International student mobility and the transition from higher education to work in Norway

Jannecke Wiers-Jenssen,Liv Anne Støren

doi:10.1007/s10734-020-00564-9

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether international student mobility (ISM) has an impact on the transition from higher education to work. Two measures of labour market outcomes are investigated: unemployment and skills mismatch. To go beyond existing research, we analyse whether the effect of ISM on these outcomes vary by fields of study, intake grades, sociodemographic variables and more. Our analyses are based on data from the Norwegian graduate surveys time series from 2007 to 2017. After controlling for several confounding factors, we find very small differences in labour market outcomes between graduates with and without ISM experience. In comparison with field of study, immigrant background, previous labour market experience and business cycles, the effect of ISM on the examined labour market outcomes is small. Investigating whether graduates with different backgrounds benefit differently from ISM, we find evidence of moderate effect heterogeneities: Graduates with high intake grades and graduates in business and administration seem to benefit somewhat more. Regarding social origin and immigrant background, no heterogeneous effects are found. Contrary to findings from previous studies, we do not find that those least likely to study abroad benefit the most from it. Rather, there is a tendency that groups with the greatest likelihood of studying abroad are those who benefit most.

Highlights

Undertaking higher education abroad—international student mobility (ISM)—may have several purposes as well as consequences
Studies addressing the experiences of graduates who have been internationally mobile tend to find that graduates assume that their ISM experience has been helpful regarding getting a job (Teichler and Janson 2007; European Commission 2014) and developing skills that may enhance employability such as self-efficacy and people skills (Jones 2013)
This refers to technology graduates in 2017; those with ISM experience had lower unemployment than those who had not. We examined whether this large difference (5.5% versus 19.7%) can be attributed to a different distribution of narrow fields of education among technology graduates with and without ISM experience and found that this is not the case

Summary

Introduction

Undertaking higher education abroad—international student mobility (ISM)—may have several purposes as well as consequences. ISM is assumed to have positive outcomes for the individual student, one such effect being improved employability (European Commission 2018). A wish for better employment prospects is a major motivation to study abroad for the students themselves (European Commission 2014). Studies addressing the experiences of graduates who have been internationally mobile tend to find that graduates assume that their ISM experience has been helpful regarding getting a job (Teichler and Janson 2007; European Commission 2014) and developing skills that may enhance employability such as self-efficacy and people skills (Jones 2013). Studies that have investigated whether students with ISM experience are more likely to be successful in the labour market compared with students without ISM experience provide limited support for enhanced employment prospects

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