Chinese Students in Australia: Generators of Cosmopolitanism, Evidence of Economic Necessity or Agents of Political Influence?

Abstract

A leading rationale for increased internationalising of higher education is that it provides a cosmopolitan experience for students, preparing them to become global citizens. On the other hand, in an economy overshadowed by economic policies focused on reducing expenditures on public goods, there are distinct fiscal advantages that overseas students bring to local educational institutions. However, both these possibilities have recently been questioned in Australia by observers who suggest some Chinese students might be agents of the Communist Party of China. This article reports on a group of students from the People’s Republic of China in an Australian university. It notes that Chinese students—like many of their non-Chinese classmates—tend to be more focused on recruitment into lucrative and/or prestigious careers back home than on becoming global citizens, or acting as government agents. The article indicates that the surveyed students—also mirroring their local counterparts—are disinclined to interrogate conventional or official accounts of their country’s contemporary politics and recent history, despite educational resources available to them. Their aims are primarily utilitarian, rarely idealistic, much less clandestine, and therefore more likely to advance the worldwide neoliberal project than the ideals of cosmopolitanism.