Careers on the Move: International Doctoral Students at an Elite British University

Adél Pásztor

doi:10.1002/psp.1875

Abstract

AbstractInternational student mobility, especially at doctoral level, is a largely under‐researched component of international migration. This is in stark contrast with the case of credit mobility where much research has been undertaken on Erasmus students. The aim of this paper is to remedy the situation by focusing on international doctoral students who chose to study at an elite higher education institution in the UK. By analysing the role of – local, national and international – schemes of funding in shaping individual mobility decisions, the author argues against the portrayal of international students as ‘rational decision makers’ in favour of a more contextualised approach to mapping the graduate student migratory phenomenon. By contrasting the ‘entry channels’ of students with their future plans – in terms of the nature of future career and geographic location – the author challenges the assumption that internationally mobile students are coming with the intention of settling down in their study destination. The study cannot uphold the view of international students as a ‘migratory elite’ either; although some postgraduate students are indeed from more privileged backgrounds, many individuals undertake international doctoral mobility with the explicit aim of capital accumulation. Last but not least, the paper strongly argues for abandoning the term ‘spontaneous mobility’ in student mobility research because a significant proportion of degree mobility does not occur spontaneously but is a result of organised schemes of funding. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Highlights

Even though the UK comes second in the global list of receiving countries for foreign students with 370,000 students representing 15% of the student population in the UK (HESA statistics cited in King et al, 2010), the scholarship on international migration pays a scant attention to students as migrants or mobile people (King et al, 2010; King & Raghuram, 2013)
Class-based inequalities were apparent in access to specific types of funding, the present analysis offers a more nuanced and contextualised picture of international doctoral mobility
The paper contributes in several ways to current scholarship on international student mobility

Summary

Introduction

Even though the UK comes second (after the USA) in the global list of receiving countries for foreign students with 370,000 students representing 15% of the student population in the UK (HESA statistics cited in King et al, 2010), the scholarship on international migration pays a scant attention to students as migrants or mobile people (King et al, 2010; King & Raghuram, 2013). Brooks & Waters, 2009; Findlay et al, 2010; King et al, 2011), research is still scarce on internationally mobile graduate students who pursue their education in the UK. Since international student mobility ‘has not found a conceptual or methodological home’ (Kehm & Teichler, 2007: 263) being situated on the crossroads of migration studies, sociology, education, linguistics and geography, researchers of international student mobility (hereafter ISM) followed several different lines of inquiry (King & Raghuram, 2013). Findlay et al, 2012) approached the topic from the migration perspective, others relied on seeing ISM in light of the internationalisation of higher education (Brooks & Waters, 2011) or examined pedagogical questions (Coates, 2009). In response to this, Findlay (2011) recently argued in favour of supply-demand side theorisations, believing that ISM should not be reduced to individual decisions or mechanisms of social class reproduction

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