Student Mobility Research Articles

Understanding Sino-Singapore educational exchanges: international student mobility and cross-border knowledge production

Understanding Sino-Singapore educational exchanges: international student mobility and cross-border knowledge production

Internationalisation in Higher Education: Post-Covid Trends of Students’ Mobility (Case Study EUROMED Countries)

Purpose: This article examines trends in the internationalisation of higher education within the Euro-Mediterranean (EUROMED) region, with a particular focus on student mobility as a driving force for fostering academic collaboration across borders. Study design/methodology/approach: The research uses data from UNESCO to analyse student movement patterns in 23 Euro-Mediterranean countries. It considers key factors influencing these trends, including economic incentives, geopolitical stability, and cultural linkages. It also assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international student mobility and the adaptation of physical, virtual, and blended mobility formats to new realities. Findings: The findings highlight that while physical mobility remains essential, the rise of virtual and blended mobility options post-pandemic has introduced more inclusive and accessible student pathways. This shift enhances the resilience and adaptability of internationalisation frameworks within the EUROMED region, enabling a more robust response to the fluctuating global conditions. Originality/value: This study provides a comprehensive look at the unique cultural, geopolitical, and educational context of the EUROMED region. It underscores the importance of innovative mobility models in creating a more inclusive internationalisation approach that can withstand external challenges, particularly in a post-pandemic landscape.

“Social Elevator”: Research of Affirmative Action Program

This work investigates the academic performance of students enrolled in the “Social Elevator” program at Higher School of Economics (HSE University), which operates under the principle of affirmative action and aims to assist those students who have lower chances of admission due to various social reasons in a highly competitive environment. Objective admissions in Russian universities and the high selectivity of the HSE University, discussed in this paper, do not confidently allow the application of conclusions from foreign studies to the Russian experience. The program had not been previously researched. It was assumed that students of the program would show higher performance than their peers admitted on a general basis – this assumption follows from qualitative research that found that students of this program possess a progressive narrative of overcoming inequality. Regression with dummy variables based on administrative data on student performance and survey data on the socio-economic status of students are used for the analysis. According to the regression analysis results, all else being equal, students of the “Social Elevator” program demonstrate lower performance than students admitted on budgetary places on general grounds, although they average grades at the “good” level and therefore have a chance to get a return to education and overcome inequality. Further research on the topic is required to separate the secondary effects of inequality, as well as to assess the actual social mobility of students participating in the program. The results can be useful in designing educational policy in the field of expanding access to higher education.

International Student Mobility: Pushing-Pulling Factors for International Students

International student mobility (ISM) has been considered as a key factor for many higher education institutions (HEIs) in terms of benefits that it generates. Recent literature highlights the influence of ISM in the reconfiguration of the form of educational system making it more competitive and attractive for international students. In this regard, students are paying attention to the opportunities and benefits that an international student mobility programme, such as the Erasmus programme offers. Nevertheless, it is important to take in consideration challenges and barriers that international students have to cope during their study experience abroad. The aim of this study is to analyse which are the pushing and pulling factors for international students when choosing a country as the abroad study destination. An online survey is used to Albanian international students that has previously experienced ISM programme and are currently experiencing ISM programme abroad. Findings offer important insights on understanding factors that impact international students’ decision when choosing a foreign country as a study destination. This study offers contribution in enriching the existent literature on ISM and in particular on the decision-making of international students from a developing country perspective. The study’s implications suggest that higher education institutions can boost their global attractiveness and competitiveness by addressing the key factors influencing international students’ decisions, as identified in this study. Received: 20 July 2024 / Accepted: 20 September 2024 / Published: 05 November 2024

Rethinking General Education from the Perspective of High School and Higher Education Curriculum Articulation

This study explores the concept of curriculum articulation between secondary and higher education, focusing on the continuity of curricula and their implications for foundational liberal education in universities. It analyzes the similarities and differences between general education at the high school and university levels. Both frameworks aim to cultivate holistic individuals equipped with essential competencies and a sound moral character through broad-based education. They share commonalities in historical origins, educational objectives, and curricular structures. However, high school curricula are typically organized around subject-based learning, whereas university curricula are more discipline-oriented, with pedagogical differences arising from the distinct roles of teachers and professors. These differences manifest in instructional content, teaching methodologies, and assessment practices. From the perspective of curricular continuity, sequence, and integration, the study advocates for the development of academically rigorous liberal arts courses at the university level that facilitate interdisciplinary mobility and integration for students, and the enhancement of teaching methods for interdisciplinary courses through ongoing faculty research. The conclusion suggests conceptualizing liberal education as encompassing three distinct domains: basic literacy education, liberal arts education, and experiential learning. It emphasizes that the scope of liberal arts education should extend beyond basic competencies, asserting that continuous faculty engagement and scholarly inquiry are essential for the effective development and refinement of liberal education curricula.

