ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses implications of analysing academic mobility with the threshold approach for unsettling some conventional ways of thinking about this form of mobility. The current era of academic mobility promotion was initiated by Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of the Open Door policy that commenced in 1978. The chapter engages with the threshold approach to identify the various thresholds that work in intersection in defining students' and scholars' intention and act to become mobile. Generalized locational data cover tremendous intranational differences in international student mobility. The impact of coincidence in shifting a certain location threshold is apparent in the decision-making process among many of the interviewees. The impact of one or a series of coincidental or unplanned small events does not end in shaping one's mobility decision or trajectory. The chapter explores the active engagement of student recruitment agencies in China.
