English Medium-of-Instruction Programmes as a Mechanism of ‘Brain Drain, Gain and Circulation’

Abstract

As discussed in Chapter 2, internationalisation of HE is identified as an important component in facilitating a ‘brain gain/brain circulation’ with the aim of bridging the demographic gap in Germany with its aging student population, in addition to giving its growing economy a well-educated, diverse workforce that needs to be increasingly multilingual and interculturally aware. The shift in emphasis away from ‘brain gain’ towards ‘brain circulation’, and measures to mitigate ‘brain drain’ in political discourses surrounding the internationalisation of HE has also been discussed in Chapter 2. As we have seen, ‘brain gain’ has been supplanted by ‘brain circulation’, predominantly due to the recognition of a neo-colonial agenda enmeshed in ‘brain gain’, exacerbating ‘brain drain’ from developing countries and thus undermining their prospective economic development. This section aims to explore the prospect for ‘brain gain’, ‘brain circulation’ and the mitigation of ‘brain drain’ by means of EMI programmes in German HE, as such programmes are identified within the DAAD’s internationalisation action plan as a major mechanism to pursue the three aforementioned agendas. This theme will be explored by applying the same emic/etic lens with regard to the quantitative and qualitative data collected within the multi-site comparative case-study research project underlying this book.