The landscape of global higher education is fast changing. Against this backdrop, the meanings of and approaches to internationalising higher education are under enormous transformation everywhere. In China, there have been long-standing policies, practices and scholarly discussions about ‘internationalisation’. However, there are still ambiguities about the meaning and influences of internationalisation. This talk aims to unpack the tensions and paradoxes about the internationalisation of Chinese higher education. It draws on the analysis of government policy discourses, as well as a critical review of the existing literature on this topic.

Dr Xin Xu is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE), Department of Education, and a Junior Research Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.