Abstract:

The aim of research is to explain what mainland Chinese students plan to do after their graduation from Hong Kong universities and the strategies they developed in order to plan for their future.The author draws insight from a qualitative research approach within an interpretivist paradigm. Data were collected through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with nineteen mainland students studying in a university in Hong Kong. The case study approach was used in order to study individual cases. The purpose of this research is not to test a theory; rather, its aim is to explore the future plans mainland students developed for themwselves after they accomplish their study in Hong Kong.

This study contributes to a developing body of theory on internationalisation of higher education and students studying overseas. In terms of its contribution to the literature, this research found that although encountering initial challenges regarding living and studying in Hong Kong, the mainland students eventually prefer to stay and work in Hong Kong after graduation. This research contributes to the emerging research tradition of comparative cross-cultural studies. At the same time, it has implications for the development of theory, practice and future research in the internationalisation of higher education.

Keywords:

Globalization of higher education, cross-cutural studies, ethnics’ integration and adjustment, overseas study, comparative study.