Research on the Path of Agriculture-related Higher Vocational Colleges in Serving the "Belt and Road" Initiative

Under the background of vigorous promotion of "Building a community with a shared future for mankind" and the "Belt and Road" Initiative, the international exchanges and cooperation of higher vocational colleges in China are embracing new opportunities and challenges. By studying the policy basis of agriculture-related vocational colleges serving the "Belt and Road" Initiative, this paper analyzes the current situation of agriculture-related vocational colleges serving the "Belt and Road" Initiative. The aim is to make explorations on ways for agriculture-related higher vocational colleges to serve the Belt and Road Initiative from the aspects of connotation construction, cooperation platform innovation, international production capacity cooperation, overseas student training, standard output, overseas education, technical training, and characteristic building.

The Politics of International Education: Constructing New Zealand's Export Education Industry

<p>International education today is an important export industry for New Zealand. It has come a long way from its origins as a developmental scholarship programme for countries in South and Southeast Asia under the Colombo Plan. This thesis studies the concepts and debates related to international education globally; and traces its development in New Zealand over three stages to investigate how it has been transformed from “education for aid” to “education for trade”. This transformation has taken place against the backdrop of neoliberal globalisation. Adopting a constructivist approach, I argue that the commercialisation of international education is influenced by normative factors such as globalisation and regionalism, as well as a conscious decision made by the state based on the material resources New Zealand possesses as an English language speaking country with a relatively advanced liberal education system attractive to developing countries, particularly in Asia. I construct New Zealand’s export education industry in its current state using Wendt’s framework of three elements of social structure. Assuming that the neoliberal norm persists, this thesis identifies the critical factors affecting the continued wellbeing and future development of the export education industry as follows: 1) the quality and reputation of New Zealand’s international education; 2) the continued economic growth of key student source countries and the ongoing demand for overseas education; and 3) the willingness of people from these countries to purchase education services from New Zealand.</p>

The Politics of International Education: Constructing New Zealand's Export Education Industry

<p>International education today is an important export industry for New Zealand. It has come a long way from its origins as a developmental scholarship programme for countries in South and Southeast Asia under the Colombo Plan. This thesis studies the concepts and debates related to international education globally; and traces its development in New Zealand over three stages to investigate how it has been transformed from “education for aid” to “education for trade”. This transformation has taken place against the backdrop of neoliberal globalisation. Adopting a constructivist approach, I argue that the commercialisation of international education is influenced by normative factors such as globalisation and regionalism, as well as a conscious decision made by the state based on the material resources New Zealand possesses as an English language speaking country with a relatively advanced liberal education system attractive to developing countries, particularly in Asia. I construct New Zealand’s export education industry in its current state using Wendt’s framework of three elements of social structure. Assuming that the neoliberal norm persists, this thesis identifies the critical factors affecting the continued wellbeing and future development of the export education industry as follows: 1) the quality and reputation of New Zealand’s international education; 2) the continued economic growth of key student source countries and the ongoing demand for overseas education; and 3) the willingness of people from these countries to purchase education services from New Zealand.</p>

The Evolution and Characteristics of Chinese Overseas Education in the UK (1949-1965)

Objectives: On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a large number of students studying in Britain returned home under the influence of the Chinese policies and their patriotic feelings, which laid the foundation for studying abroad education in New China. In the first few years after the founding of New China, the Chinese government adopted a "one-sided" approach in diplomacy, that is, it favored the eastern bloc headed by the Soviet Union and did not send students to Britain. After the Korean War, China and Britain established diplomatic relations at the level of charge d'affairs in 1954, providing an opening for Chinese overseas education in Britain. From 1956 to 1965, China sent a certain number of international students to Britain, which was determined by Sino-British relationship. The majors of these English students were mainly natural science, and a few students’ majors were English language. The living expenses of students studying in the UK were provided by the Chinese Embassy in the UK, which exercised the authority to manage students studying in the UK.

Do Overseas Returnees Excel in the Chinese Labour Market?