Vertical Mobility and Mental Gap of Scheduled Caste Students in West Bengal

This study investigates the complex relationship between vertical mobility and the mental gap experienced by Scheduled Caste (SC) students in West Bengal. Vertical mobility refers to the process by which individuals or groups ascend the social hierarchy, while the mental gap represents psychological barriers that often impede SC students from realizing their full potential. This research aims to elucidate various aspects of vertical mobility, examine the factors contributing to the mental gap experienced by SC students in higher education, and explore strategies to address these challenges to promote both personal development and upward mobility. To accomplish this objective, we employed qualitative documentary analysis and conducted a comprehensive review of existing literature, policy documents, and relevant case studies to gain a deeper understanding of the socioeconomic realities and educational trajectories of SC students. Our findings indicate that vertical mobility encompasses multiple dimensions, including educational attainment, career progression, and diverse social perspectives. Furthermore, we identified key contributors to the mental gap, such as internalized biases, economic constraints, and the pervasive influence of caste consciousness. By elucidating these critical factors, this study sought to propose effective strategies for bridging mental gaps and enhancing upward mobility among SC students. Ultimately, this research aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse surrounding social equity and empowerment for marginalized communities, emphasizing the urgent need for targeted interventions that facilitate the full integration of SC students into mainstream educational and social spheres.

Mapping research on International Student Mobilities in higher education: Achievements and the agenda ahead

In this comprehensive review, we analyzed nearly 10,000 publications indexed in the Scopus database over the past seven decades using bibliometric analysis and science mapping visualization techniques to delineate the scholarly discourse on International Student Mobilities (ISM) in higher education and uncover significant trends. The findings reveal that the field has a long history with remarkable growth since 2005. English-speaking nations dominate knowledge production, but European and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries have also made noteworthy contributions. Co-citation analyses highlight the interdisciplinary nature of ISM research, drawing from diverse disciplines across psychology, social sciences, and the humanities. Eight prominent thematic strands underpin the foundations of ISM research, with a strong emphasis on exploring international students’ social, emotional, and cultural adaptation within university settings. Implications drawn from these trends provide a nuanced perspective for navigating the terrain of ISM in higher education, offering guidance for future research and policy considerations.

The role of place in international student mobility

ABSTRACT Place is an important factor influencing international student mobility (ISM). However, few studies have comprehensively examined the role of place in ISM. This special issue intends to narrow this gap by considering the role of place in ISM from different perspectives. The articles contributing to the special issue discuss three dimensions of place, namely the physical characteristics of place, the meanings and valuations of place, and social inequalities associated with place. The special issue highlights several theoretical, methodological, and empirical avenues to further advance research on the role of place in ISM.

Challenges and Professional Support for Principals at Rural Schools for Sustainable Development

This study aims to explore the challenges faced by principals in rural schools in Taiwan and the professional support they require to improve leadership and school management. Utilizing focus group interviews, data was collected from 16 participants (7 women and 9 men), focusing on issues such as limited cultural capital, student retention, teacher shortages, poor student performance, and insufficient school funding. This research highlights the specific challenges of teacher retention, student mobility, and administrative burdens. The key professional support identified includes targeted professional development, curriculum inspection, parental engagement, and collaboration with colleagues and experienced principals. This study suggests that creating professional development communities, fostering collaborative networks, and increasing administrative support can significantly enhance rural school leadership and improve education quality. The findings offer practical insights for policymakers to tailor support systems to meet the unique needs of rural school principals in Taiwan, drawing on successful strategies from both local and international contexts to ensure sustainable educational leadership and development.

Chain migration and student mobility in Sicily

Chain migration and student mobility in Sicily

Where are international students enrolling, and why?

In 2023 I authored an article for this publication that listed the changes in international student mobility. Now, a year later, I would like to revisit this topic and share with you some of the new destinations attracting international students.

Transnational resilience: exploring international students’ agency in response to systemic racism in U.S. higher education

This phenomenological inquiry explored how 19 international students in U.S. higher education developed a sense of agency in response to systemic racism. The findings revealed three main factors associated with participants’ sense of agency: (1) transnational role models, (2) the community and social network established in the United States and (3) personal beliefs, values, and morality. By focusing on how international students draw on their transnational experiences and knowledge to develop agency in response to systemic racism, this study contributes to scholarships on learning outcomes associated with international student mobility and their experiences with race and racism. It also adds to the increasing body of research that challenges deficit paradigms toward international students prevalent in scholarly discourse by highlighting their agency and assets. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed.

