Educational Migration from Kazakhstan to China: Reality and Prospects

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the study is determined by the gradual expansion of educational cooperation between Kazakhstan and China and the need to identify the competitive advantages of the educational system of China over Kazakhstan’s system of higher education. The purpose of the article is to identify factors stimulating dynamic growth of educational migration from Kazakhstan to China, as a relatively recent phenomenon, and to evaluate its possible consequences. Materials and Methods. In order to identify main trends and the way of development of Kazakhstan-China educational relations, we used empirical methods; namely: qualitative research method, description, expert interviews, content analysis, and synthesis. A survey of Kazakhstani students studying in China was conducted. The students of the Department of Chinese Studies of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University were interviewed, as well as those who participated in the joint training program with the Lanzhou University. Kazakhstani students from Beijing University of Language and Cu lture also participated in the survey. Results. The main reasons for the dynamic growth of educational migration from Kazakhstan to China are high quality of education in China, access to education in Chinese universities, comfortable learning and living conditions for Kazakhs, etc. By analysing the statistical data of the Chinese Ministry of Education, timing of the dynamics of Kazakhstani students’ flows to China was presented. The legislative and governmental measures of the two countries aiming to create a basis for educational cooperation were also analysed. An attempt to predict the future activities of Kazakhstan students as the “soft power” of China in Kazakhstan was made. Discussion and Conclusion. This problem can be further investigated in the study of factors affecting the increase in the academic mobility of Kazakhstani students, which should contribute to the expansion of cooperation between Kazakhstan and China in the field of education. The results of this study may be useful to scientists and lecturers engaged in research on various aspects of the educational migration of Kazakhstan to China.

The Academic Mobility of Students from Kazakhstan to Japan: Problems and Prospects

“…In less than five years, Kazakhstan was listed among the top 10 countries in terms of the number of students studying in China. According to Kazakhstani researchers (Serikkaliyeva et al 2019), the pull factors for Kazakh students to choose China are "a high level of education, reasonable tuition and scholarships allocated by Chinese universities." To this list, we can add the number of Chinese companies and business representatives in Kazakhstan, which increases the possibility of further employment and the influence of the Chinese economy in general.…”

“…While some of the patterns of internationalization have been the subject of discussion (Kerimkulova and Kuzhabekova 2017), the IoHE in Kazakhstan has generally been studied by researchers with a narrow interpretation: student mobility and staff mobility (Lee and Kuzhabekova 2018;Seidahmetov et al 2014), push and pull factors among Kazakh students (Serikkaliyeva et al 2019), the strategic cooperation of Kazakhstani universities to implement national and institutional missions for internationalization (Sparks et al 2015), internationalization by modeling a state-initiated elite university (Koch 2014), the adoption of the European credit system (Ilyassova-Schoenfeld 2019), partnership with foreign universities, joint programs, the internationalization of curricula, and the adoption of English for teaching and research (Zenkova and Khamitova 2018;Prilipko 2017).…”

“…As the top three destination countries for outbound Kazakh students are Russia, China, and Turkey, the majority of the research has been devoted to those countries. For example, research topics have included student mobility to the Russian Federation (Rakisheva and Poletaev 2011), factors influencing the cooperation in higher education (HE) between Kazakhstan and China (Valeev and Kadyrova 2015), the interest of China in attracting Kazakhstani students (Serikkaliyeva et al 2019), and the role of Kazakh-Turkish universities in the development of bilateral collaboration (Tlebaldiyeva et al 2017). Although political and economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Japan has been discussed in several studies (Uyama 2003(Uyama , 2008Dadabayev 2016aDadabayev , 2016bDadabayev , 2008Dadabayev , 2019Len et al 2008;Dissyukov 2019), analyzing the socioeconomic conditions in relation to student mobility from Kazakhstan to Japan has not yet been done.…”