The internationalization of Chinese higher education glimmers the hope for globalization and opened the doors for countries to exchange academics treasures and cultural exchange. The euphonious and mellifluous agenda behind the internationalization led the nations towards the silver lining of collaboration, interaction, and human resources exchange. However, a large volume of literature claimed the poor academic performance of international students and weak academic communication between international students and Chinese faculty members. So the study sought to explore the phenomena through doctoral. Student experience regarding their research self-efficacy development in a Chinese university. Thus, we took one Chinese university as a case due to its high accessibility of international students with broad and deep experience of being an international student in China. Our participants were international doctoral students from Asian and African countries with significant financial desperation. The findings shed light on the intention of international to pursue a doctoral degree in Chinese higher education and how it significantly delayed their research self-efficacy development.