Education Administration MA thesis_Taeyeon Tenny Kim
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Are They Different?: Unveiling the College
Choice and Adaptation Processes of
Academically Talented Chinese Students
in Korean Universities
Taeyeon Tenny Kim
The Graduate School of Education
Yonsei University
Department of Education Administration
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Are They Different?: Unveiling the College
Choice and Adaptation Processes of
Academically Talented Chinese Students
in Korean Universities
A Master's Thesis
Submitted to the Department of Education Administration
and the Graduate School of Education of Yonsei University
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Education
Taeyeon Tenny Kim
December 2015
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This certifies that the Master's Thesis
of Taeyeon Tenny Kim is approved.
___________________________
Thesis Supervisor: Byung Shik Rhee
___________________________
Sang-O Lee: Thesis Committee Member #1
___________________________
Soon-Yong Pak: Thesis Committee Member #2
The Graduate School of Education
Yonsei University
December 2015
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ABSTRACT
Are They Different?: Unveiling the College Choice and
Adaptation Processes of Academically Talented Chinese Students
in Korean Universities
Taeyeon Tenny Kim (Yonsei University)
Due to the expansion of globalization and the decrease of school age population, the
importance of recruiting international students is increasing for Korean universities. To
ensure the sustainability and academic excellence of Korean higher education, Korean
universities and the government have thrived in recruiting international students with
different tactics and policies.
Over the past two decades, the number of international degree-seeking students in
Korea has increased tremendously due to policies such as the ‘Study Korea Project 2020.’
However, the international students’ academic achievements need to be taken into
account to prove Korea’s academic excellence. Therefore, this study aims to understand
academically talented Chinese students (ATCS) since Chinese students take up the
highest ratio among international degree-seeking students in Korea. Their decision-
making process in coming to Korea, whether their decision-making process correlates
with their adaptation process, what factors influenced the processes of decision-making
and adaptation and what caused the ATCSs to decide to adapt in Korea and in the
academics are the main interests of this study.
The study was conducted based on the interviews of ATCSs either currently enrolled in
master’s or doctorate degree programs or graduated. The result shows that there was a
difference in the decision-making process between those whose first choice of study
destination was Korea and those who were not. However, the decision-making process
did not cause a discrepancy in the adaptation process.
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During the decision-making process, there were more emotional reasons that
influenced the interviewees rather than the rational reasons. There were both the
emotional reasons that were stimulated by external attributes and internal attributes.
During adaptation, the academically talented students reported fewer difficulties in
befriending Koreans as they first adapted academically and then gained the respect of
Korean students, which led to successful adaptation
This study was able to discover the different experiences and the values of the ATCSs
from other international and Chinese students. Moreover, it unveiled how academically
talented international students migrate from one knowledge used country to another
knowledge used country. These findings are expected to further enable Korean university
administrators to better recruit and administer ATCSs in Korean universities and
formulate more adequate recruitment and management strategies.
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Key words: Higher Education in Korea, Chinese Students, Academically Talented, Decision-making Process,
Adaptation Process
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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Importance of Study
Currently, no industry can be free from globalization and global competition for
development, expansion and survival since globalization is becoming more important and
crucial due to diminishing value of physical boundaries between countries. Education is
not an exception. Recruiting international students is critical to Korean universities in
building their international competitiveness since universities now are driven to compete
in the international education market (Lee, 2014). The environmental changes occurring
internationally such as a unified global economy, development of new information
communication technologies, and commercialization of education have brought about
significant reforms in the education systems of both well-developed nations and
developing nations (Um and Byun, 2012). An increased amount of attention has been
focused on formulating strategies to recruit international students in Korea since the
beginning of 1990s (Kim, 2006) as well to expand its international educational presence.
As internationalization spreads as the global norm, the importance of higher education
has escalated even more within Korea, walking in step with the international higher
education phenomena. The internationalization strategy was first announced in 1993 and
the reformation in higher education in 1995 led by the Korean government can be
interpreted as the response to the changes of international education environment (Park &
Song, 2013).
Since then, to maximize the possibilities of international degree-seeking student
recruitment, strategic tactics such as providing courses offered in English for international
students, recruiting international professors, increasing scholarship opportunities,
installing new dormitories, launching one-stop service systems for international students
and even simplifying the entry application (Bae & Kim, 2014) have been enforced by
individual universities and the Korean government. The Korean government also lifted
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the number limitation in the admission of international students for all Korean
universities. Such drastic measures were enforced, as there were no other resolutions but
to open up and promote internationalization in Korean education to strengthen its
international competitiveness and increase the survival chances of the Korean higher
education (Lee and Im, 2014).
Based on the above international degree-seeking student recruitment strategy, in 2004,
the Korean government set out a new ambition, entitled the "Study Korea Project 2020,"
with the intent of attracting over 200,000 international degree-seeking students by the
year 2020 (Lee, 2008). With much effort made by the Korean government and individual
Korean universities, the number of international degree-seeking students has shown sharp
increase ever since. In 2008, development strategies of Study Korea Project, and in 2010,
measures to enhance "Global Education Service" were released and executed (Bae &
Kim, 2014) to further recruit international students.
Along with the changes in the government policies as above, the steep decline of the
school age population (Kim, 2011) aroused concerns within Korean universities as it
directly leads to the reduction in the number of newly entering students. This has fueled
fierce national competition between Korean universities, due to the imbalance foreseen
between supply and demand (Kim, 2005). This social phenomenon further triggered
Korean universities to escape from the competition within Korea and seek out their
survival chances in recruiting international students (Lee and Im, 2014).
With efforts of the Korean universities (Li & Lee, 2014) and the Korean government
on promoting Korean higher education (including scholarships such as GKS) (Park &
Song, 2013) the number of international degree-seeking students increased from 1,983 in
1995 (Kim, Kim, Lee, 2008) to 6,160 in 2000 (Ahn & Choi, 2008) and to 84,891 in 2014
(KEDI, 2015). Of course, it also had an additional thrust power from the derived effects
of the Hallyu1
(Korean Wave) and the advancement of Korean companies in various
1
Hallyu (Korean Wave) is a neologism referring to the increase in the popularity of South Korean culture
since the late 1990s. First driven by the spread of Korean dramas televised across East, South and Southeast
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countries (Kim, 2012).
Up until 2007, the international student recruiting strategies were focused heavily on
increasing the overall number. This was since the number of international students was
extremely low to start, compared with other developed nations (Bae & Kim, 2014).
However, recruiting academically talented students will become necessary in the near
future to prove the educational qualities of Korean universities and to place Korea highly
among other educationally-popular destination countries (Lee, 2014). Academically
talented international graduates from Korea will hold a significant value in their home
countries, upon return, as they are the reflection of the education quality in Korea. It will
promote an enhanced academic reputation of Korean universities, which will lead to
attracting more academically talented students in the future (Jo, 2013).
At the same time, managing and assisting the adaptation of international students
already in Korea is equally as important as recruiting them. However, it has been pointed
out that measures to help international students' adaptation in the university lack
compared to the measures to recruit them. International students suffer from limited
Korean language courses and courses conducted in English, low employment
opportunities, discrimination from Koreans, mistreatment with direct and aggressive
attitudes, financial difficulties, academic challenges, homesickness and being outcasts,
which causes difficulty in adaptation for international students (Kim, 2009).
In accordance with all the interest in recruiting international degree-seeking students,
numerous studies have been conducted regarding internationalization strategies as
government and university policies and its reviews, such as studies done by Lee, Kim,
Park, Shin (2001), Kim (2005), Choi (2008), Kim (2009), Kim, Song, Lee (2011), Park
(2013), Park and Song (2013), Bae and Kim (2014), and Lee (2014). Along with these, a
number of studies were done on international students, their adaptation and the academic
Asia during its initial stages, the Hallyu evolved from a regional development into a global phenomenon due
to the proliferation of Korean pop (K-pop) music videos on YouTube. Currently, the spread of the Korean
Wave to other regions of the world is most visibly seen among teenagers and young adults globally.
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environment, such as the research of Jo (2003), Ahn and Choi (2008), Lee and Kim
(2010), Kim (2011), Kim (2012) and Lee, Yu, Chang (2013). Methods on administrating
international students have been a popular research topic as well, as seen from Kim
(2008), Kim & Park (2012), and Lee (2014). Comparatively, not enough studies regarding
the understanding of the target students or of the decision-making process of international
students in Korea have been conducted, nor have they been done on recruiting
academically talented students. However, without understanding and providing for the
needs of the international students in Korea, strategies to recruit more international
degree-seeking students to Korea cannot be successful in the long run. All the efforts of
the government and individual universities are futile if they cannot convince the potential
students, and comprehension of potential students is the first step of persuasion.
