An empirical study of graduate student mobility underpinning research universities

Takao Furukawa,Kumi Okuwada,Nobuyuki Shirakawa

doi:10.1007/s10734-012-9586-4

Abstract

The issue of international student mobility has had a profound effect on policy decision-making in the higher education system of essentially every country; however, the statistical data on this subject are insufficient, especially for graduate students. The purposes of this study are to substantiate the state of international mobility among talented graduate students in the sciences and engineering who will publish scholarly research in their future career and to present the mechanism of their moves between institutions. This paper quantitatively analyzes the trajectories of more than 7,000 scientists and engineers beginning at graduate school, obtained from the biographical notes attached to journal articles for authors in the fields of computer vision, robotics, and electron devices. The results suggest that mobility in various engineering fields at world-class research universities is subject to varied pull and push factors. In the fields of computer vision and robotics, a high world university ranking is a significant pull factor in the global mobility of graduate students, which may promote a US-dominated stratification between institutions of higher education, since the institutions at the top end of these rankings are generally in the United States. In contrast, in the field of electron devices, employment for highly skilled workers in domestic industries seems to act as an alternative pull factor for talented graduate students. This article also sheds light on the status of the universities that underpin first-tier research universities by providing undergraduate students to them, an important role that tends to be concealed in the world university rankings. Furthermore, this article suggests the existence of complementary relationships between the globally top-ranked research universities and the exporting top national research universities in various countries, a relationship that is key to the shape of the current global higher education system.

Highlights

Globalization of higher education is characterized by worldwide competition and knowledge transfer across borders (Teichler 2004), and the nature of the current globalization of higher education has attracted significant attention from students, faculty, staff, educators, and policymakers
We analyzed the mobility of talented graduate students between institutions worldwide awarding bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, based on data obtained from the biographical notes of authors who have published journal articles in the fields of computer vision, robotics, and electron devices, focusing on their time as graduate students
As Gonzalez et al (2011) point out, the world university rankings act as a pull factor in institutional selection by international students, with worldclass research universities that hold a high position in the university ranking attracting undergraduate students from other institutions around the world in the computer vision and robotics research domains

Summary

Introduction

Globalization of higher education is characterized by worldwide competition and knowledge transfer across borders (Teichler 2004), and the nature of the current globalization of higher education has attracted significant attention from students, faculty, staff, educators, and policymakers. International student mobility in higher education has often been discussed from the perspective of the migration of potential highly skilled workers (e.g., Brooks and Waters 2009, 2011; Cantwell 2011), a process that is relevant to brain drain and brain circulation in the context of global workforce issues. Several organizations, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Institute of International Education (IIE), have gathered statistical data about international student movement (IIE 2011; OECD 2009; 2010). Several previous studies have attempted to analyze cross-border mobility among higher education institutions (e.g., Li and Bray 2007), but the findings are difficult to generalize because the studies need to take into account the cultural, social, and economic backgrounds of the countries concerned as well as private circumstances of individual students

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion