International students in China: regional distribution and macro-influencing factors

As a key player in intellectual migration, international students are affected by various micro-, meso- and macro-level factors when making their study destination choice. Existing literature on this topic mostly adopts a qualitative approach and limits to investigations of country choice. By applying exploratory spatial data analysis and spatial econometric modelling on a set of panel data, this study instead focuses on macro-level analyses of international students' regional destination choice in China. First, we found that the spatial distribution of international students in China have changed over the course of our 1999–2018 study period. International students primarily concentrate in and/or around economic hubs or intellectual gateways although increase in semi-intellectual gateways are also observed. Second, international students in China has spatial effects and their study area choice is significantly affected by the number of international students studying there in the past, the quality of higher education, the availability of public infrastructure, touristic attractiveness, and the presence of policy incentives. These factors exercise greater influence on degree-seeking than non-degree-seeking students. Together, they represent persistence effect, learning and living environment effect, and spatial diffusion effect.