47 research outputs found
Social mobility and international graduates in China
No full textBy comparing the social and spatial mobility of international and home graduates, this is a unique study into Chinese international graduates’ post-study living and working experiences.
It aims to address the overarching research question: What is the social mobility of international graduates in China? To answer this question, I proposed five sub-questions: 1) What are the labour market outcomes of Chinese students obtaining master’s degrees abroad compared with those of non-mobile Chinese graduates? 2) What factors affect international and home graduates’ labour market success in China? 3) What is the perceived social mobility of international graduates compared with that of home graduates in China? 4) What is the relationship between social and spatial mobility of international and home graduates in China? 5) What roles do international graduates play in social class formation and culture and lifestyle change in China?
Adopting a mixed-methods approach to research and a pragmatic paradigm, this study employs survey and in-depth interviews to collect data. A multi-regression model, mapping analysis and thematic analysis are used to analyse the data. Although home graduates perform better in the labour market and upward social mobility than the international graduates, the international graduates are still favoured by China’s labour market and have more opportunities to develop their careers through their accumulated cultural and social capital. Interestingly, their labour market outcomes and social mobility are closely connected to their spatial mobility. The analyses reveal that the likelihood of studying abroad is linked to one’s place of origin and positively associated with parental socio-economic status. Moreover, the results of the mapping analysis highlight the uneven opportunities for spatial mobility when comparing international returnees with their peers. Therefore, this study recommends that policymakers should focus on social security and institutions for high-end home graduates. Increasing equality of education opportunities, especially the chances of studying abroad, can shrink the social mobility and inequality gaps
The impact of place of origin on international and domestic graduates’ mobility in China
No full textThis article addresses the cumulative effect of graduate migration and opportunities for career development. Using data from an online survey of 756 master’s-level graduates educated in China and the UK, it examines their geographical mobility patterns and reveals significant differences between Chinese students who graduated from domestic universities and those who were educated abroad. Spatial autocorrelation analysis shows that international returnees, who usually had more privileged family backgrounds, clustered in China’s highly developed core cities of the Bohai Economic Rim and Yangtze River Delta regions, such as Beijing and Shanghai, while domestic graduates tended to work and live in less affluent medium-sized cities around these regions. Women international graduates were more mobile than their men counterparts. Our results provide new evidence that draws attention to migration’s role in graduate career development opportunities and highlights inherent economic discrimination within China, which is perpetuated by the national residency permit system — Hukou. The case of Chinese graduates shows that the mobility patterns of international and domestic graduates are influenced by and contribute to growing regional inequalities for career development in China
Class, gender and educational privilege: exploring employability of Chinese international graduates through a risk society lens
No full textInternational education is framed by middle-class families in China as a form of risk management – an investment for enhancing employability in a heavily congested graduate job market. However, there is limited research on the relationship between international higher education and occupational advantage. This study presents survey findings from Chinese master’s level graduates educated both internationally and domestically. The results shows that international graduates tend to have more prestigious educational backgrounds, however they face higher early-career unemployment. The risk society lens helps to explain why international education does not yield predictable or favourable returns. These graduates represent a new risk class – individuals who, despite privileged educational capital, are exposed to the uncertainties of globalisation and local labour market stratification. Their social advantage, while still significant, no longer ensures linear upward mobility. Instead, outcomes are fragmented, dependent on navigating a complex employment landscape shaped by sectoral preferences, and institutional discrimination, especially against women
Effects of corrective feedback on EFL speaking task complexity in China’s university classroom
No full textCorrective feedback (CF) and task complexity are two important pedagogical topics in second language acquisition research in recent years, but there is few research investigating effects of CF on speaking task complexity in China’s university classroom settings. This research, through conducting different versions of speaking task experiments among 24 university students in China, explores the effect of teachers’ CF on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) speaking task complexity. According to the analysis of first-hand data, this research finds CF has different effects on EFL oral production with different task complexity. In simple speaking task, the effects of five kinds of CF (from largest to smallest) are listed as follows: clarification quest, metalinguistic feedback, recast, repetition and confirmation check. Regarding complex speaking task, the effects of five categorized CF are ranked from largest to smallest as follows: metalinguistic feedback, confirmation check, recast, clarification request and repetition. Improving to provide CF in pedagogical practice is an important contribution to promote EFL speaking task, so, on the basis of above research results, appropriate ways and forms of providing CF are expected to promote efficiency of CF in EFL classroom under the context of Chinese university classroom
Performance Evaluation on Intellectual Property Rights Policy System of the Renewable Energy in China
No full textWith the intensive consumption and price rising of traditional fossil fuels, the development and utilization of renewable energy has attracted worldwide attention. Meanwhile, due to enhanced energy constraints and increasingly grim greenhouse gases, many countries all over the world have been developing renewable energy technologies to promote sustainable growth economically. Intellectual property rights (IPR) policy linked to renewable energy provides institutional guarantee for the development of renewable energy industry and technology. This study works to test the performance of IPR policies of renewable energy industry in China. We employed Cobb-Douglas production function and built on a quantitative policy indicator measurement system over the period from 2004 to 2013 to evaluate the impact of IPR policy of renewable energy industry on innovation and market development in China, which provides an all-round study on the IPR system by clearing up all IPR policy system that is related to the renewable energy industry. The results of Multiple Regression Models indicated that the current IPR policy of renewable energy industry are disconnected from China’s reality because the innovation ability of the renewable energy industry has not been improved rapidly and that both the market transformation ability and market prospect of new energy technology patents are weak
