Chinese international students’ perspective and strategies in preparing for their future employability

Abstract

Graduate employability and the contribution graduates make to the UK economy have been widely debated by policy-makers; however, little attention has been paid to the employability of international students. Given the growing significance of international students to the UK economy this is an interesting oversight; this article addresses this issue. Students from the Mainland China currently represent nearly 16% of the international student population; therefore, we focused on this group; firstly, to examine their perspectives on their future employability; and then, to examine how they prepared for their future careers. Given that internationalisation is a priority for many UK universities, the findings of this research will make a significant contribution to these under-researched areas.

Keywords:

• employability
• international students
• Chinese students
• higher education

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Pedagogical Research Institute & Observatory (PedRIO), Plymouth University (UK).