Working Paper 46, authored by Dr Lin Tian and Professor Nian Cai Liu, explores the perceptions of people who are directly involved in international education in China (including government officials, university leaders and academics, as well as international students with different cultural backgrounds) and analyses their relevance to national policies.

Through the lens of (global) common goods, with semi-structured interviews, it is hoped that this research will assist in creating a new angle to examine inward student mobility worldwide.

The findings of this study indicate that inward student mobility contributes to global common goods in the aspects of cultural diversity, global talents and shared educational resources which makes international education in China itself a global common good.

Key policies related to inward international students are generally supportive, and meanwhile compatible to these global common goods to a large extent. Though there are some problems and tensions among policies, practices and (global) common goods in inward student mobility, both the Chinese government and HEIs have already proposed relevant solutions to deal with these issues in a constructive way.