Market Research: Understanding the Education Market in China and the Possibility of Recruiting Chinese Students to Study in Other Asian Countries : Case company: Asia Exchange

This thesis aims to conduct a market research for Asia Exchange, a study abroad agency from Finland, to offer an insight into the current state of the education market in China, and to investigate the possibility of recruiting Chinese students to study in the Asian destinations arranged by Asia Exchange. The company would like to bring its programmes to the Chinese market to recruit, but it is hesitating to enter the Chinese market due to insufficient information. This thesis will help Asia Exchange to understand the Chinese education market by devising different types of market entry strategies to help the agency to enter the Chinese market in future. A literature review has been conducted to present the theoretical knowledge gained in this thesis, including the activities involved in international marketing and market entry strategies to China. On the second phase of this thesis, quantitative research has been conducted to inspect the general information about the Chinese education market. In addition, 31 semi-structured interviews have been conducted to show concrete thoughts from universities, students, and study abroad agencies in China to indicate their attitudes to Asian study destinations offered by Asia Exchange. The key findings of this thesis: The study destinations preferred by Chinese students are either English-speaking countries or advanced countries in Asia like Japan and Hong Kong. Most of the interviewees have expressed that southeast Asian countries are not attractive to the Chinese students. The result of this thesis indicates a few alternative possibilities that Asia Exchange could consider when entering the Chinese market. The possibilities include discovering a niche market by helping Chinese universities with limited exchange placement quota, taking the advantage of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, and undertaking aggressive marketing activities to get its study destinations famous in China. Asia Exchange can consider the information collected by this thesis for blueprinting the market entry strategies to the Chinese education market