International Student Mobility Research Articles

Экономический вклад иностранных студентов в Российскую Федерацию

The number and mobility of international student is a sign of quality and prestige for universities and educational institutions. International student mobility impacts different aspects of global society, including socioeconomic, political, and cultural environment, science, and technology. In order to compete in the global educational environment and attract international students, Russia has been offering a wide range of programs where the English is the language of instruction. This paper offers a descriptive research and uses a systematic approach to analyze monetary gains of Russia brought in by international students. The research uses secondary data provided by official international organizations. The results show that 64.5% of the international students who studied full-time in Russian universities in academic year 2017 / 2018 were self-financed. Among the top 6 destination countries for international students, Russia spends the lowest percentage of GDP on education, has the lowest economic contribution of international students to GDP and total economic contribution of international students. International students in Russia spent around $637.5 million on tuition and $1,632.7 million on household expenses during the period of study. The aggregate income from providing Russian educational services to foreign citizens is $2,270.2 million.

Impact of Economic Growth on International Student Enrollment: A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Mainland and Taiwan

This study conducts a comparative analysis of the impact of economic growth on international student enrollment in Chinese mainland and Taiwan. Through regression analysis, this study discovered a counterintuitive negative relationship between GDP growth rate and international student numbers in China, suggesting additional factors beyond economic indicators influence student attractiveness. Potential variables such as tuition costs, visa regulations, and perceptions of higher education quality warrant further exploration. In Taiwan, the absence of a significant correlation emphasizes the prominence of cultural, educational, and policy-related influences. These findings highlight the need for comprehensive policymaking encompassing economic indicators, academic quality, cultural inclusivity, and support structures. By understanding these complex factors, both Chinese mainland and Taiwan can shape their international education strategies effectively, creating nurturing environments that cater to diverse student cohorts. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of international student mobility dynamics and informs strategies to enhance the attractiveness of higher education destinations.

Migration governance and higher education during a pandemic: policy (mis)alignments and international postgraduate students’ experiences in Singapore and the UK

ABSTRACT This paper is concerned with the nexus between migration governance and higher education. While the intersections between these two societal/policy systems have received attention in existing literature, much has changed as a result of the recent COVID-19 crisis. The global pandemic has introduced spatial and temporal disjuncture that significantly impact how international students navigate these systems. We address this issue through the lens of international student mobility, taking postgraduate international students’ perspectives as a vantage point. By drawing on a comparative qualitative study between Singapore and the UK (specifically, London), we focus on how international students experience, first, (mis)alignments between migration governance and pandemic-induced mobility regulation and, second, tensions between mobility regulations and institutional measures adopted by universities in Singapore and the UK. In both contexts, pandemic governance often compounded the complexities of migration policies, creating additional barriers for international students. In navigating these new challenges, international students adaptively draw on various resources while also imagining new possibilities presented by the otherwise challenging circumstances.

International Student Mobility: Exploring the Psychological Effects on Identity Awareness on a Global Perspective

This paper delves into the multifaceted landscape of international student exchanges, illuminating their transformative power on identity formation, psychological resilience, cross-cultural competencies, and professional growth. Against a backdrop of increasing globalization, the education landscape has witnessed a surge in students seeking opportunities abroad. Drawing upon the intergroup contact theory, this essay explores how these educational voyages stimulate shifts in students identities as they navigate the cultural kaleidoscope, incorporating new values while preserving their traditional roots. Psychological challenges encountered during exchanges, including acculturative stress, pandemic-induced stress amplification, and academic hurdles, become crucibles for resilience and adaptation. The synergy between psychological factors and institutional support mechanisms highlights the potential for growth amid adversity. A central theme emerges, emphasizing the acquisition of global perspectives and cross-cultural communication skills as foundational pillars of students personal and professional evolution. In an era characterized by interconnected economies, these competencies offer graduates a competitive edge in the global job market, underscoring their significance in shaping future career trajectories. In conclusion, international student exchanges transcend geographical and cultural boundaries, fostering a global community of agile, culturally sensitive, and resilient individuals. While the scope of this exploration acknowledges inherent limitations, it mirrors the boundless potential of those who embark on the transformative journey of international exchanges, poised to shape a future marked by profound understanding and interconnectedness.

Destination choices of international students in the Netherlands: A meso‐level analysis of higher education institutions and cities

AbstractThis study quantitatively investigates enrolments of international students using data that contains nearly every student in the Netherlands for the years 2016–2019. Using this data, we are able to perform a meso‐level analysis where we could investigate the characteristics of higher education institutions (HEIs) and cities in international student mobility. This research contributes to the literature by studying variation between HEIs and by focusing on actual enrolments instead of relying on survey results. Such meso‐level studies have thus far been very rare, especially on this scale. Although there are commonalities between types of degrees, we find mixed results for academic and city characteristics, and it appears that academic factors are more important for master students while for bachelor students city characteristics have stronger effects. The effect of having already existing stocks of international students appears to be important for all types of degrees. Aside from differences between bachelor and master students, our findings also suggest that HEIs might directly influence international student flows as this would explain some of our results. Although this study only focuses on the Netherlands, it opens up many avenues for future comparative research on the destination choices of international students and the role of HEIs.

