“Everything Depends on Yourself”: Freedom, Hidden Competition and Student Self-Management in Sino-British Transnational Higher Education

Freedom and choice are often presented as benefits of transnational higher education, but participants in this study also described freedom as something they had to learn to manage. This article examines that tension through a qualitative case study of one Sino-British university. It draws on 12 Chinese-language semi-structured interviews analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, together with a separate qualitative analysis of public institutional materials. Participants valued having room to make their own decisions, although some recalled early uncertainty when direct supervision was reduced. Competition did not disappear; it became harder to read and extended beyond grades to internships, research experience, postgraduate applications and employment. Participants generally knew that support existed, but it often became useful only after they recognised a problem and asked for help. Their accounts therefore described academic, linguistic, relational and career self-management. Several participants also described using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to understand course content, translate material and prepare for assessment, although AI-related material was uneven across the interviews and included concerns about accuracy, disciplinary fit and independent judgement. We use institutionalised autonomy to describe how arrangements that widen discretion can also shift planning, help seeking and risk judgement towards students. The concept is offered as a context-specific specification of responsibilisation rather than a general theory. This single case is not statistically representative, but it identifies a mechanism that can be examined in other transnational settings.