International branch campuses (IBCs) are commonly used by nations and universities to achieve internationalization. Although existing research has examined students' attitudes and behaviors toward IBCs, few studies have investigated these issues in an intra-country context. Hong Kong institutions' IBCs in the Greater Bay Area of Mainland China are examples of cross-border education that is offered under China's 'one country, two systems' policy. Using the concept of global-national-local imbrication as the theoretical lens, this qualitative study explores contextual factors influencing students' motivations to enroll at a Hong Kong institution's intra-country IBC. The findings suggest that students are drawn by global (e.g., high level of internationalization), national (e.g., shared culture), and local (e.g., high function-price ratio) factors to enroll at IBCs. These findings have generated new insights into students' motivations within a unique environmental context, and the global-national-local imbrication paradigm provides a new attempt to explain the destination and institutional choices of students in transnational education. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications .

Students from Mainland China are the largest group of non-local students for Hong Kong universities in recent years. To attract more Mainland students and smoothen their application processes, the admission policies of Hong Kong universities are becoming increasingly more compatible for students from Mainland by recognizing various qualifications and standard examinations (e.g., Joint Entrance Exam For Universities in PRC, College English Test and Test for English Majors). However, the quick increasing amount of Mainland students in Hong Kong universities has brought various social issues concerning arguments about the medium of instructions, Hong Kong-mainland contradictions and so on. To understand how the various policy text, this essay reviews the admission policies of Hong Kong universities and related issues from three aspects: institution categories, programme levels, and place of origin. Furthermore, research questions such as what broader politics surround the policy issue, which institutions/actors are involved in the policy process and what the outcomes are answered by employing the political system theories. The social problems related to the admission policies will be examined and discussed, solutions for which will also be proposed. Copyright © 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.