Pursuing doctoral research in an emerging knowledge hub: an exploration of international students’ experiences in China

International doctoral students are an influential group in knowledge creation and cross-national engagement. Existing studies have mainly focused on this cohort’s learning and research experiences in developed countries. However, relatively few studies have explored these students’ experiences in non-traditional learning destinations. Drawing upon Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and habitus, and the notion of global-national-local imbrications, this study explores international doctoral students’ academic learning experiences in what can be understood as the Chinese academic sub-field. By interviewing 35 international doctoral students in a Chinese university, findings suggest that these students encountered certainty and uncertainty initially before some were able to navigate the Chinese academic sub-field more strategically. As a result, students progressively developed an in-between cosmopolitan habitus; this included as a result of exposure to both Chinese and international academic logics through learning with Chinese academic returnees. Students’ experiences suggest that the Chinese academic sub-field can be understood as something of an in-between field that imbricates the global, national, and local within higher education contexts.