Progress, Challenges, and Strategies of Thai Students Studying in Yunnan Under the Context of Higher Education Internationalization

Abstract

With the rapid development of Sino-Thai relations, Thai students have become an important component of Yunnan province's international higher education landscape, and the scale of Thai students studying in Yunnan is continuously expanding. This research explores the current status, trends, bottlenecks, and issues faced by Thai students studying in Yunnan and proposes corresponding strategic recommendations. By tracing the historical process of Thai students studying in Yunnan, the study reviews China's and Yunnan's policies and implementation of promoting Thai students' education in China, as well as the scale of Thai students studying in Yunnan and the availability of scholarships.

However, challenges related to language communication, cultural integration, and social barriers faced by Thai students cannot be ignored. To address these issues, the paper proposes a series of practical and feasible strategic recommendations. Strengthening education policy communication, international educational exchange and cooperation, increasing scholarship support, enhancing the international education level and capabilities of teachers and administrators, and conducting campus cultural exchange activities are expected to further enhance the quality and management level of international higher education in Yunnan. This will be conducive to establishing a specialized international talent cultivation and service innovation center with a regional focus on South and Southeast Asia, making greater contributions to the realization of Thailand's "Thailand 4.0" strategy and the "Belt and Road" initiative.