Governing Postgraduate Education Under Globalisation: Student Intentions, Market Dynamics, and Policy Change in China

The globalisation of higher education has intensified international student mobility and reshaped national postgraduate education systems worldwide. As one of the largest contributors to global outbound student flows, China faces persistent challenges related to the governance, structure, and social recognition of professional postgraduate education. This study examined postgraduate education decision-making by integrating consumer behaviour theory and social network theory. The study used quantitative methods to analyse how the perceived quality of educational services and perceived educational value influence intentions to pursue professional postgraduate education, and how social networks condition these relationships. The data were collected from 459 junior and senior undergraduate students in Guangzhou, China, using the convenience sampling method. The results mainly indicate that perceived educational value mediates the relationship between perceived service quality and postgraduate intention (the indirect effect of perceived value: B = 0.175 ***), while social networks significantly strengthen the association between perceived value and intention (B = 0.153 *). From an international education perspective, these findings suggest that students’ postgraduate intentions function as policy feedback reflecting how leadership strategies and institutional management are experienced within globalised higher education systems. The study concludes that postgraduate education reform cannot rely solely on enrolment expansion or structural adjustment but requires coordinated governance approaches that address students’ interpretations of educational value and credential legitimacy.