Proactive personality and international student mobility: Patterns of self-selection and development

Proactive personality, i.e., individuals' disposition to take personal initiative and to initiate change, is a personality characteristic that is related to many favorable outcomes in the work domain and beyond. Yet, the conditions that promote its development amongst young adults have barely been researched. As international student mobility (ISM) has become an essential part of higher education in many countries, we assessed how proactive personality related to ISM experiences by self-selection, socialization and anticipation effects. We further explored if behavioural exploration served as a mediator of ISM socialization effects. We carried out a longitudinal study (N = 2163) with two measurement occasions and three study groups, i.e., control students who stayed at home, present sojourners who engaged in ISM and a waiting group of future sojourners. Latent change analyses indicated that all sojourners showed higher levels of proactive personality than control students before their departure abroad. Moreover, present sojourners increased in proactive personality as compared to the other two groups. This effect could partly be explained by sojourners' more frequent exploration of new behaviours. There was no indication that future sojourns affected proactivity development by anticipation effects. Implications of these findings for the understanding of adaptive personality development are discussed.

Education‐migration brokers, international student mobilities and digital transformations in pre‐ and post‐pandemic times

AbstractOriginating in the early 20th century, international education migration has undergone significant growth to become a sprawling industry responsible for managing substantial student mobility. This process encompasses more than just the students themselves, incorporating a diverse array of actors, regulations, and technologies. Within this multifaceted system, commercial brokers play a vital role by actively facilitating the intricate and interconnected interactions involved in international education migration. This review takes a critical look at the evolving role of commercial brokers in international student mobilities, with a particular focus on the COVID‐19 pandemic and its aftermath. Brokers are presented as key intermediaries, bridging the gap between state mechanisms and migrating students, and contributing significantly to economic development through education migration. The review explores the layered relationships between brokers and students, taking into account not only economic aspects but also the social, cultural, and interpersonal factors that shape these interactions. Additionally, it considers the impact of digital transformation on commercial brokers, revealing how digital platforms have necessitated a reevaluation of their roles in an increasingly globalized educational landscape. In underscoring the growing importance of commercial brokers in the post‐pandemic education‐migration landscape, the review concludes that brokerage is best conceived as a complex, technologically‐mediated social practice that bridges state policies, migrants' aspirations, and the overarching digital landscape.

Finding the right fit or fitting what is found? Contextualising connections between international student mobility and quality in teacher education

ABSTRACT The political promotion of international student mobility in the Nordic countries is underpinned by claims about its contribution to quality enhancement in higher education. Yet, this link is scarcely elaborated and is an understudied issue empirically. This article presents the findings of an interview study exploring the recontextualisation of this policy discourse by micro-level actors in Norwegian teacher education. Analytically, it employs quality perspectives to unpack the ideas that underlie the planning, learning process and envisioned outcomes associated with mobility. The article finds that quality is associated with clearly envisioned personal and professional outcomes of mobility; yet, it is also shaped by unclear notions about the learning process involved and constraints set by the practical possibilities for organising it. The article argues that the malleability of quality and the uneasy nature of student mobility in teacher education involves a risk that mobility becomes instrumentalised and loses its educational value.

A gift, a bond, a prize that binds: examining scholarship awards in the era of ‘Ethical internationalisation’

ABSTRACT The paper examines preconceptions and assumptions behind common understandings of ‘scholarship awards’ in international higher education research, and analyses how these influence the production of knowledge on scholarship programs and their effects. The paper aims to make a major theoretical contribution by proposing an alternative approach to studying these programs. First, drawing on a comprehensive review of the scholarships literature, the paper posits that prevalent theoretical approaches – often drawn from the logic of the scholarship programs themselves – limit our view of what scholarship programs do and can do. Such research constrains understandings of program design and its effects on and implications for sponsored students. Examples of underexplored ethical aspects of sponsorship arrangements are highlighted through examples and vignettes. Then, turning to contemporary discussions related to ethical internationalisation and student mobility, the paper asks which theoretical approaches could aid a focus upon and analysis of these programs in relation to ethics-related themes. Conventions theory (and specifically the orders of worth approach) is proposed as a useful theoretical lens. The paper then synthesises a novel framework using this approach to examine explicit and implicit aspects of sponsorship arrangements, explaining its suitability and potential to produce deeper insights into and more nuanced understanding of the consequences of modern scholarship program design for actors involved in sponsored international student mobility. In conclusion, the promise and significance of this framework utilizing the orders of worth approach for studying questions related to valuation processes and ethical internationalisation is recapitulated and future research is discussed.

Imagined geographies of learning: student perceptions of what can be learned where

ABSTRACT This paper explores the ways in which Danish student teachers imagine different countries to be appropriate for different kinds of learning in the context of international student mobility. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper shows how geographical imaginaries are constructed and maintained by educational institutions and social networks. Furthermore, it shows that students ascribe different potentials for professional or personal development to different places. The paper finds that internationalisation practices risk reproducing stigmatised and hierarchical notions of the potential of places and the ‘right’ kinds of knowledge.

The influence of the Chinese hukou system in motivating and shaping the geography of Chinese international student mobility

AbstractThe hukou system (household registration system) is a long‐established and significant institutional barrier to population movement within China and, accordingly, has been the subject of a great deal of research. What has received scant attention, however, is the influence that this system has on the considerable phenomenon of Chinese international student mobility (ISM). This paper is based on an analysis of 50 semistructured interviews with Shanghai‐based returnee students. Utilising the notions of institutional barriers to migration and middle‐category migration, it illustrates the important role that the hukou system plays in motivating nonelite Chinese students to study abroad and how this institutional barrier shapes their strategic decision making across various temporal phases of the ISM process. These findings are of significance as they highlight the largely unacknowledged role of hukou in the Chinese ISM system. Conceptually, they emphasise the importance of sufficiently accounting for institutional barriers to internal and international mobility in the experiences of international students in migration studies.

International Students as Sources of Income? Moving Beyond the Neoliberal Framing of Internationalization

This paper focuses on international student mobility and the funding of higher education. We theorize that relying on international students for funding is stronger for institutions in developed English-speaking countries because they more often adopt marketization practices. Compared to Northern and Southern European countries, we find that they had the largest decrease in public funding and largest increase in private funding. The relative number of international students has also increased for English-speaking countries, but not for other country groupings. Furthermore, we found associations between public/private funding and international student enrollments, but these patterns were not uniform. These results show that a decrease in public funding and a reliance on international students as a source of income is not equally important everywhere. This opens new avenues for research on the marketization of higher education, including the role that differences between cultures and types of governments play in shaping international student mobility.

Students on the move? Intellectual migration and international student mobility

ABSTRACT International student mobility, taking place within the framework of globalisation, internationalisation and transnationalism, has attained much attention. This paper adopts the Intellectual Migration framework to further our understanding of mobility regarding international higher education. It simultaneously studies China-born students in both China and North America to empirically examine the propensity for student mobility across national borders and the determining factors behind the realisation of such mobility under the same set of geopolitical and international circumstances. The analysis is based on a set of cross-sectional surveys conducted in the 2017–2019 period that yields over 1600 data points. We compare the ‘who’, ‘why’ and ‘where’ aspects of migration between domestic students in China and Chinese international students in North America to delineate the factors underlying international student mobility. By highlighting aspirations and capabilities on mobility outcomes, this paper contributes to differentiating mobility between undergraduate and graduate students and the implications for social inequality. Our analysis also reveals the unequal spatial distributions of educational resources between intellectual gateways and peripheries, and by extension between the Global North and the Global South. The findings of this paper have policy implications on improving the quality, accessibility, and equity of higher education.

Intellectual capital and student mobility

ABSTRACT This paper advances the conceptualisation and application of intellectual capital, a key concept in the intellectual migration framework, to understand international student mobility. The intellectual migration framework contends that higher-education and highly-skilled migrants acquire, upgrade and utilise intellectual capital for upward career and social mobility. This paper argues that intellectual capital is not the sum of different forms of capitals, but a complete package with human, cultural and social capitals working in synergy through the agency of migrants. Focusing on higher-education students at the beginning of the intellectual migration continuum, it analyzes how intellectual capital is differentially accumulated at various stages of the educational process. Drawing on 51 semi-structured interviews with Chinese international students in North America, we learn that pre-migration intellectual capital, due largely to parents and family, reflects social inequality in contemporary societies whereas that obtained while studying abroad reveals more on individual agency. As such, intellectual capital accumulation abroad serves as a mediating process, especially for those with less privileged backgrounds. Supportive international higher education sectors in both sending and receiving countries can also assist students in their intellectual capital cultivation process and contribute to alleviating educational inequality.

