Facilitating Mainland Chinese Student Mobilities to Malaysia: Student Agents, Social Media and Brokerage Tactics

Paper Abstract: Over the past three years (2021-present), mainland Chinese student applications to higher education institutions in Malaysia have increased substantially. This surge has been in part facilitated by student agents, many of whom are current or former international students in Malaysia.

This paper examines how such student agents facilitate and broker Chinese student mobilities to Malaysia. It draws from (1) qualitative interviews with Chinese students and student agents, conducted in 2023; and (2) social media content produced by student agents on WeChat, Xiaohongshu and Zhihu, platforms popular amongst Chinese users.

The paper presents three key findings. First, the surge in Chinese student mobilities to Malaysia has been led by increased domestic competition for higher education places, graduate employment, and career advancement in China in recent years, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to these driving forces, Malaysia emerged as a desirable study destination due to its affordability, high international university rankings, and geographical and cultural proximity to China vis-à-vis previously popular study destinations (e.g. Australia, the UK, the USA). Second, as Malaysia’s higher education system and admission processes are unfamiliar and somewhat opaque to Chinese students, student agent services emerge to address this market gap. Third, to ensure commercial survival in this rapidly competitive market, student agents engage in entrepreneurial and collaborative brokerage tactics, including producing a variety of targeted social media content and co-organising study tours with Malaysia-based partners. This paper thus highlights the need to situate migration brokerage to the spatio-temporal geographies of higher education markets.