Matching individual with institutional habitus? Students' choice of transnational higher education in China

Abstract

From the prism of Bourdieu, pursuing international higher education represents one way for Chinese middle-class families to preserve social status and promote social mobility. The thriving development of transnational higher education in China, which permits individuals to obtain overseas certificates without leaving home, seems to follow the same logic in explaining students’ motivation. However, such efforts theoretically based on Bourdieu’s thinking tools always neglect the application of rational calculation during this process. As Jenkins criticises, ‘it is difficult to know where to place conscious deliberation and awareness in Bourdieu’s scheme of things’. Based on the empirical data collected from two selected Sino–foreign cooperation universities in China, this work illustrates how the enrolled students consciously match their individual habitus with the institutional one during the decision-making process, and thus situates their consciousness into Bourdieu’s concept of habitus.