Moreover, the migration of academically talented Chinese students (ATCS) to Korea is
a new unique case of student mobility since they go against the normal migration patterns
of other academically talented students, migration from knowledge used country to
knowledge creating country. International student mobility increased during the past three
decades mainly from East to West, knowledge used country to knowledge creating
country, with dominance of the English Language (Holloway, O'Hara, Pimlott-Wilson,
2012). Korea has been a knowledge used country (Phillips and Stahl, 2001), and it is still
one with more students leaving than coming (Park, 2008). However, student mobility
from one knowledge used country to another knowledge used country has been increasing
as Chinese students in Korea take up over 70% among the international students, and
Korean students in China take up over 33% among the international students (Rhee and
Park, 2012). Furthermore, migration of academically talented students from developing
country to developed country is more extreme than the less academically talented
students (Khraiche, 2014). This makes ATCSs’ migration to Korea even more unique,
new and out of the ordinary. Therefore, the discovery of ATCS’s reason in migrating to
Korea adds more academic value to this study since it may be able to explain the
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manifestation of the new student migration pattern: from one knowledge used country to
another knowledge used country.
1.2. Purpose of the Study and Research Questions
To enhance international long-term competitiveness of Korean universities and to make
up for the decreasing school age population, recruiting international students has become
a critical matter to Korean universities. However, to maintain the high quality of
education, more academically talented international students need to be recruited. Such a
need may naturally lead to the questions of who the academically talented students are
and what they look for in selecting a country of destination, university and the area of
study to major in.
Chinese students take up around 50% of the international student body in Korea
(Korean Immigration Office, 2014) and China is currently the country that sends out the
largest number of degree-seeking students abroad (Bodycott, 2009). At the same time,
China lacks academically competitive universities compared to their population (Yang,
2007), which places China as a potentially good target market to recruit students.
Therefore, this study will focus on recruiting ATCSs.
To attract ATCSs, the questions of what qualifications were sought, what were the
experiences in China, what were the personal needs, what was the process of decision-
making and how adaptation occurred in Korea by ATCSs seeking a degree in Korea will
be researched. The results of these questions are crucial since currently, it is implied
internationally and especially within China that entering a university in Korea is
relatively easier than in China. Chinese people, in general, think that students who study
in Korea are academically less talented (Park, 2013). Korea is not considered to be the
most admirable study-abroad destination as the US and Europe are still favored (Jo,
2003).
The process of adaptation is dealt with along with the decision-making process in this
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study since their satisfaction in Korea usually correlates with their academic success, and
their academic success will prove the quality of Korean education. The satisfaction level
of Chinese students in Korea is not very high as many have experienced being
disregarded and discriminated against due to their nationality. Some Koreans alienated
Chinese students while disparaging China's economic situation (Kim, 2009).
Therefore, to attract more ATCSs and help their adaptation, analysis of their needs and
how they compromised with the reality is a necessity to idealize correct strategies fit for
ATCSs in the future. Thus, the primary research questions are as follows:
1. What decision-making process did ATCSs go through in choosing to study in Korea for
their higher education? How did they decide on a specific university and major field?
What were the factors that affected their decision and the compromises they made?
2. Was the adaptation process of academically talented students different from other
students in the decision-making process of coming to Korea? What affected their
adaptation process and how can they be helped to adapt better? Did choosing their
university and major affect their adaptation?
1.3 Definition of Key Terms
Academically Talented Chinese Students
There are a number of ways a talent can be defined (Tansley, 2011). In this study,
academic high-achievement and continuance of graduate studies were the two main
factors in classifying "talents." This is in line with Gagné's definition of talent: "who have
the necessary capabilities to make a difference in a given field of human endeavor,
whether it is academia, arts, leisure, sport, social action, technology or business."2
Academia was the main key concept in defining talents in this study. Naturally,
academic high-achievement was considered the basic foundation to prove each student’s
capabilities, future potential and sincerity in the study. Students' continuance to graduate
2
Requote from Tansley, 2011
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programs such as master's degree and doctorate degree was important to confirm students'
devotion in academia and to prove their research abilities.
Study Destination
The country of destination, chosen university and major are the three choices included
in the term of "study destination" in this study. Different combinations of students'
preferences in deciding the country, university and major were analyzed to see whether
there were significant differences in the decision-making process and the adaptation
process. Since this study was focused on ATCSs in Korean universities, the destination
country was restricted to Korea, but students were asked if it was their first choice or not.
Adaptation
Adaptation is a general term used to describe one’s getting used to something new.
Berry (2005) referred to adaptation as acculturation, meaning to understand the
differences, negotiating how to deal with the differences and compromising to avoid
either internal and/or external conflicts. Acculturation is a process that occurs both
culturally and psychologically when one experiences a new culture different from one's
original cultural experiences after migration. This may lead to behavior change in either a
short-term or a long-term process.
In this study, only the adaptation to academics and the university lives was analyzed
since it is focused on academic decisions and the results of academically talented
international degree-seeking students. This would also be the limitation of this study since
not all the aspects of adaptation were dealt with.
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2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1. Higher Education in China and Korea
Both Korea and China send out more students than receive students (Li and Lee, 2014),
placing both countries still to be knowledge used countries rather than knowledge
creating countries.
2.1.1. Higher Education in China
Chinese universities initiated internationalization since early 1970s by opening
opportunities for students to study abroad. The three goals for China’s development set by
Den Xiaoping3
were modernization, the world and the future. He insisted that many
students need to study abroad, and this lead to an increase of international relations in
Chinese universities and embark globalization in education (Chen, 2011).
After 1980s, China is showing rapid expansion of internationalization. Chinese degree-
seeking students rank top in the number of international students studying abroad, and
more joint programs between Chinese universities and foreign universities are being
formulated (Shin, 2013). The number of Chinese students studying abroad fluctuates but
is increasing as below table 1 according to Project Atlas (2014).
<Table 1> Number of Chinese Students Studying Abroad
Different scholarship opportunities are also provided for Chinese students studying in
different international destinations. ‘Study Project,’ ‘Project of Oceania,’ ‘Project of
3
The General Secretary (the leader of the Communist Party) of China from December 1978 to 1992
Year 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2010-11 2014
Number of
Students
417,351 421,148 144,000 820,000 339,700 459,800
Incremental
Percentage
9% -66% 469% -59% 35%
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Asia,’ ‘Project of Europe,’ ‘Project of America’ and ‘Plan for 2008 State-Sponsored Study
Abroad Programs’ were all launched in 2008 (China Scholarship Council, 2014). This
explains the dramatic increase of Chinese students studying abroad in 2008-09 and the
gradual increase afterwards.
The top 10 study abroad destinations of Chinese students are as following in the order
of popularity: US, Australia, UK, Korea, Japan, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, France
and Russia (Project Atlas, 2008-09). In 2005-06 the order was US, Japan, UK, Australia,
Germany, New Zealand, Canada, France, Korea and Macao. The most interesting fact is
that Korea boosted up to rank four in 2008-09, which well shows the new phenomena of
student migration between knowledge used countries. Korean students are the number
one majority among international students in China, a number which has shown increase
over the years from 54,036 students in 2005 (38% among international students in China)
to 62,923 students in 2014 (17% among international students in China).
Along with the increase of Korean students, the number of international students
recruited to China is growing as well (Shin, 2013) as seen in table 2 (Project Atlas, 2014).
The number of Korean students gradually increased, but the percentage dropped since the
number of students from other nationalities increased more.
<Table 2> Number of International Students in China
Year 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010
Number of
Students
141,087 195,503 223,499 239,184 265,090
Incremental
Percentage
39% 14% 7% 11%
Percentage of
Koreans
38% 33% 30% 27% 24%
Year 2011 2012 2013 2014
Number of
Students
292,611 328,330 356,499 377,054
Incremental
Percentage
10% 12% 9% 6%
Percentage of
Koreans
21% 19% 18% 17%
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The number of students enrolled in higher education both nationally and internationally
is increasing as well as table 3 (Project Atlas, 2014). Different ‘Chinese Government
Scholarship’ opportunities such as ‘Great Wall Program,’ ‘EU Program,’ ‘PIF Program,’
‘Bilateral Program,’ ‘AUN Program,’ ‘WMO Program’ and ‘Chinese University Program’
along with ‘Marine Scholarship of China,’ ‘MOFCOM Scholarship,’ ‘Chinese Local
Government Scholarships’ and different university scholarships are attracting more
international students to study in China (China Scholarship Council, 2014).
<Table 3> Number of Chinese Students in Higher Education
It can easily be recognized from the statistics that the demand for higher education is
constantly increasing in China. The emphasis in higher education of the government has
fueled this national interest in education and continues to push students into education.
Due to the educational demand, more Chinese students are expected to seek higher
education abroad.
2.1.2. Higher Education in Korea
The Korean government’s initiatives for educational internationalization go back to
1993. An internationalization strategy of the Korean government was announced in 1993,
which was followed by a reformation in higher education was announced by the Korean
government in 1995. According to these strategies, an international studies major was
Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Number of
Students
17,328,475 18,352,821 20,957,082 23,741,859 25,285,551
Incremental
Percentage
6% 14% 13% 7%
Year 2008 2009 2010 2013 2014
Number of
Students
26,976,244 28,265,025 29,216,733 34,600,000 48,325,390
Incremental
Percentage
7% 5% 3% 18% 40%
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installed in nine different universities as an instrument of educational internationalization
in 1997. In 1999, revision was made in the public educational personnel and staff act,
which opened gates for Korean universities to freely hire foreign faculty. With these
preparations, in 2001, the plan to attract international students to Korea was announced.