Transnational Mobility of Chinese Students in Portuguese-Speaking Countries: The Role of a Non-hegemonic Language

Abstract The idea that the acquisition of and proficiency in non-hegemonic languages can be pivotal to international student mobility has thus far been insufficiently addressed. In this paper, we draw on 23 in-depth interviews with Chinese students to explore this question, showing how the perception of Portuguese-language learning and practice at Lusophone Higher Education Institutions (e.g., in Portugal, Macao, Angola, and Brazil) represents a decisive trigger for studying abroad, and an alternative strategy for acquiring linguistic capital in a non-dominant language in which skills can be converted into competitive resources on future professional paths. We conclude by arguing for the need to address this blind spot in transnational student mobilities, and by positioning “language acquisition and proficiency” as a structuring dimension, not just of the processes by which students decide to move, but also of their imaginaries of preparedness for their future career trajectories.

International student mobility options following Brexit: An analysis of the genesis of Britain's Turing Scheme

AbstractThis paper examines the interplay between geopolitical goals, governance and International Student Mobility (henceforth ISM). It explores how the United Kingdom's newly envisaged domestic credit‐mobility programme (the Turing Scheme) is reshaping the spatiality of their outward student mobility flows to bolster a global sense of internationalisation through ISM. During its emergence, the Turing Scheme was often positioned as an antithesis to the pre‐established Erasmus+ Scheme which had a strong focus on European integration, instead it focused on promoting a ‘Global Britain’ narrative. This paper conducts a content analysis of Hansard (transcripts of debates in the U.K.'s Houses of Parliament), to reflect on ISM decision‐making, debating the choices made and unmade regarding the development of the Turing Scheme. This research illuminated multiple issues, adding to the debate about the importance of ISM for geopolitical purposes, and how these can underpin credit‐mobility schemes, and shape these during periods of large‐scale geopolitical change.

How do tuition fee increases affect international mobility? The case of European Union students in England

AbstractThis paper presents a descriptive analysis of the impact of tuition fee increases in England on the full‐degree mobility of undergraduate students from the European Union. First, we investigated whether the increase in tuition fees reduced the number of EU students in English higher education institutions. Our analysis shows that, on average, English universities suffered a sudden drop in EU enrolments in 2012/13 but recovered and then expanded their pre‐2012 enrolment levels in subsequent academic years. We observe that those English universities regarded as less prestigious experienced the sharpest decline and took longer to recover their pre‐2012 numbers. Second, we examined how changes in enrolment are associated with EU countries' macro‐level characteristics, using the push‐pull model framework. While there was a significant decrease in the number of students from Northern and Western European countries attending English universities after 2012, the tuition fee increase did not impact the number of students coming from Southern Europe. We found an association between EU countries' youth employment rates and higher education system characteristics with changes in enrolment in English universities. By examining the effect of changes in the tuition fee policy on international student mobility, our research provides new evidence on how tuition fee policies might change the behaviour of students.

Towards the ‘rationality–emotion nexus’ for approaching international student mobility: An ethnography of African student migrants at a Chinese university

AbstractThis paper examines how student motivations to study abroad are shaped by what might be called the ‘rationality–emotion nexus’. Drawing from 15 months of ethnographic engagement at a Chinese university, we show how rational factors (e.g., pursuit of financial resources) interact with emotional forces (e.g., love for family members) in dynamic and diverse ways to shape the pathways of African student migrants to higher education overseas. More specifically, we identify three distinct dynamics in the nexus: (i) rationality is entangled with emotions; (ii) rationality parallels emotions; and (iii) rationality and emotions transform each other. By foregrounding this nexus, the present study offers a critical intervention into international student mobility/migration studies as it develops ‘an integrative approach’ that transcends either a widely established rational framework of capital conversion or the emerging emotional geographies of transnational education migration.

Regional tertiary student mobility and Türkiye

Intra-regional cooperation between emerging developing countries has represented a clear shift away from Western models of internationalization since the year 2000. As a result, more international students prefer to have higher education in countries geographically and culturally close to them. This paper aims to explore international student mobility in the context of source and destination countries/continents. Additionally, the situation of Türkiye in terms of intra-regional student mobility was also revealed and several practical implications were also discussed for the country. According to the findings, while the total share of the United States of America and the United Kingdom has decreased considerably, there have been several emerging destinations like Australia, Canada, China, and Türkiye. Türkiye has entered the global top ten destination countries through attracting international tertiary students mostly from the nearby regions.

On studying those who study abroad

With the global as the dominating frame of reference, the international higher education landscape and its transients move to the forefront of discussions on whose and which education matters today. Embodying the internationalized university, the Global Southern international student turned into an early-career migrant researcher remains a valuable access point to consent and dissent from Western cultural hegemony at the European neoliberal university. Using Pitard’s term (2017) for reflexivity in qualitative research, this paper reflects on an “internal dialogue” of two women PhDs, one from North Macedonia and one from Brazil, studying international student mobility in continental Europe. From the position of “host-sponsored international students who study international students,” we discuss the ambiguity of embodying power and subservience. We conclude that the reflexivity demonstrated here, especially in South-South solidarity constellations, has the potential to reignite debates on global knowledge production today.