ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Migration and Society
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1610036
This article is part of the Research TopicIntercultural Communication and International StudentsView all 12 articles
Identifying Key Risk Factors for Chinese International Students: A Hybrid AHP-DEMATEL-Cross-Reinforcement Matrix Approach with Policy Implications
Provisionally accepted
- College of Economics and Management, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China
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Chinese students usually face risks from various aspects in the process of studying abroad. The use of analytic hierarchy process alone ignores the interplay between the influencing factors and lacks systematic thinking about the identification of key influencing factors due to the intricacies of the factors affecting and constraining these risks. Therefore, we utilize the DEMATEL method and crossreinforcement matrix to improve the weights obtained from AHP and to improve the accuracy and scientificity of the weight vectors. Finally, five factors with the largest weights of risk factors affecting international students are obtained through the analysis. They are self-management ability, language ability, policy of the host country, economic conditions of host country, and values. Then appropriate risk response countermeasures are proposed to reduce the risk potential of international students based on the results. Exploring the risk factors affecting students studying abroad can provide a reference for Chinese students to predict and control the risk of studying abroad. It can also provide support for international institutions to recruit, manage, and assist Chinese students.
Keywords: Chinese student studying abroad, Key risk factors, AHP, DEMATEL, crossreinforcement matrix
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 13 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Wang and Gao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Junhong Gao, College of Economics and Management, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China
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