China’s Repositioning its Higher Education Internationalization and Implications

Yuxiang Qiao; Guoxin Ma; Hongwei Wu

doi:10.18535/sshj.v8i12.1554

Abstract

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and collapsing foreign relations, concerns are rising about the tension in collaborations between China and the West overlooking the implication of China’s latest initiative to ‘open up’ its education as part of its One-Belt-One-Road internationalization strategy. The initiative reflects China’s new nationalism in repositioning its education internationally especially the higher education section, which signals a shifting focus from production capability building to soft power expansion. We finish this paper with a highlight on the initiative’s multifaceted future implications concerning both China’s domestic, including disabled students’ population, and international communities.

Keywords

One Belt One RoadNew NationalismHigher Education InternationalizationNational ConfidenceDisability Equalitythe June Opinion

References

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[refR-2] Chaney P (2011) Education, equality and human rights: Exploring the impact of devolution in the UK. Critical Social Policy, 31(3): 431-453.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-3] Cyranoski, D. (2018). China awaits controversial blacklist of ‘poor quality’ journals. Nature, 562(7728), 471-472.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-4] Gao Y, He Q, Liu Y, Zhang L, Wang H, & Cai E (2016) Imbalance in spatial accessibility to primary and secondary schools in china: Guidance for education sustainability. Sustainability, 8(12).Google Scholar ↗

[refR-5] Harding, S. G. (1994). Is science multicultural?: Challenges, resources, opportunities, uncertainties. Configurations, 2(2), 301-330.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-6] Hesselbart B (2020) Chinese Ministry of Education wants to welcome more foreign students. Available at: https://supchina.com/2020/06/19/chinese-ministry-of-education-wants-to-welcome-more-foreign-students/ (accessed 18 July 2024)Google Scholar ↗

[refR-7] Knight J and L Shi (1996) Educational attainment and the rural urban divide in China. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 58(1): 83–117.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-8] Li, S., & Lash, S. (2023). Against Ontology: Chinese Thought and François Jullien: An Introduction. Theory, Culture & Society, 02632764231174811.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-9] Ma, G. (2020). Let us talk about invisible children and those who are deliberately left out: campaigning for children with special needs in China. Disability & Society, 35(2), 332-337.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-10] Ma, G. & Roy, T. (2024) The Peril and Promise of China’s Education Internalisation: Online Education, Inequality, and Disabled Students. Advances in Online Education: A Peer-Reviewed Journal.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-11] Ma, G., Black, K., Blenkinsopp, J., Charlton, H., Hookham, C., Pok, W. F., ... & Alkarabsheh, O. H. M. (2022). Higher education under threat: China, Malaysia, and the UK respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 52(5), 841-857.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-12] Mignolo, W. D. (2007). Delinking: The rhetoric of modernity, the logic of coloniality and the grammar of de-coloniality. Cultural Studies, 21(2-3), 449-514.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-13] MoE (2020) Number of higher education institutions (official translation). Available at: http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A03/moe_560/jytjsj_2019/gd/202006/t20200611_464854.html (accessed 23 April 2022).Google Scholar ↗

[refR-14] MoE (2020a) The Ministry of education’s guideline on strengthening compulsory education for children and young people with disabilities in regular classes. Available at: http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A06/s3331/202006/t20200628_468736.html (accessed 18 May 2022).Google Scholar ↗

[refR-15] MoE (2020b) Implement the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind, do well in opening up education in the new era (in Chinese). Available at: http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/moe_2082/zl_2020n/2020_zl33/202006/t20200622_467512.html (accessed 18 July 2020).Google Scholar ↗

[refR-16] Parker V & Myers L (1995) The disabled student in Higher Education: funding matters. Critical Social Policy, 15(44-45): 193-205.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-17] Shevlin, M., Kenny, M., & McNeela, E. (2004). Participation in higher education for students with disabilities: an Irish perspective. Disability & Society, 19(1): 15-30.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-18] Textor C (2020) Number of foreign students studying in China 2018, by country of origin Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/430717/china-foreign-students-by-country-of-origin/ (accessed 26 July 2020)Google Scholar ↗

[refR-19] Wang D (2011) The new curriculum and the urban rural literacy gap: The case of one county in western China. Chinese Education and Society, 44(6): 87–101.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-20] Wang L (2013) Going global: The changing strategy of internationalisation of education in China. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 35(3): 305-315.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-21] Wang, J., Halffman, W., & Zhang, Y. H. (2023). Sorting out journals: The proliferation of journal lists in China. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 74(10), 1207-1228.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-22] Wu, Y. (2004). China's economic growth: A miracle with Chinese characteristics (Vol. 6). Routledge.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-23] Xu, Z. (2022). Since 2012, more than 80% of individuals who studied abroad from China have returned to the country for development. Xinhua News, 20 Sept 2022. Available from: https://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2022-09/20/content_5710802.htm; accessed on 29 Jan 2024.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-24] Zhang X & Kanbur R (2005) Spatial inequality in education and health care in China. China Economic Review, 16(2): 189-204.Google Scholar ↗