This plan was then executed by the ‘Study Korea 2020’ project launched in 2004, which
was followed by the strategy for the internationalization of higher education in 2006 and
the announcement of the measures to improve services for international degree-seeking
students in 2009. The internationalization plan was elaborated even more with the
measures to enhance the “Global Education Service” in 2010 and “IEQAS: International
Education Quality Assurance System” which is the accreditation of universities’
capabilities in recruiting and managing international degree-seeking students in 2011
(Park & Song, 2013). Universities who were not able to manage international degree-
seeking students, such as with a high dropout rate, were not granted visa permits for new
entry international students. It could be understood that emphasis on education quality
was made starting from 2010, when the importance of service and management was
started to be highlighted.
Following the footsteps of above government plans, individual Korean universities
provided more courses in English, lecture courses regarding multi-culture, enforced
international education programs and internationalized academic curriculums such as
installing international colleges (Rhee and Jhun, 2015) to enhance internationalization.
Due to the above various strategies of the Korean government and individual universities,
the number of international students has increased enormously over the past decade as
seen below in table 4 (KEDI, 2014).
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<Table 4> Increase of International Students
The Korean government and individual universities continue their endeavors to recruit
more international students, by methods such as opening departments just for
international students (Shin, 2015), hosting university fairs in different countries and
promoting Korean universities through different marketing channels (Lee, 2011),
developing the abilities of university staffs (Kim, 2009), increasing university scholarship
for international students (Kim, 2011), lowering the entry bar for international students
(Jeong and Kim, 2015), providing wider opportunities to learn Korean in other countries
(Lee, 2011) and managing numerous services such as global lounges, buddy program,
international house and cultural excursions (Kim, 2011).
However, it is still very visible in table 5 (KIS, 2015) that Korea’s success in recruiting
international students is very much dependent on Chinese students, who take up over
66% among degree-seeking and language students.4
4
The statistics of KEDI in table 4 and KIS in table 5 and 6 differ as different groups have been included and
omitted in the calculation.
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<Table 5> Number of International Students by Nationality in 2014
Nationality Total
Junior College
graduates and
University
graduates
Master's
Degree
Doctorate
Degree
Language
Trainees
Total 76,580 29,690 16,334 5,403 25,153
China 50,333 23,361 8,898 1,827 16,247
Vietnam 5,013 1,036 1,176 592 2,209
Mongolia 3,649 1,068 1,144 220 1,217
Japan 1,525 564 184 57 720
Pakistan 1,041 43 406 503 89
Uzbekistan 1,025 321 225 47 432
Indonesia 980 319 365 130 166
India 975 43 201 645 86
Malaysia 735 372 104 56 203
Bangladesh 619 68 246 260 45
This tremendous increase of Chinese students is evaluated as having contributed much
to Korean universities’ internationalization. Nonetheless, it also raised concerns that
Korean universities overly rely on Chinese students for international student recruitment
(Park, 2013) as shown in table 6 (KIS, 2015).
<Table 6> Number of Chinese Students in Korean Higher Education5
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Chinese 31,384 56,197 63,209 66,635 65,271 59,304 54,235 55,008
Total
International
Students
41,780 71,531 80,985 87,480 88,468 84,711 81,847 86,410
Percentage
of Chinese
Students
75% 79% 78% 76% 74% 70% 66% 64%
5
The statistics of table 5 and table 6, both from KIS, are different to keep the calculated groups consistent
between different years. The numbers of students enrolled in language program and exchange program have
been omitted in the statistics of table 6 since those numbers were not calculated in 2007.
21. - 14 -
Although the number of international students has shown tremendous increase, there
still are issues that Korean universities need to solve. Some Chinese students face
difficulties in following the Korean university curriculum as what they have learned in
high school is different from what Korean students have learned in their high school.
Therefore, many Korean universities are providing different aids such as courses to
improve Chinese students’ Korean proficiency, courses to help understand different
culture and education environments and courses that encourage Chinese students to
interact with Koreans to enhance the quality of education along with the increase of
international students (Lee, Yu, Chang, 2013).
Additional to academic experiences, adaptation should not be neglected. The
relationship between Korean students and Chinese students is alarmingly low and Korean
students and Chinese students even have negative impressions about each other (Jon and
Jang, 2012). And the discrimination that international students experience in Korea
diminishes their favorable feelings towards Korea (Bae and Kim, 2014).
Therefore, reevaluation of international student recruitment strategy needs to be done
to further enhance students’ education experience and to provide better academic
environment rather than the universities’ current economic focus (Rhee and Jhun, 2015).
2.2. Theoretical Models in College Choice
2.2.1. The Chapman Model
David Chapman (1981) proposed the process students go through in selecting a college
in his journal, A Model of Student Choice. It emphasizes the effects of college
advertisement (communication) to potential students, but it is one of the first studies to
define the process of college choice. Prior to Chapman's, studies on college decisions
were mainly focused on the student's choice in whether to attend college or not.
In defining the process of college choice, Chapman took both the students' and the
colleges' features under consideration of analysis. Upon deciding on which college to
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attend, the background and current characteristics of the student, students' family and
series of external features, such as significant people influence, influenced the decision
heavily.
Among the student characteristics, socioeconomic status (SES) and aptitude played a
significant role in deciding the college. Along with these features related to the student,
the fixed characteristics of the college and college's effort in communicating with the
students affected students' selection of a college.
2.2.2. The Jackson Model
In 1982, the Jackson model proposes the three stages that students go though before
making a college choice. The three stages are the preference stage, the exclusion stage
and the evaluation stage (Vrontis, Thrassou, Melanthiou, 2007). Students first make a list
of the universities of their preference, highly influenced by their academic achievement.
Then, students exclude some institutions from the prospective list, after assessing the
tuition fee, location, and academic quality. Among the list of options they have
accumulated, students rate which institutions suit their needs better and make the final
decision.
2.2.3. The Hanson and Litten Model
Hanson and Litten also introduced a three-stage model (Litten, 1982). The first stage is
where students initially decide whether to attend post-secondary education. In the second
stage, students investigate and make up a list of candidate institutions. During the last
stage, students apply and enroll. Within the three stages, there are five distinctive
processes: gaining aspiration for college, initiating search, gathering information,
applying and enrolling.
23. - 16 -
2.2.4. The Hossler and Gallagher Model
Hossler and Gallagher (1987) suggested another three phases in college decision-
making process: predisposition, search process and choice. Predisposition is where
students decide to actually continue studying in higher education. After they decide to
continue their studies, students gather relevant information, which is the search phase. In
the third phase, choice, students compile a list of universities they will apply to.
These previous models described similar and different aspects of the decision-making
process of selecting a college/university and the influential factors. However, they did not
take under consideration the international student mobility just yet, as the concept
flourished after 1990s (Phillips and Stahl, 2001). Gradually as the interest regarding
international students has increased, more studies on international student mobility and
decision-making process have been conducted recently.
2.3. Literature Reviews on College Choice
2.3.1. International Degree-seeking Students
As internationalization has become one of the key topics of the higher education sector
in the 21st century (Bodycott, 2009), more studies are conducted on many aspects of
international students, such as adaptation, academic achievements, decision and diversity.
The decision-making processes of national students and international students show
different aspects as the two groups come from different socio-demographic profiles.
Among the two groups, international student recruitment is being emphasized as it
directly links to global talent recruitment (Findlay, 2011).
For students seeking a foreign degree, government policies, world economy and
economic and political conditions in the destination countries (Altbach, 1991) are the
acting influential factors. Studying abroad has also been considered as an "opportunity to
obtain a scarcer more valuable type of cultural capital in the form of a Western university
24. - 17 -
degree (Waters, 2006)." Along with these factors, influence of family and peers,
institution's global ranking and students' personal traits are proposed to affect the
decisions (Eder, Smith, Pitts, 2010).
There are also findings regarding the push and pull factors. According to Eder, Smith
and Pitts (2010), push factors are those that influence the student to seek a degree abroad,
in other words, it is the decision of "whether to go," while pull factors are those that
attract the student from the destination county/university, or in other words, it is the
decision of "where to go." The three push factors were determined to be personal growth,
language and careers. In the meantime, the pull factors were college issues, physical
geography, and the destination country's culture. And along with these push-pull factors,
visa issues and monetary issues were highlighted as key influential structural factors.
Lawley and Perry (1997) proposed that push factors were found to be (1) qualifications
in the home country and by the country's employers, (2) entry into the university, (3) ease
of gaining a student visa, and (4) scholarship opportunities, while pull factors were (1)
course characteristics, (2) country characteristics, (3) administrative processes, and (4)
costs.
Mazzarol and Soutar (2002) defined numerous and more specific push and pull factors
in international student mobility. The push factors they discovered were (1) knowledge
the student has of the destination country, (2) quality of education in destination
university/ country, (3) qualifications of the destination, (4) recommendation from
friends/relatives/agents and (5) education environment. The identified pull factors were
(1) better courses offered in overseas, (2) difficulty in gaining entry at home country, (3)
desired courses not being provided at home country, (4) wanting a better understanding of
destination country, (5) intention to migrate, (6) easiness in obtaining information of
destination country/ university, (7) fees, (8) travel cost, (9) job opportunities, (10) living
environment, (11) whether there is any racial discrimination, (12) entry qualifications,
(13) whether the desired university is a government run institution and (14) whether there
25. - 18 -
are friends and/or relatives in the destination area.