Overseas study is a global phenomenon and a major business internationally. But does overseas study pay off? Using data from the 2015 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we examine the labour market performance of overseas returnees in China. To obtain more accurate results, we matched each returnee with a local so that the domestic group is as similar as possible to the returnee group. We then conducted empirical analyses of the matched data. We find that compared with domestic postgraduates, returnee postgraduates earn about 20 per cent more annually. Moreover, the salary premiums paid for foreign graduate degrees can be attributed principally to the superior human capital gained from overseas education rather than from any “signalling” effect. Also, returnees with graduate degrees are more likely to enter high-income professions and foreign-funded ventures, and to reach higher positions in those organizations. However, we find no significant differences in income, occupation choices and positions between returnee and local bachelor's degree recipients. As such, we suggest that Chinese students and their families are best served when the students obtain a local undergraduate degree and then go overseas for graduate training.

STUDENTS’ CHOICE OF HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES; ANALYSIS OF FACTORS IN THE SRI LANKAN CONTEXT

Over the years national university intake in Sri Lanka has become increasingly competitive due to the increasing demand for higher education. Successive governments have tried to almost annually increase the number of national universities and the student intake but failed to cater to this demand. Therefore, those who fail to obtain access to state university education and those who complete the advanced level in the British curriculum have to seek admission to Fee Levying Higher Education Institutes (FLHEIs) in Sri Lanka due to the high cost of overseas education. Fee Levying Higher Education Institutes (FLHEIs) affiliated to foreign universities realizing the need to compete with each other offer international degrees in order to attract students. So the decision making process has become even more complex for the students. Data for this study was randomly collected from 1000 numbers of current students of Fee Levying Higher Education Institutes (FLHEIs) in the Western Province, Sri Lanka. A questionnaire was administered. The questions were categorized according to the conceptual framework developed based on the literature review. The data was analyzed using computer-based software packages. The results of this study can be helpful to Sri Lankan Fee Levying Higher Education Institutes (FLHEIs) in optimizing student intake.

Cultural Entrepreneurship in Corporate Governance Practice Diffusion: Framing of “Independent Directors” by U.S.-Listed Chinese Companies

Although the diversity of cultural expectations for different corporate governance practices has been acknowledged, our understanding of how companies use cultural differences to legitimize their governance practice choice and facilitate their resource acquisition remains limited. Building on the literature on cultural entrepreneurship, we theorize how foreign-listed firms engage in global framing in tailoring the description of their new governance practice to the host country investors. Our empirical study examines the relative emphasis of monitoring over resource-providing roles by the U.S.-listed Chinese companies’ independent directors when their roles are understood differently in the home and host countries. Our study finds that exposure to the alternative cultural repertoire of a host country via overseas education of board members and foreign institutional ownership enhance a firm’s organizational resources available to engage in global framing. The likelihood of global framing, however, is constrained by the home country’s institutional environment, which is characterized by local business history and connections to strong local resource providers such as the state. We also find that the effectiveness of global framing to obtain investor recognition in the host country is restricted when the company lacks the capacity to implement the declared role of independent director-as-monitor in its home country.

Back to the Philippines: Connecting aspirations, return and social remittances in international student migration

The growing volume of international students has attracted research interest on their return experiences and the potential impacts of their overseas education in their home countries. This paper uses the notion of aspiration to investigate international students’ return experiences in connection to their motivations and perceived gains from studying abroad. Interviews with Filipino returnees who completed their postgraduate studies in Europe suggest that their plans to study abroad involved aspirations to return to the Philippines for different reasons, including career and family-related factors. Their aspirations also reflect their desired contributions to their respective occupational fields in the country. Their narratives of returning to the workplace, however, reveal institutional factors that either facilitate or constrain the transfer of ideas, knowledge and practices gained from their experiences abroad. Findings point to how returnees' workplace experiences, in turn, reshape their career aspirations and migration intentions.

The Development of Overseas Education in the New Era of China

The development of overseas education in the new era of China can be divided into four stages, each of which has different characteristics. The achievements of the development of China’s overseas education are as following: first, persisting in the overall idea of “supporting study abroad, encouraging return home and freedom of coming and going”; second, the number of students of overseas education keeps rising; third, the selection of overseas education is gradually diversified. The future development trend of overseas education is shown as: the return boom is in the ascendant; the “domestic overseas education” is gradually developing; and China’s international education ushers in the climax.