China’s Responses to Globalization and Higher Education Reforms: Challenges and Policy Implications

With a strong conviction to transform the country and prepare its people to cope with the growing challenges of the globalizing market, the Chinese government has actively increased more opportunities for higher education. The higher education system in China has experienced the processes of massification and transnationalization, especially when the Chinese government has tried to diversify its higher education provision through non-state sector providers, including overseas partners setting up branch campuses. This study sets out against the broad political economic context to examine critically how the Chinese government has responded to the growing influences of globalization by internationalizing and trasnationalizing its higher education. More specifically, this study examines the challenges and policy implications when higher education experiences internationalization and transnationalization in China.