2.3.2. Case Studies on Chinese Students
According to Yang (2007), Chinese students seeking a degree in Australia mentioned
four push factors that motivated them to study abroad: (1) China's strong economic
growth, (2) going abroad becoming a trend in China, (3) the Chinese government's
positive attitude towards supporting international education and (4) there is an
"inadequate supply of university places in China's higher education." Six pull factors
were discovered: (1) knowledge and awareness, (2) recommendation, (3) cost, (4)
environment, (5) geographic proximity and (6) social links.
When Chinese students decided to seek a degree in UK's Business School, they took
into account (1) the reputation of the destination country with regards to educational
standards and (2) global recognition (Djafarova and Waring, 2012). Another two Chinese
students also studying in the UK mentioned that the four influential factors in their choice
of destination were (1) safety conditions of the destination country, (2) global university
ranking and education quality of the destination country, (3) expected annual expenditure
and (4) duration needed to learn the language spoken in the destination country (Gong
and Huybers, 2015).
Bodycott (2009) proposed two influential factors. Students valued the "tangible
qualities of the experience of studying abroad." At the same time, students spoke of the
influence their parents and families had in making the decision, which is not something
too odd in Confucianism-based Asian culture. This influence of parents in students'
decision-making process is also witnessed in a study done by Lee and Morrish (2012).
The case of Chinese students in Korea is quite different from those of the US and
Europe. They show different tendencies as the migrating group could differ, such as the
ethnically Korean Chinese students who come to Korea for a degree. The reasons for
coming to Korea in the order of the most popular answers for ethnically Korean Chinese
26. - 19 -
students were (1) academic purposes (40.2%), (2) opportunity to study abroad (12.2%),
(3) good educational environment (9.8%), (4) personal career development (7.3%), (5)
enhance Korean language proficiency (7.3%), (6) family's financial capability (6.1%), (7)
did not see other better alternatives (4.9%), (8) favor Korea (4.9%), (9) recommended by
friends (3.7%), (10) Korea is the motherland (2.4%), (11) proximity from China (1.2%),
and (12) able to speak the language (1.2%). The reasoning of Chinese students in Korea
was different from the ethnically Korean Chinese but similar to those of Chinese students
in Western countries. In the order of most popular reason, (1) academic purposes (42%),
(2) opportunity to study abroad (11%), (3) to learn the language (8.6%), (4) family's
financial capability (7.1%), (5) personal career development (7.1%), (6) good educational
environment (7.1%), (7) did not see other better alternatives (5.7%), (8) to earn money
(4.3%), (9) favor Korea (3.8%), (10) Korea being more developed than China (1.9%) and
(10) a genuine love for Korea (1%) were the reasons of choosing Korea (Park, 2009).
2.3.3. The Value of Pursuing Higher Education in Korea for Chinese Students
Along with the pursuance of academic experience, Chinese students come to Korea for
employment in Korean companies stationed in China and to experience the cultures
introduced in Korean dramas (Jo, 2003). According to Jo (2003), Korea is portrayed to be
highly developed and advanced; some students are attracted to the Korean cosmetics and
fashion, and some students come to Korea to see Korean celebrities. However, Jo's
interviewee states that students who are attracted to K-pop, drama, cosmetics and fashion
are those who are not very interested in academia. Those who excel in academics or have
specific purposes focus on their studies.
2.3.4. Decision-making Process of Academically Talented Students
According to a study conducted by Hegarty, Fuxman, Elifoglu, Chao (2014) on
Chinese students studying in the US, five reasons were found to have influenced their
27. - 20 -
decision in seeking a degree abroad: (1) see the world and broaden experience, (2) learn
the language and experience native speakers, (3) improve professional and financial
potential, (4) gain insight from new relationships and (5) take control of the future. This
study is even more meaningful to this study since it was answered mostly by
academically talented students. Among the 105 survey's, 46.7% of the respondents scored
at the top 50% of the Gaokao (Chinese College entrance exam), which is a sufficient
score to get into any first or second tier Chinese university.
Mahroum (2000) discovered that academically talented students are "mostly affected
by governmental, intergovernmental, inter-institutional policies" and are influenced to
migrate due to their "interest in an international career."
The result of another case study done by Furukawa (2011) on academically talented
students shows that the students are attracted to following factors: (1) university's
academic specialty and difference, (2) building personal connection with students in the
process of recruitment and (3) university's selectivity in recruitment.
2.4. Theoretical Models in Adaptation
When students migrate to another place, especially internationally, they need to adapt
to different aspects of the new culture such as academics, people, living environment,
religion, social culture and more. The quality of life differs according to the degree of
adaptation. Each individual experiences different adaptation phases, and different features
affect their adaptation process.
2.4.1. Oberg's Culture Shock Theory
Culture shock theory proposed by Oberg (1960) is the most widely known theory in
cultural adaptation. According to Oberg, there are four emotional phases of Culture
Shock: honeymoon, crisis, recovery and adaptation. These four phases happen when
international migration occurs. Honeymoon is when a newcomer experiences rapture,
28. - 21 -
admiration and passion after experiencing a new culture. In the crisis period, one
experiences depression, frustration, anger, anxiety and unfitness. After this difficult phase,
new comer learns the culture and resolves the crisis phase in the recovery phase. Lastly,
in the adaptation phase, the new comer adapts to the new culture and becomes competent
(Chung & Yang, 2004).
2.4.2. Berry's Acculturation Strategies
In 1997, Berry explained the term, 'acculturation.' Acculturation is when someone who
grew up in one distinctive culture experiences another new different culture after
migration, which leads to a change of behavior. This acculturation occurs through
different alternatives. Assimilation is embracing the new culture and coping with it.
Separation is avoiding the new culture while "holding on to their original culture."
Integration is embracing the new culture and holding on to the original culture at the same
time. Marginalisation is holding less value and putting less effort into cultural adaptation
(Berry, 1997).
2.5. Literature Review on Adaptation
2.5.1. Factors Affecting Academic Adaptation
In a research conducted by Surdam in 1980, international students who interacted more
with students of the study destination showed better adaptation and higher satisfaction
than those who spent more time with students from same nationalities. At the same time,
language was a critical factor in building relationships and adjusting to classes. This
research was conducted in the US and the subjects were both from non-western countries
and western countries. The result showed that international students from non-western
countries had more difficulties compared to students from western countries (Surdam,
1980).
According to Mallinckrodt and Leong (1992), personal situations, which were
29. - 22 -
proposed as the family environment support factors by the authors, and university issues,
named graduate program support factors by the authors, affected international graduate
students' adaptation. Among the personal situations, communication and cohesion,
financial resources and leisure quality, child rearing and living conditions had great
impacts in adaptation. Insofar as student-faculty relations, quality of instruction, facilities
and curriculum flexibility and tangible support and relations with other students were the
key universities issues that influenced adaptation (Mallinckrodt and Leong, 1992).
“Qualities of academic teachers, conditions of facilities, interactions in the student
class, state of academic life, organization of educational process and administrative
services” were assessed to have influenced students’ adaptation to a university (Toshkova
-Hristozova, 2012).
Johnson (2014) stated that "while studying a subject at the university level is
challenging, learning a language with its cultural implications, technical terms, and slang
and acronymic language creates additional changes that may serve to isolate international
students." However, even if a student is fluent in the language, difficulties may occur as
they may lack understanding of the culture (Morrow, 2010) since the understanding of the
language can vary due to how one perceives the situation or the language (Schyve,
2007)6
.
2.5.2. Adaptation of International Students in Korea
According to a study conducted on government scholarship recipients in Korea by Han,
Bae, Jeon in 2011, age and personal characteristics affected adaptation to Korean social
culture and engagement in relationships. It is suspected that other personal backgrounds
are not as influential since personality decides perception. Moreover, people with strong
self-control and higher emotional tolerance tend to adapt better (Britt, 1983). People with
higher social and emotional competencies on university life adjusted better (Jin, Liu, Lee,
6
Requote from Johnson (2014)
30. - 23 -
2015).
According to Yoon and Kim (2013), higher monthly living cost and better health
conditions influenced the satisfaction level of Chinese students in Korea. At the same
time, Chinese students who had better relationships with Korean students showed higher
satisfaction. Moreover, students with better relationships with their parents had higher
satisfaction. These findings are in line with the results of research conducted regarding
Chinese students in western countries.
On the other hand, experiences demonstrating more stress during cultural adaptation
and in living resulted in lower satisfaction. Friendship with Chinese students did not show
correlation with higher satisfaction levels. This may imply that Chinese students are more
interested in making Korean friends although they may form Chinese student groups
within the university and spend more time amongst themselves (Yoon and Kim, 2013).
At the same time, previous visiting experience in the destination country affected
adaptation (Klineberg and Hull, 1979). People who voluntarily chose to study abroad
displayed higher levels of emotional satisfaction (Son and Lee, 2011). Even though a
student’s selection of Korea, as a study abroad destination, was not of the student’s first
choice, it did not seem to have much effect on the adaptation (Kwon, 2008). Especially in
academic adaptation, language proficiency was proven to be very critical (Kim, 2009).
This is since language is the foundation ability to build up friendship, understand
university courses and communicate in daily life.
