Hong Kong's non‐local undergraduate recruitment: Policies, institutional practices and student perspectives

Abstract Beneath the Hong Kong government's enthusiasm for recruiting non‐local undergraduates—including students from the Chinese Mainland and other international regions—lies a longstanding gap in understanding the core meanings and drivers shaping the territory's expanding focus on inward international student mobility (ISM). This study extends Bourdieu's capital framework beyond its traditional individual‐centred application to explore how the dynamics of economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital operate across macro (policy), meso (institutional) and micro (student) levels within Hong Kong's recruitment strategies. Drawing on a mixed‐methods dataset—including policy documents, perspectives from university managers and both questionnaire surveys and semi‐structured interviews with non‐local undergraduates—the research identifies three key cross‐level themes: (1) While non‐local students are universally regarded as vital to higher education internationalisation and the accumulation of symbolic capital, Hong Kong's efforts to leverage its role as a ‘super‐connector’ with the Chinese Mainland to attract students beyond the Greater China region remain fragmented and ineffective; (2) Despite broad intentions to foster (inter)cultural capital—primarily for local students' benefit—institutions' capacities to address inwardly mobile students' diverse needs remain underdeveloped, creating misalignments between rhetoric and practice; and (3) Although economic capital gains from non‐local undergraduate recruitment are increasingly crucial for institutions facing funding pressures, these benefits are downplayed within policy discourse. These findings highlight systemic inconsistencies in how inward ISM is understood and operationalised across different levels, offering critical insights for refining the ‘Study in Hong Kong’ branding to better align policy aspirations, institutional practices and student priorities.