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In the last few years, international student mobility has been disrupted not only by the global health crisis resulting from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic but also adversely affected by the rise of geopolitics. The worsening relationship between China and its western counterparts led by the United States and its allies has significantly influenced students' motivation and plan for overseas education. Based upon interviews with 75 students from leading universities in mainland China, this article examines how Chinese elite students evaluate the impact of the new geopolitics on their overseas study plans and opportunities. The study found that, due to the influence of scientific internationalism ideas and institutional habitus, interviewees underestimated the impact of geopolitical factors. Furthermore, unpleasant environmental factors (such as racial discrimination) caused by geopolitical changes are tolerable because most of the interviewees plan to return China after studying abroad. On the other hand, deterioration of Sino-US relations has substantially affected Chinese students' international mobility. Many interviewees, especially those majoring in science and engineering, were unable to obtain visas. Some of them gave up their study abroad plans, while others transferred to other study abroad destination countries such as the United Kingdom and Singapore. We also find that the perception of the power shift in the field of higher education shapes the students' decision making. This article critically reflects upon the international student mobility from the broader political economy perspective, discussing policy implications for future international education.

The Chinese government has been actively recruiting foreign-trained Chinese scholars to return to China since the Chinese brain drain began. Japan is among the most popular destinations for Chinese scholars seeking to receive doctoral training. This study explores the factors contributing to the stratification of Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs' academic career attainments using the Mertonian norm of universalism. The results indicate that the norm of universalism can partly explain the stratification of Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs. The reason for this is that their higher pre-graduation productivity enhances the chance that Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs have of obtaining an academic position at a top university in China. In addition to pre-graduation academic productivity, other factors, including the prestige of the university attended, the duration of the academic sojourn in Japan, and the ethnicity of the supervisor influence employment outcomes.

The expansion of student international mobility has been discussed increasingly with respect to concerns about social inequality. The outbreak of the COVID pandemic has exacerbated the risks of studying abroad. Due to the differences in the ability of students from different social backgrounds to cope with risks, the inequality of opportunities for studying abroad may further expand. Based on the survey of 1256 college graduates between January and March 2021, this study analyses the impact of family background on the choice of studying abroad under the background of the epidemic. The research shows that the inequality in transnational education participation has been intensified by the pandemic. Findings of mediation analysis suggested that family background has powerful influences on students' willingness to continue with their overseas study plan after the pandemic. It shapes students' decision on whether go abroad or not directly, via their mentality of the pandemic, and through their past educational choices (field of study) and attainment (university type). Our study provides a more nuanced understanding of the way how COVID pandemic affects students from different backgrounds.

Building on a theoretical model of decision-making under risk and uncertainty, this paper examines how Chinese college students made decisions about international moblity or immobility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper finds that among the 118 interviewees, most continued to choose to study abroad, whilst some gave up after getting offers from prestigious Western universities. We further analysed the divergent patterns of two choices which can be explained by resilience to risks and uncertainties and lack of thereof. For those who have given up studying abroad, the symbolic capital and labor market advantages brought by degrees (especially master degrees) from Western universities have become uncertain and offset by the risk of the epidemic. These findings suggest that, in addition to safety, college students will prefer certainty more than before when choosing whether to go abroad and the study abroad landscape may change based on this mindset.

This study explores how doctoral graduates weigh considerations of employment sectors and cities in their career decision-making processes. Guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory and a Four-quadrant Model, researchers analysed interviews from 40 STEM doctoral graduates in China. Findings demonstrate that self-efficacy, outcome expectations and goal-setting were factors in participants' interests and selections of academic careers. Three types of doctoral graduates were identified: (1) highfliers, (2) academic loyalists and (3) city pickers. While participants prioritize employment sectors and cities differently, cities played a significant role in their career choices which intersected with gender and class factors. Female doctoral graduates were more inclined to follow their partners, while those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds tended to prioritize cost of living factors at the expense of pursuing opportunities in top-tier cities. Implications suggest that factors undergirding doctoral graduates' career choices rely on the interaction between geographical locations and employment sector opportunities.