On the other hand, Kim (2012) pointed out four factors that disturbed successful
adaptation of international students in Korea. First, international students have learned
Korean upon entering into a university, but it was not sufficient enough for tertiary
education. Lack of language ability led not just to academic maladjustment but caused
devaluation of the international student by oneself and others. This sense of failure led to
depression as Korean students equated language ability with the international student's
academic ability, which then led to maladjustment. Second, international students had a
31. - 24 -
difficult time understanding the cultural context in Korean university students' life. This
led students to drift away from making Korean friends after a couple of negative
experiences such as excessive drinking or forced drinking. Third, not enough
understanding and consideration of Korean students made it difficult for international
students to fit in. Although some Korean students are willing to help, sometimes their
gestures of help made the international students feel more uncomfortable and/or distant.
Since Korean students have less understanding of how to build relationship with people
from different cultural backgrounds, the methods of the approach were rather
inappropriate. International students felt an emotional barrier from Korean students when
they were treated differently just because they were foreigners, although it could have just
been an act of consideration. Fourth, some professors provided less aid to international
students in need. International students reported that some professors condescended when
they asked questions regarding things that they did not understand and asked them to
figure it out on their own like other Korean students.
Moreover, Kim and Lee (2009) discovered that Chinese students found difficult to fit in
among Korean students as they felt that Korean students do not embrace foreigner
students as "we." They felt that international students could not be part of the group.
2.6. Learning
2.6.1. The Decision-making Process
All of the studies conducted on Chinese students studying abroad well portrayed the
complexity and extensiveness of the decision-making process that Chinese students go
through. However, the influential factors varied greatly depending on the individuals and
the study destinations.
Various push and pull factors were introduced in different researches. But all the details
and varieties of the push and pull factors could be summed up to (1) environment of the
home and host country, (2) academic environment of the home and host country and
32. - 25 -
university, (3) opportunities, (4) realistic factors such as cost, proximity and language and
(5) other personal preferences such as culture or social links.
However, the decision-making process is intensely complex and difficult with
overwhelming influential factors students have to consider to make the most beneficial
decision. This may differ according to every individual's needs, wants and situation.
According to the preceding studies done on academically talented students, the factors
that influence those students are more specific, goal-oriented and ambitious. At the same
time, they asked to be differentiated with university's selective recruitment, which seemed
to be an indirect way of proving to others and reassuring themselves of being
academically talented.
2.6.2. The Adaptation Process
Overall, international students plead the difficulty of fitting in due to discrimination
against foreigners. Academic difficulties were reported with less emphasis than
psychological and emotional hardships. Language related problems were reported as well,
but the fact that Koreans looked down on them due to poor language proficiency was
highlighted rather than the academic maladaptation. This can be understood that
international students suffered greater from emotional distress and problems that were
inflicted upon them rather than the problems that can be solved individually. International
students' craving for Korean friends implies their longing to fit in and be accepted.
Interesting findings were that students' individual characteristics and attitude affect the
level of adaptation, and that the preference of selecting the study destination did not have
much effect on the adaptation process and satisfaction level.
Moreover, it was surprising to find out that the moral support group, the Chinese friend
group, did not affect satisfaction in Korea. Although they offer comfort, international
students’ satisfactions increased by befriending the national students of the destination
country as they get to experience and learn the new culture. On the other hand, not many
33. - 26 -
studies were conducted on why and how compromises occur during international
students’ adaptation. No research mentioned what led the students to decide to adapt to
the new culture. This will be an area dealt with intensively in this study.
3. RESEARCH METHOD
3.1. Data Collection
A qualitative analysis method was used purposefully to determine the details of
decision-making processes of academically talented students. There have been various
quantitative studies done on the reasons of Chinese students studying abroad, which
increased the need for more in-depth findings.
Studies on academically talented international students have not been conducted much
in Korea. The number of Chinese students is the largest among the international degree-
seeking students in Korea. A case study on selected ATCSs was conducted as there was
high possibility to recruit academically talented students in a bigger pool. The study
focused on the participants’ decision-making process, factors that affected their decision-
making process, whether the decision-making process influenced the adaptation in Korea
and what made ATCSs decide to compromise with reality and adapt.
This case study methodology was selected to better understand the ambiguous nature of
talent mobility, since as Yin (1989) argued, in-depth interviews provide insightful
information rather than generalized answers.
3.2. Participants
The research participants were screened carefully under three criteria: 1. Chinese
nationality, 2. Achievement of relatively high test score in China's annual National
College Entrance Exams, Gaokao and 3. The pursuance of a master's and/or a doctorate
degree at a prestigious Korean university.
34. - 27 -
The boundary was set to Chinese degree-seeking students only since they take up the
largest population among the international degree-seeking students in Korea.
The Gaokao test score result was especially critical in judging whether a student was
academically talented as Gaokao is one of the most official methods to qualify a student's
academic abilities. The score of mock Gaokao tests was also taken under consideration
since there may have been possibilities where an academically talented student achieved
lower on the real Gaokao due to excessive stress or health conditions on the test day.
Only Chinese students currently enrolled in and/or graduated from the master's degree
program and/or currently enrolled in and/or graduated the doctorate degree program were
selected to affirm their academic achievements further. Pursuing higher education above a
bachelor's degree was used as proof of the students' sincerity and devotion to academics.
Students were selected only from the top seven Korean universities from QS World
University Rankings 2015/16: Seoul National University (36th), Korea University
(104th), Yonsei University (105th), Sungkyunkwan University (118th) and Hanyang
University (193th).
After the basic criteria were met, six participants, each with different backgrounds and
experiences, were selected according to their priority in selecting Korea, their university
and the major. Participants were asked whether Korea, the university and the major they
chose were of their 1st priority or not. This was to see the difference in the compromises
students had to make during their decision-making process, and whether it had any
influence in their adaptation to Korean life and academic life. For two interviewees who
received bachelor's and master's degrees from Korea, their cases were divided into two
sections for analysis: their decision-making plan for the BA and for the MA/PhD.
Through this, all eight scenarios of the combination for selecting the country, university
and major according to priorities were covered.
To verify whether there were differences in the process of decision and adaptation
between students from different disciplines, participants from different departments were
35. - 28 -
chosen. Two students from the department of engineering, one student from the
department of education, one student from the department of international politics, one
student from the department of business management and one student from the
department of linguistics were selected as research participants.
To remain unbiased regarding different genders' opinions, three male students and three
female students were nominated to interview.
The participants' regions of origin from China were also taken under consideration
since each region within China may have provided different educational environments
and opportunities and influenced the participants' decisions.
Last but not least, the type and the amount of the scholarship granted to the participants
were taken into account since scholarship has influenced the decision-making process and
the compromises made during adaptation. All the cases were different as there were
participants self-funded with minimum scholarship, funded by the Korea government
and/or university and/or academic advisor, and granted with the Chinese government
scholarship.
Jiejie Soonjun Gahong
Birth Year 1986 1986 1987
Gender Female Male Male
Gaokao Score Around 670 / 750 Around 600 / 750 Around 600 / 750
Bachelor’s Degree
Research-oriented
top university in
Beijing, China
Teaching-oriented
university in
Daejeon, Korea
Teachers College in
Shandong, China
Master’s Degree Research-oriented
university in Seoul,
Korea
Research-oriented
university in
Seoul, Korea
Research-oriented
university in Seoul,
Korea
Doctoral Degree
Department of Major Social Sciences
MA: Liberal Arts
Engineering
PhD: Education
Korean Language
Proficiency before
coming to Korea
TOPIK level 6
No knowledge in
Korean language
No knowledge in
Korean language
Current Korean
Language
Proficiency
TOPIK level 6 TOPIK level 6
Did not learn
Korean in Korea
Taken Language
Course in Korea
No Yes No
36. - 29 -
Whether Korea was
the 1st
choice
No
BA MA PhD
No
No Yes Yes
Whether the
University was the 1st
choice
No No Yes Yes Yes
Whether the Major
was the 1st
choice
Yes No No Yes Yes
Home Town Jilin Province Shanxi Province Shandong Province
Year Started to Study 2009 2007 2009
Scholarship
50% BK21
Scholarship
100% University
Scholarship
100% Scholarship
(BK21)
Henji Sanxi Leiwei
Birth Year 1988 1986 1990
Gender Female Male Female
Gaokao Score Around 600/750 Around 600/750 Around 630/750
Bachelor’s Degree
Research-oriented
top university in
Pusan, Korea
Research-oriented
top university in
Shandong, China
Research-oriented
top university in
Shandong, China
Master’s Degree
Research-oriented
university in Seoul,
Korea
Research-oriented
university in
Seoul, Korea
Research-oriented
university in Seoul,
Korea
Doctoral Degree Planning to pursue
Planning to
pursue
No plan yet
Department of Major Business Engineering Liberal Arts
Korean Language
Proficiency before
coming to Korea
No previous
knowledge in
Korean language
TOPIK level 3 TOPIK level 4
Current Korean
Language
Proficiency
TOPIK level 6 TOPIK level 3 TOPIK level 6
Taken Language
Course in Korea
Yes Yes No
Whether Korea was
the 1st
choice
BA MA
Yes Yes
No Yes
Whether the
University was the 1st
choice
Yes No Yes No
Whether the Major
was the 1st
choice
No Yes Yes No
Home Town Liaoning Province Hebei Province Xi’an Province
Year Started to Study 2008 2011 2014
Scholarship
70% (BA), 100%
(MA) University
Scholarship
Self-funded with
10% University
Scholarship
60% University
Scholarship
37. - 30 -
The exact university and major of each interviewee will not be disclosed in this study
to protect each interviewee’s identity as it has low relevancy to the topic of this thesis.