Transforming and thriving: Australian students in Vietnam through the New Colombo Plan

ABSTRACT Outbound student mobility has gained increased popularity over the past two decades. It involves an array of stakeholders including students, academics, mobility practitioners and home and host communities. Despite challenges, learning abroad creates a range of impacts on individuals, institutions, and society. Existing research on learning abroad largely concentrates on students’ motivations, activities and effects of outbound mobility on individual students. However, how learning abroad may potentially contribute to transnational connections is largely under-researched. This article responds to a critical gap in the literature by examining not only how learning abroad in Vietnam enriches individual Australian students personally, professionally and culturally but also how such developments could potentially have broader transnational impacts. The article draws on a study including interviews with 24 Australian students learning abroad in Vietnam through the New Colombo Plan. It elucidates the students’ intercultural, personal and professional growth, especially on the humanistic aspects of global citizenship, through their deeper understanding of Vietnam, their formation of a relational capability, and a sense of empathy with the Vietnamese people. The article also highlights the value of Australian students' intercultural experiences and engagement with Vietnam to the society. In particular, it unpacks how Australian students' learning abroad in Vietnam could potentially contribute to enriching Australia-Vietnam connections and collaboration to respond to critical socio-economic issues such as climate change, economic development and poverty.

Assessing Trends of Vehicle Ownership and Use Among Tertiary Students in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Campus, Ghana

The study aims to assess trends of car ownership and usage among tertiary students on campus, with an emphasis on Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The research design employed in this study was descriptive survey, aiming to gather information from a sample population through their responses to specific questions. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, summarizing the responses quantitatively through bar charts, pie charts, frequencies, percentages as well as means and tables, created using Microsoft Excel. The results revealed that, a majority (70 percent) of the cars being used by students on the KNUST campus are owned by Ghanaian students with foreign students making up the minority of this number. The major challenges faced by students who own or use vehicles on campus are a lack of filling stations on and around campus, lack of student parking lots, and excess traffic. From the findings, it can be concluded that, students' psychological make-up is a major determinant of vehicle ownership among students. Moreover, the findings further revealed that most of the students who have vehicles on the campus exhibit or develop mostly negative habits after vehicle ownership and this in the long run may have negative effects on academic performance which is the sole purpose of being on campus. The study provides insights into the environmental and health impacts of increased vehicle use on university campuses, offering valuable insights for policy decisions, future research, and campus management, thereby enhancing student mobility.

Student mobility in Southern Italy: An empirical analysis of preferential patterns

This paper presents an empirical analysis aimed at identifying chain migration patterns among university students from Sicily, Sardinia, and Apulia. Utilizing data from the national archive of university students enrolled in an Italian university from 2008 to 2017, we construct origin–destination matrixes and calculate residuals from a log-linear model to detect key student routes. Positive residuals between specific origin–destination pairs that persist over time can suggest significant attraction and potential chain migration. The results support a “large to large” and “small to small” city mobility model, particularly for Sicily and Sardinia. Students from Palermo, Catania, Messina, and Cagliari show strong connections with large cities such as Rome and Milan. Furthermore, results show historical links between Sardinia and Tuscany date back to the 1950s, and the enduring connections between Apulian students and universities in Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, and Lombardy have been evident since the 1970s. In Sicily, mobility patterns towards the Polytechnic of Turin began in the 1970s and persist today. These patterns underscore the influence of prior migrants on the mobility decisions of university students in Southern Italy, highlighting a potential chain migration effect.

Nation and its students: Reflections on educational activism from a public university in Delhi, India

This article examines contemporary facets of student mobilization that unfolded with the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 (CAA). Taking cues from a premier public university in India, the article explores how CAA-driven activism enabled the political socialization of students, and how such a process was entangled with their identities and ideologies. It provides an ethnographic description of student mobilizations for and against the amended citizenship laws to show that (1) the space of the university has witnessed a steady resurgence insofar as the questions of nationalism and nation-building are concerned, (2) higher education in India is at a paradoxical crossroads, and is traversing through rapid neoliberalisation and burgeoning religious nationalism, and (3) ‘competing nationalisms’ between student organizations are on display, where each group believes that their idea of the nation is more suitable than another. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual armory, the article’s contribution lies in arguing that campus activism leads to the formation of dispositions that enable and assist in the production of political capital among student activists. It concludes that the university then serves as a platform and creates further pathways for accumulating such capital.