Whilst China has become home to the second largest doctoral education system in the world, with over 20% of its doctoral graduates taking up postdoctoral researcher positions inside and outside of China, a lack of information regarding the expectations of these doctoral graduates in pursuing postdocs has resulted in a failure to meet their expectations, leading to insufficient institutional support for their career development. In order to improve this situation and provide more tailored institutional support for Chinese postdocs, we conducted interviews with 30 doctoral graduates from elite Chinese universities from February 2020 to December 2021 to understand their expectations for and experiences of postdocs. The data identified four expected-to-accumulated capitals during postdoc experiences: personal scientific capital, discipline-related social capital, institution-related social capital and family-related social capital. Among these, the primary consideration for engaging in postdocs is to enhance personal scientific capital in both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Chinese doctoral graduates who choose domestic postdocs have higher expectations for increasing institution-based social capital, while those who go abroad expect to develop discipline-related social capital within the international academic community. Understanding these expectations will be instrumental in developing optimal approaches to providing institutional support for the career development of Chinese postdocs.

A growing practice of engaging students as partners (SaP) has been conducted to nurture values-based pedagogical relationships. Yet, SaP is contested with little known about how Chinese students understand their relationships with teachers in a sector shifting toward student-centred approaches. To advance the collective understanding of SaP practices in China, we interviewed 30 postgraduate students who reflected on their learner-teacher relationships as undergraduate and postgraduate students while considering the possibilities of SaP practices. While some SaP practices emerged, students evoked the language of family to describe meaningful interactions with teachers. They raised pragmatic (large student numbers), epistemological (knowledge accumulation before knowledge construction), and cultural (hierarchical construct of power and authority) concerns about the possibilities of pedagogical partnerships. We argue that the willingness of university communities to raise questions about assumed learner-teacher hierarchy, power dynamics and identities will shape how student-centred and SaP practices unfold in Chinese universities.

Access to opportunities for higher education is a classic topic in the sociology of higher education, but studies on access to doctoral education are still rare. This paper drew on data from the 2016 National Master's Graduate Survey to analyze this issue, focusing on the effects of gender and the types of the institution on access to doctoral education. The study found that approximately 10% of Master's students graduating in 2016 chose to continue on to pursue a doctoral degree, and the factors of gender and the types of the institution both had a significant impact on the outcome for a student's pursuit of doctoral education. After controlling for the types of the institution, age, number of papers published during the period of study, and other factors, the probability that women in a humanities discipline, social sciences discipline, science or medicine discipline would pursue a doctoral degree was significantly lower than for men. In the discipline of medicine, graduates from a Master's program at a high-ranking educational institution had a higher probability of pursuing doctoral education. Further analysis indicated that, in comparison with men, women were more likely to be subject to age constraints when choosing to pursue doctoral education, and were also more likely to be affected by satisfaction with their academic advisor. [Translation by Carissa Fletcher.]

"Who gets a doctoral education?" means "Who gets ahead?" Doctoral degree holders are the country's elite talents, and increasing numbers of Master's students are choosing to continue pursuing doctoral education after graduation. This paper conducted empirical analysis of data from the 2017 National Academic Master's Graduate Survey. The study shows that, among the graduates from Master's programs surveyed in 2017, 19.31% chose to continue pursuing a doctoral degree, while 4.5% chose to study abroad, and students at Double First Class institutions of higher education represented the majority in both categories. In the stage of doctoral education, family background still has a significant positive effect with respect to gaining educational opportunities, while the category of educational institution and the distribution of majors are important mediator variables. Compared to those who study for a doctoral degree domestically, Master's students of better family background are more likely to receive a doctoral education overseas. [Translation by Carissa Fletcher.]

PhD graduates play an important role in the national innovation system. However, only a few studies have explored Chinese PhD graduates' employment and development prospects because of limited data. To fill in this gap, this study conducted a survey of doctoral recipients in 13 Chinese universities. The authors drew on the national survey data and in-depth interviews to critically analyze the PhD graduates' job preferences, employment outcomes, and factors that affect their employment sectors. Results indicate a notable difference between the graduates' job preferences and their employment outcomes. The proportion of employment in academia is substantially below expected, particularly among female graduates. This study specifically focuses on the impact of gender and scientific output (including articles and patents) on the employment outcomes of PhD graduates. Compared with graduates employed by the non-academic sectors, male graduates have a lower probability of employment in universities and research institutions. Compared with those working in enterprises, PhD graduates employed in universities and research institutions published more during their doctoral study. For graduates who majored in science, engineering, and agricultural sciences, having patents increases their probability of working in the enterprises.