The names of the interviewees are false names to protect their identities.
3.3. Interview Questionnaire
Questions regarding the students’ process of making a decision to come to Korea in
pursue of higher education and the process they went through in adapting to Korea were
inquired.
For a better understanding of the decision-making process, participants were asked
whether Korea, their university and major were of their first choice and the reason of their
deciding to come. The factors that affected their decision and the compromise the
participants had to make during adaptation and the decision-making process especially
when the decision was not originally their first choice were researched.
To analyze the correlation between the participants' processes of decision-making and
adaptation to Korea, questions dealing with their daily lives such as dining, relationships
and cultural experiences were asked. Questions about the professors, major, studies,
classes were asked to analyze their academic adaptation.
Among six interviews, four were conducted in Korean, one was conducted in English
and one was conducted partially in Korean and Chinese. An interpreter assisted for the
interview that was partially conducted in Chinese. The languages were decided upon
based on the preference of the interviewees and because the interviewer was equally
comfortable with both English and Korean.
<Interview Questions>
1. Personal Information
- What was your Gaokao score?
- Are you a scholarship recipient?
38. - 31 -
- Did you speak Korean before coming to Korea?
- Did you have any experiences related to Korea prior to your decision in coming to
Korea?
Or had a Korean friend?
- When did you come to Korea for a degree?
- Which city of China are you from?
- How was your experience in Korea in general?
2. Regarding Migration
- How did you decide to come to Korea?
- How did you decide to attend your university?
- How did you decide on your major?
- Were Korea, your university and major your first choices?
- What were the influential factors?
- Where did you gather information?
- In what order did you decide the destination country, university and major?
- How was learning a new language, Korean?
- Would you prefer a Korean university with more Chinese students or less?
- Would you prefer a Korean university with more Chinese professors?
- What do you think about Korean people in general?
- Was there anyone who recommended Korea to you?
3. Regarding Adaptation
- Have you achieved as much as you expected academically in Korea?
- Were you satisfied with your courses?
- How is your relationship with your professor and classmates?
- Who are the friends you spend the most time with?
- Who do you eat lunch with?
- Do you attend school events and/or hangout with your class (lab) mates?
39. - 32 -
- What were the most difficult things? What did you like the most?
- Are you satisfied with your university and your major?
- Would you recommend your university and major to anyone else?
- Do you feel that your university is your university?
- What was most important to you in the university?
- Do you like how the classes are operated in your university and in Korea?
- Did someone recommend your university and major to you?
3.4. Analytic Method
To gain better understanding of each participant, two interviews were conducted for
every interviewee. First, a three hour-long interview was conducted devoted to
participants' decision- making process, the adaptation process in academics and personal
life in Korea. After the interview contents were analyzed, another two hour-long
interview was conducted for additional questioning and reconfirmation of the previous
responses.
The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed by classifying the cases of
each interviewee to find the differences and similarities in the experiences and the
processes. All the interviewees were aware of the recording after they were given a choice
of refusing the recording. During the analysis, the different phases of the decision-making
and the adaptation processes were. At the same time, classified all the influential factors
from each interview were identified and extracted into keywords and were put into
different clusters according to the characteristic of the influential factors. Upon the
completion of the analysis on the decision-making process and adaptation process, efforts
were made to find correlation between the decision-making process, influential factors
and both the process of academic and personal adaptation to Korea.
The phases of decision-making and adaptation processes were listed according to the
descriptions of the interviewees. The interviewees were able to describe the processes in
40. - 33 -
detail. However, they were not able to list the influential factors but tell small stories
during their decision-making process and adaptation process. Therefore, distinctive
influential factors were extracted from the stories. After all the influential factors were
discovered from all interviewees, they were classified into emotional and rational reasons
according to how it affected the interviewees. Rational reasons were those that had
cognitive meanings, while as emotional reasons were those that had affective and
intuitive meanings. Lastly, after emotional and rational reasons were classified, influential
factors of emotional reasons were conceptualized into a higher ordinate concept, whether
the factors were initiated by external attributes or by internal attributes.
41. - 34 -
4. FINDINGS
4.1. Decision-Making Process of Study Destination
4.1.1. College Choice Process
After analyzing all the interviews, the decision-making process was proven to be
complex with numerous influential factors discovered in the preceding researches in this
study and newly discovered influential factors. Numerous influential factors were found,
but different factors had different effects on different individuals depending on each
individual’s preferences and circumstances. The process also varied depending on the
individual’s choices.
In the sequence of selecting the study destination, country selection determined the
whole decision-making process. The university and major were decided after the country
was decided. However, in the process of deciding on the country, the university and the
major, the sequence was same for those who selected their first choice or not. There was
just an additional step of compromise for those that had to choose their alternative option.
Those who compromised had more influential factors that affected their decision.
<1>
Sanxi: I chose to come to Korea after my good experiences as an exchange student in
Korea. After choosing to come to Korea, I decided on the university and the major at
the same time. I had a specific university that I wanted, and I was going to continue the
major I studied in my bachelor’s degree.
Leiwei: I wanted to come to Korea for master’s degree because I majored Korean
language and literature. After confirming coming to Korea, I listed the universities and
majors that I wanted to apply for. I listed higher ranked universities and average ranked
universities as my options. While doing that, I selected the majors that I thought I
would be accepted according to the ranking of the university. I chose Korean language
42. - 35 -
and literature safely for high-ranking universities, and I chose other majors in less
famous universities.
Jiejie: I chose to come to Korea because I could not apply for my first choice, Japan. I
decided on which universities to apply according to their rankings and whether I was
aware of their school name. Then, I looked at what majors they offered and checked if
there was something of my interest.
Soonjun: I chose to come to Korea because someone recommended it after I failed my
Gaokao exam twice. I wanted to go to New Zealand, but it was too expensive. I chose
the university that I wanted to attend to after my Korean language course program in
Korea finished and then chose the best major from that university, even though that
major was not in my best interest.
Gahong: I wanted to continue my graduate program in China. However, my advisor
recommended me Korea. He recommended me an advisor in Korea, a university and a
major. I decided on coming to Korea, then searched about the university, then decided
on the major.
Henji: I originally thought about the US, Japan and Singapore. I decided to come to
Korea since that was the fastest way out of China. I was able to enroll in the Korean
program, offered by the overseas study agent, right away. After finishing a year of
language program, I decided on the university first, and then decided on the major.
Students who originally wished to pursue education in Korea responded to have
decided on their study destination according to diagram 1, choosing the country first and
choosing the university and the major simultaneously. Whilst students who chose Korea
not by pure will but because their first choice of destination country was not available due
to different circumstances decided on their destination as the process shown in diagram 2,
deciding on the country, the university, then the major finally in order.
43. - 36 -
[Diagram 1]
[Diagram 2]
4.1.2. Deciding on the Country
In deciding the country, participants had various rational and emotional reasons that
influenced them in choosing Korea, whether it was their first choice or not. The process
was found to be complicated and logical yet emotional as well. The rational influential
factors discovered from the interviews were academic reputation and ranking, economic
reasons, country features, professional recommendations and academic correlation as
seen in <2>. The emotional influential factors were personal recommendations,
personally adequate timing, proximity from china, cultural reasons, expectations and/or
desires in academic achievements, desires to be different from others, value of learning a
new language, impulsive emotions such as wanting to leave china, unsatisfying/not
desiring Chinese programs and personal experience as <3>.
<2>
Academic reputation and ranking
Jiejie: I knew that Korean master's program was more internationally
recognized than the Chinese master's degree program.
44. - 37 -
Gahong: I never had the thought to study abroad before my college professor
suggested and recommended. I did not have any previous knowledge about
Korea, but I researched to learn about Korea's academic excellence.
Sanxi: I was also surprised about the Korean education quality and the
curriculum during my exchange student program period. The curricula were
always so up-to-date and practical.
Economic reasons
Soonjun: I originally had New Zealand in mind, but that was way too
economically burdensome for my parents compared to Korea. Korea became
more economically manageable with the economic development in China.
Gahong: I was granted a fund to study, so I had nothing to lose.
Henji: I wanted to go to the US, but it was too expensive. So, I listed my
options from the Asian countries.
Country features
Jiejie: I experienced how comfortable it is in Korea from my previous visits.
Gahong: The technological advancement of Korea got me excited to come.
Sanxi: Korea is such a well-developed, convenient, comfortable and safe place
to live. The administration work is great. For example, it takes six months to
receive a restaurant permit in China, but it only takes couple of days in Korea.
At the same time, due to academic excellence, some people recommended
Japan to me. Neither I nor my family wanted me to go to Japan because of the
historical dispute China has with Japan. The negative image of Japan is quite
big in China whereas the image of Korea is pretty positive.
Leiwei: The possible options for study abroad in Asia were either Japan,
Singapore, Korea. Singapore was my second option after Korea. Japan was not
45. - 38 -
even an option because of the ill feeling my father has. My father was worried
that I might get locked up should a political conflict occur (laugh). Korea
seemed more appealing from what I have seen in Korean dramas. Everything
seemed very sophisticated.
