Towards a Chinese definition of higher education internationalisation? A systematic review of the Chinese and English literature

ABSTRACT

The definitions of internationalisation have been contested and require contextualisation. Despite the long-standing practice of and research on higher education internationalisation in Mainland China, ambiguities regarding the concept persist. This study examines academic discourses on the internationalisation of Chinese higher education. It draws on a systematic literature review of 240 journal articles published in Mandarin Chinese and English. Findings reveal the prevalence of defining internationalisation using Western discourses and attempts to provide Chinese definitions of internationalisation. The review also identifies the coexistence of educational, economic, political, and cultural logic clusters in the discourses on the internationalisation of Chinese higher education. In addition, the article discusses temporality, spatiality, affectivity and relationality in the discourses and their corresponding themes. It concludes with a discussion on the ‘Chinese characteristics’ of higher education internationalisation, and reflections on the common dichotomies and myth in the existing literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese higher education
• internationalisation
• globalisation
• academic discourses
• systematic review

Acknowledgements

The author sincerely thanks Dr William Yat Wai Lo and the two anonymous reviewers, as well as Professor Simon Marginson, for their kind support and constructive review comments. Some findings of this study were presented at a University of Oxford China Centre Mandarin seminar. The author also thanks the seminar organiser and audience for their questions and feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The original Chinese term 话语权 (hua yu quan) can be translated in English as ‘discourse power’ or ‘right to speak’, but neither fully captures its nuance (see Friedman, 2022). It is translated in this study as ‘discourse power’ based on the author’s interpretation.

2 The original Chinese phrase was 爱国 (ai guo). It was not translated as ‘patriotism’ or ‘nationalism’, as such words do not reflect the historical, political and cultural textures of the original Chinese term (see Guo, 2020).