An Analysis of Belt and Road Initiative Student Mobility and Educational Equity from the Perspective of Cross‑border Financial Accessibility

Abstract

The Belt and Road Initiative has led to an increase in international students from partner countries of the Belt and Road. In the 2024-2025 academic year, China welcomed about 380,000 international students from 191 countries and regions. As size has grown, so have exchanges among peoples, but so too have problems concerning educational equity. The majority of the existing literature focuses on the analysis of admission policies, cultural adaption and teaching quality while ignoring the financial constraints faced by students while engaged in cross-border travel. We study how the distribution of educational possibilities among students from different home countries is shaped by the function of invisible barriers such as the costs of cross-border payments, worries about currency rates, and difficulty in opening accounts. Research shows that the Chinese government scholarship Silk Road program and other forms of institutional arrangements have somewhat alleviated the financial burden of students with an economic disadvantage, but the differences in cross-border financial infrastructure across the regions, the contrasting costs of remittances and the disparity in the provision of domestic financial services still impact students' study experiences and access to opportunities at the practical level. The possibility of access to cross-border finance should be incorporated in the framework of the examination of educational equity and should be considered as a structural feature that cannot be overlooked.