Professional recommendations
Henji: The study abroad agent very strongly recommended me Korea due to its
academic excellence and well organized programs.
Gahong: I decided to come to Korea in the first place because my college
professor recommended it to me. My Chinese professor did his post-doctorate
program in Korea, and he was doing so well in China. I hoped that I could
become like him after my studies in Korea.
Academic correlation
Jiejie: I thought that it would be beneficial for the future to study in Korea
since I want to become an expert in Northeast Asian international relations, and
not many friends from my major have expertise in Korea.
Gahong: Although I did not speak any Korean, I was informed that the entire
program was provided in English, and that I would have no problem handling
the studies with my knowledge from my bachelor’s degree program. Therefore,
language was not a barrier to me, and I was able to decide to come.
<3>
Personal recommendations
Soonjun: The son of my parent's business partner was already studying in
Korea. They recommended Korea to my parents. Japan was also an option, but
my family had negative emotions for Japan due to its history with China.
46. - 39 -
Personally adequate timing
Jiejie: I wanted to continue my master's degree in Japan because of my major.
However, there was a long gap between my graduation period and the
admissions period of Japanese universities, so I decided to apply for a Korean
university in between since I was able to apply and attend right away. My
parents and I thought that studying would at least be better than wasting time
just waiting for the enrollment of Japanese universities.
Soonjun: Korea was the fastest country that I could choose from with limited
information about study abroad since I knew someone studying in Korea
already. I did not need to consult any study abroad agent or waste time
searching online.
Henji: The study abroad agent recommended me Korea as the fastest way out
of China.
Proximity from China
Soonjun: My parents thought that since Korea is close to China, it would be
convenient.
Gahong: I am a man, so neither my parents nor I worried too much about safety
or the distance.
Henji: Because I am a daughter, my parents were worried about sending me
abroad alone. They preferred Korea over the US since it is close.
Cultural reasons
Jiejie: I also felt belongingness in Korea because Chinese and Koreans look
alike. There was an incident where a Korean asked me how to get to a place
while I was walking down the street in Seoul in my previous visit.
Soonjun: Since my mother was a big fan of Korean drama, she thought that
47. - 40 -
there would be less racial discrimination, and that it would be safe.
Leiwei: I liked how Korean people still abided by Confucianism beliefs such as
respecting parents. For example, I saw many scenes in dramas where the gown
up children would actually separate from their lovers even when their parents
stopped their relationship without proper and rational reasons. You cannot
expect that in Chinese dramas nowadays.
Expectations and/or desires in academic achievements
Jiejie: I actually intended to apply to a Japanese university after studying in
Korea just while I was waiting for the application period of Japanese
universities, but I decided to remain in Korea since I was learning a lot and
expected to gain greater academic insight.
Desires to be different from others
Jiejie: Many of my friends went to North America, Europe or Australia, and
some stayed behind in China. But I did not want to pursue my degree in any of
the above countries since I did not like the path that everyone else took. It was
not special, and it did not interest me.
Value of learning a new language
Soonjun: I thought learning an additional language would be beneficial.
Henji: Learning a new language other than English seemed more beneficial
than studying for the Gaokao exam for another year.
Impulsive emotions such as wanting to leave China
Jiejie: While I was waiting for admissions to open in Japan, all my friends had
already decided their paths and kept on asking me about my plans. I got
48. - 41 -
anxious since I was the only one with no firm answer, so I just applied for a
Korean university since it was not too difficult to apply as I met all their
qualifications. It happened all very abruptly and suddenly.
Soonjun: After achieving poorly in the Gaokao exam twice, I just had enough
in China. I wanted to leave and escape to anywhere. It literally took me like 10
seconds to answer ‘yes’ when my mother recommended Korea to me.
Henji: I used to be one of the smartest kids in class. But I did not score well on
the Gaokao exam, and I did not want to prepare for the same exam, studying
the same things all over again. So I decided to study abroad immediately. I was
so devastated and sad that I wanted to leave China as soon as possible.
Unsatisfying/not desiring Chinese programs
Jiejie: I did not like the master's degree program in China, although I studied in
the best university in China, since it was internationally not so recognized.
Sanxi: I knew that Chinese graduate programs do not teach you so much since
the curriculum are not very advanced or different from that of undergraduate
programs. I expected I would learn something different and more in-depth
academic knowledge in the graduate program in Korea rather than in China.
Leiwei: I did not want to continue my master's degree in China because they
make you take general courses in politics. I am not interested in politics, and
Chinese universities' master's programs last for three years. I thought that was
too long for me.
Personal experience
Jiejie: Korea was not a very difficult option for me since I spoke Korean. I am
a Han Chinese, but I attended school for ethnic Koreans living in China, and
my mother is ethnically Korean. I understood Korean people and Korean
49. - 42 -
culture pretty well. I also had a certificate of the TOPIK level 6 examination
(and also the highest level of JPLT test). I had every requirement, so it was not
so complicated to try out Korean universities. Also, I was very familiar with
Korea already because I had been here several times. I attended a program
during my elementary and college periods. I had several Korean friends from
elementary, middle and high schools.
Sanxi: My experience in Korea was always so intriguing and exciting as an
exchange student. My friends were always very helpful too. I had nothing but
good images of Korea.
Leiwei: I liked my experience in Korea. During my exchange student program,
many Korean friends were extremely helpful and friendly. I was actually
discontent with my major, Korean language and literature back in China, but
after experiencing the culture, I wanted to learn more about it.
Korea was Sanxi and Leiwei’s first choice of study destination as they had previous
experience in Korea. They were aware of how classes were conducted in Korea, which
they were satisfied with; they were well informed of the international recognition of
Korean universities; they were able to speak Korean; and they enjoyed their experience in
Korea during their exchange student program.
They also spoke about the following factors that influenced their decision: country
features (development of Korea, comfortable living environment, safety and
convenience), quality of the higher education curriculum, cultural reasons, personal
academic quench and discontentment of Chinese graduate program. Distinctively, both
participants did not report financial features as an important criterion. This is suspected to
have not been reported since they were aware of the living costs in Korea, and it was not
a hurdle during their decision-making process. At the same time, their positive personal
experience had heavy influence.
50. - 43 -
However, Korea was not the first choice for Jiejie, Soonjun, Gahong and Henji. They
originally aimed for another country but ended up coming to Korea. Among the four, two
came for an undergraduate program and the other two came for a graduate program. More
influential factors affected their decision-making process compared to the factors that
influenced Sanxi and Leiwei. The four participants seemed to have required more
influential factors to confirm their decision as they needed to compromise to choose their
alternative option.
Among the four participants whose first choice of country was not Korea, the
expectations in academic achievement were the most important influential factor in the
Jiejie and Gahong who applied for the master's program. They were aware of the
academic reputation and excellence of Korea, which made them decide on Korea along
with other several reasons, although it was not their first choice. After the academic
qualification was met, other factors such as desire to be different from other students,
language proficiency, adequate application period, country features (convenience),
cultural familiarity, prior experience in the country, recommendation and unsatisfying
international reputation of Chinese university's graduate programs' concerted the decision
to come to Korea. Those factors made the participants compromise to their alternative
option, Korea. They cared less about financial issues as they were granted scholarships.
The case was a little different for Soonjun and Henji, who came to Korea for a
bachelor’s program. Failure from Gaokao exam was the first motivator of them leaving
China and other influential factors helped decide the country. They were also concerned
about fees since they had to pay tuition and additional costs for language program.
The reasons in choosing a destination country and the selection process were clustered
as diagram 3, and the decision-making process reported by the participants are shown in
diagram 4 and 5. There were several rational reasons and personal emotional reasons that
effected participants' decisions, but each participant valued different criteria and had
different set of important reasons.
51. - 44 -
[Diagram 3]
In the interviews, more emotional reasons were reported than rational reasons. Among
the emotional reasons, there were factors that were stimulated by external attributes and
some that were stimulated by internal attributes. Participants reported similar stories
regarding rational reasons and emotional reasons that were stimulated by external
attributes. On the contrary, more individual and different stories were reported for
emotional reasons that were stimulated by internal attributes. This shows how
generally/normally expected influential factors affect ATCSs in deciding on the study
destination, but there are personal reasons that make big differences in the decision-
making process of every individuals.
[Diagram 4]
52. - 45 -
[Diagram 5]
In deciding the destination country, the process appeared to have an additional layer
from students whose first priority of destination country was Korea and those who were
not as shown in diagrams 4 and 5. Listing up the priority of criteria, preferred countries
and checking whether the first choice of destination country can fulfill all the criteria
were the same for both groups. Participants have shown the tendency to list up the
country and the deciding criteria almost simultaneously since those two lists correlated
and affected each other heavily. Some participants chose country due to certain specific
criteria while setting priority of criteria at the same time.
However, the difference was shown after first choice of destination was decided.
