now have a variety of pathways to higher education, research on individual Chinese students continues to rely on statistical forms of questionnaires, making it challenging to understand international students individually and examine their choices through several detailed influences. Few studies have been carried out that are more detailed and specific to Chinese students. It is, therefore, worth exploring how students from different walks of life make their higher education choices and the factors that influence them in greater depth. This paper reports the results of a comparative study of five Chinese students with different higher education choices using semi-structured interviews. The author will control for the influences of each interviewee to conclude. The paper also explores the experiences and considerations of several Chinese students in their choice of higher education. The paper argue that Chinese students’ choices are significantly related to both family circumstances and personal ability, with family social class and the educational attainment of the student’s parents having a significant impact on Chinese students’ higher education choices. In addition, the individual student’s strengths of thought and ability also contribute to their own decisions in higher education.