Student Mobility Since the Expansion of Higher Education in China

Using a nationally representative data set, this book examines the characteristics of Chinese college students’ mobility since the expansion of higher education.

It analyses college graduates’ mobility in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. The horizontal dimension shows college students’ migration directions and location changes, including migration for college, migration for employment, migration for grassroots positions, migration away from the capital and migration back to their hometown. The vertical dimension includes students’ intergenerational occupational mobility and intergenerational regional mobility. Drawing on theories in education and economics, the book provides a solid framework for empirically analysing the characteristics, causes and economic and non-economic benefits of different forms of mobility. This book not only offers insights into China’s higher education policies and their impact on the regional and intergenerational mobility decisions of college graduates over the past two decades but also has important implications for other countries at similar stages of social and economic development.

This book is an excellent read for students and scholars of education, economics and East Asian studies. It can also help policymakers understand the characteristics of students’ mobility and the underlying reasons for their choices, so that they can propose effective policies in the future.