Participants whose first choice was Korea compared the deciding criteria with the
understanding they had about Korea and decided to come to Korea as Korea satisfied the
criteria. On the other hand, participants who could not choose their first choice of
destination country had to make compromises in selecting Korea. The compromise took
place by shifting the priorities among the deciding criteria, considering the upsides of
Korea more generously, and/or finding other beneficial and positive reasons to choose
Korea. The compromise took place differently for every participant depending on how
fast they had to decide; some decisions were made right after first option was not
available while some decisions were made much later. After the compromise was made,
participants decided upon coming to Korea, their alternative choice without much
53. - 46 -
hesitance.
Overall, the emotional reasons were identified to have greater effects on the decision-
making and compromising process of the participants than the rational reasons.
4.1.3. Deciding on the University and the Major
After students had chosen the country, they had separate criteria for selecting the
university and the major. The decision-making process of selecting a university and major
was as equally complex as the decision-making process of selecting a destination country.
However, students who enrolled in the university of their first choice, and those who
chose an alternative option displayed differences in their processes of the selection.
Among the participants, Gahong, Henji and Sanxi were admitted to their first choice of
university while Jiejie, Soonjun and Leiwei were admitted to their non-first choice of
university. The factors that influenced their decision-making process could be seen below
in <4> and <5>. Just as the influential factors in deciding on the country, the influential
factors in deciding on the university and major were clustered into rational and emotional
reasons. Again, the emotional reasons were grouped to those that were stimulated from
external attributes and internal attributes.
The rational reasons were academic reputation and ranking, economic reasons,
academic environment such as professors and laboratory, student body and alumni and
professional recommendations as seen in <4>. The emotional reasons were personal
recommendations, university features, possibility of acceptance, moral support group,
curriculum and style of class conduct, expectations and/or desires in academic
achievements, desires to be different from others, personal preference such as interest,
feeling and fit, continuance from and/or correlation with previous degree and less Chinese
students as <5>.
Since Gahong, Henji and Sanxi attended universities of their first choice, their reasons
for applying were straightforward and predictable, such as academics, financial situation
54. - 47 -
and education environment. On the other hand, the reasons of Jiejie, Soonjun and Leiwei
applying for their universities were more diverse and personal. They were not able to
apply to the university of their first choice due to different issues, so more reasons were
sought to compromise their decision in choosing their alternative option.
<4>
Academic reputation and ranking
Jiejie: I originally did not know much about my university, but because it is
partners with the university I attended in China for my bachelor’s degree, I
assumed that it was a good university. While I was looking up information
regarding the academics, I realized that my Korean university was one of the
high ranking schools.
Soonjun: I attended the Korean language program in this university in
Daejeon as I was informed that it was an education-oriented city, and there
was not much regional dialect. I attended the same university for my
bachelor’s degree program due to financial reasons. However, in choosing the
major, I chose the best and the most well-known major in the university. My
original major was science and engineering, but I knew that it sucked in my
Korean university. I had very few options to choose from since my Korean
university was not one of the high ranked schools. After graduating from my
bachelor’s program, I wanted to attend my current university for my master’s
degree program since it was one of the highest ranked universities in Korea.
Gahong: I first became acquainted with the university for my master’s degree
due to my college professor in China. When I first heard about the university,
I was like... What is that? I have never heard about it. Is it really a good
school? So… I searched online and found out that it was a very famous and
high ranked university. After knowing that, I was okay with coming to Korea.
55. - 48 -
Sanxi: I applied only to my university because it was one of the top
universities in Korea. I learned about the school when I was in Korea as an
exchange student. If I did not get into my university, I was not going to come
to Korea.
Leiwei: After I got accepted to both a very high ranked university (my
university) and less high ranked one, I chose my university (the very high
ranked one) due to the its name value and ranking, although my preference
for major was in the less prestigious university.
Economic reasons
Soonjun: The institute where I attend the Korean language program offered
one of the most affordable Korean language programs. It was located in
Daejeon, where living expenses were cheaper. I enrolled for a one-year (four
semesters long) language course but managed to finish all the levels within
nine months (three semesters) after studying very hard. I wanted a get a
refund of the one remaining semester. However, they refused to refund the
money to me according to its internal regulations and informed me that it
could only be converted to tuition fee if I enrolled as a degree-seeking student
in their bachelor's degree program. Therefore, to save money, I just enrolled
for the bachelor’s program. By that time, I had declared independence from
my parents, so the non-refundable tuition was a big amount for me.
Gahong: I had a full scholarship for study and living, and it was a good
opportunity. If I had not had the scholarship, I would not have come.
Henji: I applied for a university in Pusan rather than the one in Seoul because
tuition fee was too expensive compared to Pusan.
56. - 49 -
Academic environment such as professors and laboratory
Jiejie: I found out that there was a professor who specialized in the same field
as I did, and there were some research institutes I wanted to participate as
well.
Soonjun: In selecting the area of expertise within education for my doctorate
degree program, my professor played a big role. I wanted a younger professor
with greater academic prospect in the future.
Gahong: My Chinese professor informed me that my Korean advising
professor (who did research with the Chinese professor) is an academically
influential scholar nationally and internationally known in his field. I read
some of his works, and I became sure that I would learn a lot from him.
Sanxi: I knew that the most renowned scholar in the field was teaching in my
university.
Student body and alumni
Soonjun: When I was applying for my master’s program, I considered the
power of alumni. Especially in Korea, it is important in establishing a social
network.
Gahong: My professor from my Chinese college is from my Korean
university, and he is doing very well in my discipline in China. I wanted to
follow his footsteps.
Professional recommendations
Gahong: My professor from the Chinese university highly recommended my
Korean university and my Korean advisor.
Henji: I first chose a university in Daegu for my Korean language course
because my overseas study agent recommended. They also informed me that
57. - 50 -
Daegu was a good, big city and that the university was prestigious.
<5>
Personal recommendations
Soonjun: I first entered my Korean language course program because the son
of my parents’ business partner recommended it. When I was deciding on my
doctorate degree program, my Chinese friends advised me on which specific
major to choose along with the information regarding the advising professors'
personalities and research works.
Sanxi: My Korean friends recommended me my university due to its
academic excellence and its presence in Korean society.
Leiwei: I applied for and got into to two very high ranking universities, A and
B, and I wanted to study at A. In the end, I ended up choosing B because one
of my Chinese friends enrolled in the major that I wanted to study at A told
me that international students and Korean students are treated differently.
University features
Jiejie: I liked the long history of my university, which was similar to my
university back in China. Another special factor about my university is that it
teaches Confucianism, different from other Korean universities. Additionally,
I liked that a big and stable Korean company was the managing board.
Possibility of acceptance
Soonjun: In selecting the major for my master’s program, I had to choose
something that was related to my bachelor’s degree. If not, I was afraid I
would get rejected if there was low relevancy. I originally wanted to study
education, but my bachelor’s degree had no correlation to it. Although I did
58. - 51 -
not like it, I had to choose the same master’s degree major as my bachelor’s
degree major, to safely get accepted to one of the highest ranked university.
When I applied for my doctorate degree, I was finally able to choose what I
wanted to study. Because I was moving within the same university, I was
confident that I could change my major this time and get accepted.
Leiwei: Although it was not my first choice, I chose the best possible
university I could since there are more opportunities in higher ranked schools
and better academic atmosphere is provided. I thought that there would be a
better chance of employment when graduating from higher ranked
universities. When I was applying for the most prestigious high ranked
universities, I did not apply for a major that I wanted to study but applied for
the major that I studied in my previous degree thinking that I would have
higher chances of getting accepted. When I applied for less renowned
universities, I selected the majors that I wanted to study. This decision was
made because I was worried that I would not get accepted. I knew that in
Korea, the same major for all degrees is more ideal.
Moral support group
Henji: Many of my friends remained in Daegu, so I did not want to be too far
away from my friends. Therefore, I went to Pusan.
Soonjun: I wanted to attend a university in Seoul. Along with the financial
reason, I was emotionally attached to the staff and faculty members of the
international office. Emotional detachment from them was difficult for me to
give up just yet, being still new to Korea and young.
Curriculum and style of class conduct
Jiejie: My university taught Asian Philosophy courses, which was one of my
59. - 52 -
great interests. Along with that, a good program was provided in the major
that I was interested in. I also liked that it had many studies related to China. I
thought that because they knew a lot about China, they would be more
considerate towards Chinese students.
Henji: When I was applying to my university for my master’s degree, I asked
my Chinese friends, already enrolled there, about how the classes were
conducted. My friends said that it was academically demanding but very
fulfilling. Many Chinese friends told me that the curriculum of business
department was excellent.
Sanxi: My university offered good programs related to my major.
Leiwei: I was informed from my Chinese friends that the expectations
regarding academic achievement were different between Korean students and
international students. Tasks given to international students were easier than
tasks given to Korean students, but I wanted to learn a lot and wanted my
studies to be difficult and challenging. I wanted to be treated equally like
Korean students academic-wise, so I decided to enroll at my Korean
university. I valued academic challenge over an easy degree.
Expectations and/or desires in academic achievements
Gahong: After finishing my master’s degree, I continued my doctorate
degree. However, I changed my major since my advising professor
established a new major, and I wished to follow him. It was different from my
area of expertise, but I thought it was better for my future. That new area has
more opportunities since it is a newly emerging and popular discipline. Also,
I liked my professor, and I wanted to continue learning from him. Of course,
he gave me the funding to study in Korea, so it was very natural for me to
follow him.
