• Home
  • Democracy
    • Australian Democracy and Human Rights Festival 2025 (#AFDHR25)
  • Research
    • Identities in Action
    • Doing Good
    • Publications
  • People
  • Resources
    • For Change Agents
    • For Students
    • COVID19
    • PEPSS
    • Leapfrog
    • Forward
    • JAMOVI for Psychology Scholars
    • Voices for Reconciliation through the Generations in Psychology: A project of the Reconciliation Working Group in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Videos
  • Privacy Policy
  Social Change Lab
  • Home
  • Democracy
    • Australian Democracy and Human Rights Festival 2025 (#AFDHR25)
  • Research
    • Identities in Action
    • Doing Good
    • Publications
  • People
  • Resources
    • For Change Agents
    • For Students
    • COVID19
    • PEPSS
    • Leapfrog
    • Forward
    • JAMOVI for Psychology Scholars
    • Voices for Reconciliation through the Generations in Psychology: A project of the Reconciliation Working Group in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Videos
  • Privacy Policy

Weijie (Kathy) Lin
Overseas Education: Driving Forces

​PhD Candidate (Communications), The University of Queensland; M. A. (Intercultural Communication), Heilongjiang University;  M.S. (Education), The University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

This is a historical page - you are welcome to read about Kathy's project, but she has graduated and moved on!

Weijie Lin (Kathy)
​
How do communications affect Chinese students’ intention to study overseas?
 
Whether to pursue higher education overseas or locally is a tough decision for many Chinese students and their parents, as studying overseas has increasingly become both a promising option and a fashion in China. My research aims to find out how Chinese students perceive pursuing higher education overseas and their overseas study experiences.
 
More and more new competitors, including some Asian countries, are joining in the dynamic international student market. A better understanding of how normative and media forces affect Chinese students’ intentions to study overseas helps education-export countries and institutions to better target and accommodate Chinese students, a leading source group today. 
 
Results will help Chinese students and their parents to have wider visions of what an overseas-study experience may imply to the students and factors that need to be taken into consideration when making overseas study decisions.
 
Evaluating the trustworthiness of information sources
 
Information search is a key initial step before Chinese students make their decisions on overseas study. Sources of information, however, are not equally preferred or deemed important. My research aims to explore what information sources on overseas study are perceived as trustworthy and how trustworthiness of information sources affects Chinese students’ intentions to study overseas. Findings will help educational institutions in education-export countries to target effective marketing tools and channels in developing their international student recruitment strategies.
 
Examining the role of normative messages in overseas study intentions and experiences
 
International student mobility is influenced by a multitude of factors that often function in complex and interactive ways. My research examines ways in which social norms and trustworthiness of information sources affect Chinese students’ intentions to pursue higher education overseas and, longitudinally, their overseas study behaviour. The focus variables in my study are interpersonal and group injunctive and descriptive norms and trustworthiness of information sources, which influence the students’ overseas study intentions both directly and through mediation of attitudinal factors. Results will shed light on how norms and information sources impact overseas study intentions and behaviour of students from non-western countries like China.
 
About Weijie Lin
Before starting at UQ I had been teaching at a university in northeast China. The growing eagerness of Chinese students seeking every opportunity to study overseas triggered my interest in exploring the driving forces behind this phenomenon and how they function.
 
I’ve been interested in the broader social context for higher education in China that motivates Chinese students to study overseas. Specifically, I am interested in what Chinese students try to seek from overseas study experiences and what, within China’s higher education system and the society, drives Chinese students and their parents to make such a hard decision
 
Get in touch
Kathy is always happy to speak about her research.  Potential speaking topics include:
  • Understanding Chinese students’ intentions to pursue higher education overseas
  • Influence of parents and peer on Chinese students’ overseas study decisions
  • Designing better strategies for recruiting Chinese international students
 
If you’re interested in having Kathy speak at an event or collaborating on research, please get in touch.

Join our mailing list!

Click the button below to join our mailing list:
Mailing list

​Social Change Lab supports crowdfunding of the research and support for the team! To donate to the lab, please click the button below! (Tax deductible receipts are provided via UQ’s secure donation website.)  If you’d like to fund a specific project or student internship, you can also reach out directly!
DONATE HERE

Picture
Follow us on Twitter!

Location

Social Change Lab
School of Psychology
McElwain Building
​The University of Queensland
St Lucia, QLD 4072
Australia
Check out our Privacy Policy
We acknowledge the Jagera people and Turrbal people as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Meanjin (Brisbane), the lands on which the Social Change Lab is physically located and where we meet, work and live. We celebrate the culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who also work and live on this land. We pay our respects to their Ancestors and their descendants, who continue cultural and spiritual connections to Country. We recognise their valuable contributions to Australian and global society.
​Copyright © 2017
  • Home
  • Democracy
    • Australian Democracy and Human Rights Festival 2025 (#AFDHR25)
  • Research
    • Identities in Action
    • Doing Good
    • Publications
  • People
  • Resources
    • For Change Agents
    • For Students
    • COVID19
    • PEPSS
    • Leapfrog
    • Forward
    • JAMOVI for Psychology Scholars
    • Voices for Reconciliation through the Generations in Psychology: A project of the Reconciliation Working Group in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Videos
  • Privacy Policy