Developing Global Citizenship: the Effect of Studying Abroad

This study is designed as preliminary research into the relationship between developing global citizenship and studying abroad by investigating the perceptions of Chinese students who studied in a UK university in 2006. Through the lens of Oxfam's perspective of global citizenship, findings that are based on questionnaires and in-depth interviews show that Chinese students have a particular understanding of global citizenship and do not commonly accept the global citizen identity. Studying abroad is deemed to have a positive effect on the development of some elements of global citizenship but a comprehensive sense of global citizenship seems not to be developed explicitly as a result of studying abroad.