Ecological Safety Assessment and Convergence of Resource-Based Cities in the Yellow River Basin
No full textPromoting the sustainable development of resource-based cities is of great significance for the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. In order to solve the dilemma of the sustainable development of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin, this paper constructs an ecological security evaluation system. It calculates the ecological security level of 30 resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin from 2006 to 2020 using the TOPSIS model and carries out a classification convergence analysis. The DID empirical test of ecological security factors by sustainable development planning policies is used to distinguish the development characteristics of different resource-based cities. The results show that (1) the ecological security level of resource cities in the Yellow River Basin is generally well developed, and there are differences between different types of resource cities; (2) the resource cities in the Yellow River Basin mainly rely on industrial transformation to improve the ecological security level; and (3) the local governments pay limited attention to environmental protection
An Evaluation of Environmental Governance in Urban China Based on a Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic Analytic Network Process
No full textThe aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of urban environmental governance by developing hesitant fuzzy linguistic analytic network process (HFL-ANP). The study bridges the gaps in current knowledge in the following ways: the study methodically develops the HFL-ANP method to evaluate and pick the optimal environmental governance strategy from alternatives; theoretically, network structure of evaluation indicators system on environmental governance is constructed, and the objective and subjective information in the evaluation process of environmental governance is combined. In detail, based on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and the pollution haven hypothesis, the paper constructs the evaluation indexes system of environmental governance and takes observation time length into consideration. Then, we choose three urban cases of environmental governance by exploring the existing literature. Furthermore, we develop the HFL-ANP method and apply it to the cases. The study calculates the initial weights of all indexes by using multiplicative consistency of the HFL preference relation, and derives the decision matrix through combining objective information with subjective information of environmental governance. Finally, we come to the following conclusions: ANP network stricture is close to real-world practical problems and provides the basis for HFL-ANP method; HFL-ANP is a very suitable method of assessing environmental governance; and based on the urban cases of environmental governance, Shanghai is the optimal alternative. In addition, this indicator system can only be applied to cities in China, and the administrative hierarchy of policies has not been considered by this method. Thus, future studies should expand this method and indicator network to contain different countries and different administrative hierarchy
Compelled to compete: Chinese graduates on employment and social mobility after international and domestic study
No full textThe article offers unique insights into international and domestic graduates’ career progression and social mobility experiences in China. Drawing on in-depth interview data with master-level graduates, the analytical results reveal that the majority of the participants (both domestic and international) perceive that international graduates have more opportunities and better career progression, but the analytical results show that both domestic and international graduates secured positive employment outcomes. Significant gender disparities exist, as women, both international and domestic graduates, are still disadvantaged in terms of occupational attainment and career prospects and report lower employment satisfaction. All domestic graduates reported not only positive employment outcomes in the labour market but upward social mobility. In contrast, the majority of international graduates reported not having achieved the same level of social status as their parents. Graduates’ differentiated relations to China’s state institutions of Bianzhi, Danwei and Hukou and social connections (Guanxi) heavily influenced their employment trajectories and social mobility. We argue that the participants’ conflicting perceptions are linked to the intense labour market competition encouraged by the sustained expansion of domestic higher education enrolment and amplified by the increasing number of international graduates. The societal institutions defuse to some extent conflicts over economic interests arising from the marketisation of social life
Identifying the Predictors of Community Acceptance of Waste Incineration Plants in Urban China: A Qualitative Analysis from a Public Perspective
No full textDue to concerns about consequences to public health, the ecosystem, the natural landscape etc., the planning and construction of waste incineration plants always gives rise to a reaction and even protests from local communities. This study aims to investigate the determinants affecting public acceptance of waste incinerators. We contribute to the existing knowledge in the following ways: (1) this study undertook a qualitative analysis on community acceptance of nimby facilities in the context of China for the first time; (2) through qualitative interview analysis, we emphasize the impact of interactions among multiple factors regarding the acceptance of waste incinerators; (3) we finally construct a framework to systematically explain the formation mechanism of community acceptance of waste incineration plants. Employing in-depth interviews with 22 representative residents, the results indicate that from the perspective of externality, risk perception has a significant negative impact, whereas the effects of benefit perception are positive. In terms of interaction between government and citizen, both justice perception and political efficacy are positive. Social situational factors positively promote community acceptance. Lastly, the impact of individual cognition is mixed. This study has the potential to make a significant difference in better community governance and environment-friendly cities
