Postgraduate international students’ cosmopolitan capital accumulation in transnational spaces: aspirations, gains, and struggles

Abstract

Drawing on the discourse of human capital and its influence on international students’ accumulation of cosmopolitan capital, this case study examines the aspirations, gains, and struggles of 15 postgraduate international students at a prestigious Chinese university as they accumulated cosmopolitan cultural and social capital. It was found that the students, driven by human capital discourse, aspired to accumulate cosmopolitan capital and strove to deploy the available resources and their expanding social connections in transnational spaces in hopes of acquiring multilingual and intercultural competences, internationally relevant academic and research competences, and qualifications. Discourses on human capital quality, competitiveness, and accountability in transnational spaces caused them to struggle emotionally when they could not easily achieve these pragmatic goals. This study advocates that host universities, departments, international offices, educators, and administrators working with international students, as well as the students’ families and the students themselves, must take into account the pervasive effect and governance of human capital discourse and work together to support and promote students’ learning, thriving, and wellbeing.