International academic mobility, national development, and the world knowledge system: Experience from China

This presentation draws upon findings from a documentary study of education abroad policy in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) between 1978 and 2000s. By examining the dynamics underpinning the PRC state’s efforts to shape the flow of Chinese students and scholars from and into China, this study reveals the major strategies that have enabled education abroad to become a source of brain gain. China’s experience exemplifies the potential of a developing country’s success in influencing the distribution of internationally mobile students, and in altering its status in the world system from that of a country on the periphery, to that of one approaching the core. The study offers an understanding of the complex and dynamic relations between the state, the market, universities and international relations as relates to cross-border academic mobility, international educational relations, and national development in a globalizing world.