A Survey of Study Abroad Market for Chinese Student: Preliminary Data from a Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

Prior to Covid-19, Chinese students spent US$30 billion on overseas tuition fees but the pandemic is unlikely to dampen future demand for international education. However, while China sends more students abroad than any other nation, this market's current landscape and its associated data are insufficiently studied. This paper outlines the scope of a study using primarily data from www.mygoodagency.com, a new free platform for Chinese students to share and get information about global education. Currently, in a soft launch pilot phase, the platform aims to help students in their application process, while we simultaneously gather and study data related to students' destination choices, concerns, and use of educational agencies. Two sources of data from the platform appear promising. Firstly, all registered users are asked to complete a questionnaire surveying their intentions, education background, as well as services required from, satisfaction with, and fees paid to agencies. Secondly, users can post questions and replies in our forums comprising 100 plus topics. With nearly 5000 questions and replies in the forums, we are using content analysis software to generate a word frequency count to evaluate what issues are of importance to users. Preliminary data suggest changing trends of interest to educators, agencies, and students. For example, there is almost two times more discussion about IELTS than TOEFL, and the test of English proficiency used in the US. There is evidence of increasing interest in pursuing further studies in the greater China area and Asia in general, including in Hong Kong and Singapore. Regardless of the destination, 67.43% of respondents said they would pay substantial sums, sometimes in excess of US$23,000 to agencies for services such as writing application essays, securing internships, and selecting schools. The success of this pilot study will allow us to spread the platform's use across China, to support the continuing high demand for tertiary education, and help Chinese students make informed decisions, as well as enable us to conduct further research on their intentions and application processes, and possibly develop data-driven models to predict the results of their applications.