Britain, France and Germany feature among the most popular destinations for Chinese students studying abroad (Li & Bray, 2007). The drivers behind international student mobility have been theorised to allow some understanding of the demand from middle class Chinese families for foreign education and the supply factors generated from foreign universities seeking revenue (Findlay, 2010). While it is possible to look at these factors in terms of government policies, the financial interests of the universities and the globalisation of education, the relationship between Chinese students’ perceptions of achievement and their motivation for studying in foreign universities can also be considered from the perspective of the Chinese students. Chinese students expect to find their courses both interesting and relevant (Kember, 2000).

The theoretical framework for this study has been based on achievement goal theory which considers why students want to achieve. It includes three types of goals, mastery goals where the student is focused on a task, performance-approach goals where a student is motivated to demonstrate competence by showing that they are better than others and performance-avoidance goals where students want to avoid looking incompetent (Midgley et al., 2000)

Chinese culture is said to be collectivist with a focus on interdependence (Hofstede, 1986) which impacts on the motivation of Chinese students (Salili,1996). However, more recent studies have found higher individual than social goals among mainland Chinese adolescents in China (Li 2006; Shi, 2006). Chinese students studying overseas may be financed by family (Findlay, 2010) and this interdependence with their families has implications for their goal orientation and perceptions of achievement.  

This study aims to answer the following research questions:

• What are the goal orientations of Chinese students when studying as undergraduates in a western university?
• How do Chinese students define achievement when studying as undergraduates in a western university?

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