The wellbeing turn: A necessary consideration in international student mobility

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic directly impacted current and aspiring international students who were confronted not only with a global health crisis but one which put a stop to any kind of international and local mobilities. While the pandemic in Australia exposed the vulnerabilities of international students–the likes of which have never been seen before–these experiences which directly impact student wellbeing essentially also have consequences on international student mobility (ISM) scholarship. This is because ISM scholarship has traditionally been driven by migration and mobility studies frameworks of economic and social mobility and security through international Global South‐to‐Global South migrations. This paper argues that the pandemic has impacted on individual ISM decision‐making where international student wellbeing should be recognised as a driver in ISM scholarship. To find out how the COVID‐19 global health crisis is bringing about a new paradigm in which to conceptualise and theorise ISM, this paper relies on data gathered before and during the pandemic. These include research reports, Australia's international education national strategies, Australian international student recruitment marketing material, mainstream media articles and a range of research projects I have conducted on international students in Australia. This paper thus suggests that the COVID‐19 global health crisis and its impact on not only the international student lived experience but on student expectations and aspirations, have fundamentally changed. Here this paper observes that a ‘wellbeing turn’ has existed in Australia in the international education space and proposes that ISM scholarship needs to consider the ‘wellbeing turn’ as a necessary consideration in ISM research.

International medical students’ experiences of psychological safety in feedback episodes: a focused ethnographic study

BackgroundFeedback and psychological safety are well-established concepts within medical education, vital for student learning and progress. However, the concepts remain unexplored in the context of international students. This area deserves attention given the unique challenges faced by the overseas medical students due to cultural differences. The present study examines international students’ experiences of psychological safety in feedback interactions in a Scottish undergraduate medical programme.MethodsA focused ethnographic approach was adopted to explore international students’ experiences and perceptions of psychological safety in their feedback experiences. Data were collected in the form of field observations and semi-structured interviews, involving both student and faculty participants. Approximately 13hrs of fieldwork and a total of 11 interviews were conducted. These were analysed using a combination of inductive and deductive thematic analysis.ResultsData analysis identified four key themes: feedback delivery, educator attributes, cultural factors and longitudinal educational relationships. Both staff and student participants highlighted how environmental factors such as room design and group size functioned as enablers or barriers to psychological safety in feedback episodes. Additionally, students appreciated tutors who expressed vulnerability and demonstrated awareness of their cultural backgrounds. Students described significant differences between the feedback approaches in the host (UK) institute and that in their home country. Longitudinal associations fostered trust and familiarity with peers and tutors, enhancing students’ receptivity to learning and feedback.ConclusionThis present study highlights cultural differences in feedback practices across countries and their impact on psychological safety among international students. It stresses the importance of integrating overseas students by considering group dynamics, environment and diverse student needs. Staff awareness of cultural variability, openness to tutor vulnerability and fostering long-term educational relationships can greatly enhance psychological safety in learning and teaching activities. These insights are relevant amidst the growing globalisation of medical education and the mobility of students across borders, advocating for tailored integration to optimise their learning experience and achievement.

The Progress and Trends in Overseas Education: A Bibliometric Analysis

With the rapid development of economic globalization and educational internationalization, overseas education has emerged as a pivotal trend in the current global education landscape. Employing bibliometric methods, this study conducts co-citation and co-occurrence analyses using VOSviewer and Bibliometrix software to scrutinize 1985 publications related to overseas education retrieved from the Web of Science database from January 2000 to November 2023. Statistical findings reveal a steady growth trend in overseas education research over the past two decades, with the USA, China, and England identified as the highest contributors. Co-citation analysis unveils that the knowledge foundation of overseas education research primarily emanates from the fields of linguistics and education, giving rise to research themes such as language acquisition, identity, and learning experiences. Co-occurrence analysis demonstrates that research hotspots in overseas education are concentrated in six directions: higher education and international students, internationalization and intercultural competence, language acquisition, identity, and study abroad, student mobility, globalization, and internationalization of higher education. Based on bibliometric analysis, this study proposes future research recommendations, including enhancing research on the mobility of specific groups of international students, strengthening studies on the overseas education market, addressing new dynamics in overseas education in the post-COVID-19 era, and intensifying research on the academic achievements of international students. This study provides scholars in the field of overseas education with an in-depth understanding of the knowledge structure and developmental trends, offering a solid foundation for future research.

The failure of infrastructures of international student (im)mobility: Case of COVID‐19

AbstractThe paper makes visible and examines the failure of infrastructures of (im)mobility drawing attention to their entanglements that together shape everyday lives. It draws on the experiences of international students (IS) in the UK during the COVID‐19 pandemic to firstly offer a reading of the pandemic as a crisis which exposed the already failing of the infrastructures that are supposed to sustain everyday lives. Secondly, it draws attention to the entangled infrastructures of finance and knowledge to show these connections and disconnections have always been tenuous and wrought with issues which the pandemic exposed but have always constituted the everyday lives of migrants such as IS. The paper closes by exploring the implications of these findings for future research.