Being Wholesaled: An Investigation of Chinese International Students' Higher Education Experiences

While the large global increase in the international student population is a significant trend, it is rarely discussed in the contexts of its economic origins and its impact on students. According to International Consultants for Education and Fairs (ICEF) data released in 2015, the total number of international students surpassed 5 million in 2014, which more than doubled and tripled the numbers in 2000 and 1990, respectively ('The state of international student mobility in 2015', 2015). While university officials cite other motivations for encouraging international student growth (such as global awareness and diversity), some scholars worry the impetus for recruiting these students is largely financial (Choudaha et al., 2013; Matthews & Lawley, 2011; Ross, Grace, & Shao, 2013; Thomason, 2013). For instance, as the largest hosting country for international students, the U.S. received $30.8 billion through exports of higher education in 2015 (John Siegmund, Barb Rawdon, & Clara Ren, 2016). International students present an attractive market for cash-strapped universities seeking students who will pay the higher out of state tuition rate, generally without financial aid. While higher education institutions can and should take care of their bottom line, how does the profit motive affect universities' treatment of students some worry are increasingly viewed as "cash cows" (Cantwell, 2015)? The global financial crisis in 2007 swept across North America and European Union countries, causing many of those developed countries to cut their government funding to higher education. In the U.S., state fiscal support for higher education from FY2008 to FY2013 has decreased by 10.8% (Zumeta, 2013, p. 32). In Canada, government funding to university operating budgets dropped from 84% to 58% in the last thirty years (Ivanova, 2013). In the U.K., the British government announced in 2010 a 40% cut in funding to higher education over a five-year period between 2010 and 2015 (European University Association, 2011). In the same year, the Australia common wealth government ceased its commitment to increase expenditure in higher education; instead, it announced in 2013 a plan to reduce AU$ 2.3 billion funding over a four-year period, the largest budget cut to higher education since 1996 (Jump, 2013). In order to survive such an austere financial climate, higher education institutions in these four countries simultaneously shifted their cost to the students. International students are viewed as a key part of the solution because they pay tuition at a higher rate than domestic students.China is a particularly lucrative market for international students. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), China accounted for 17% of the world's international students in 2013, sending 712,157 young people abroad for higher education ('Global flow of tertiary-level students', 2016). The top four English-speaking destination countries that Chinese international students choose are the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and Canada. The United States hosted over a quarter of million Chinese college students in 2014, more than the U.K, Australia, and Canada combined (2016). The majority of today's Chinese international students can afford the cost of a foreign higher education; over 95% of Chinese students studying overseas are self-funded (Choudaha et al., 2013). The high density of international students from one country poses both opportunities and challenges to university administrators. While universities tend to highlight the diversity Chinese students bring to campus, their overrepresentation compared to students from less developed nations suggests financial motivations play a significant if not exclusive role. Scholars have focused on either how universities tap the Chinese student market or what challenges Chinese students face, few studies connect these disparate bodies of scholarship. …