Sustainable Development of Education: An Empirical Study of China’s Education Export

Abstract

Education export is of great significance to the sustainable development of education in a country. The paper selects the panel data of China’s education export to 76 countries from 2006 to 2018, and then it uses the stochastic frontier gravity model to study the export efficiency and potential of it, and next it uses a one-step method to analyze its influencing factors. The results show that: (1) The economic scale of China and the source country, the population size of the source country, China’s FDI to the source country, the number of Chinese universities, the number of Confucius Institutes, and the mutual recognition of academic qualifications each has a significant role in promoting China’s education export, although factors such as geographic distance and cultural distance that reflect the cost of studying abroad have a restraining effect. (2) From 2006 to 2018, China’s education export only realized 62% of its export potential. Its export efficiency to seven countries including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait was relatively low, with only less than 40% of the export potential being realized. (3) Although the overall efficiency of China’s education export to non-Belt and Road countries is higher than that of countries along the Belt and Road, after The Belt and Road Initiative was put forward in 2013, China’s education export to countries along the Belt and Road has seen a rapid rise in efficiency.