Current Trends, Challenges and Prospects of Student Mobility in the African Higher Education Landscape

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the development in the international dimension of higher education including student/scholar mobility, regional and international research networks and initiatives have brought new opportunities for African higher education to be incorporated in the global knowledge production and circulation processes. One of the instruments of internationalization process that facilitates international knowledge flows in the knowledge society is academic mobility. This research will touch upon the major issues related to student mobility in Africa since the 1990s addressing pressing issues like; what is the current trend of both intra and inter African student and staff mobility in higher education in the region? How do the continental initiatives already in place to promote student and academic mobility work? What are the challenges and prospects of academic mobility in Africa? Recent developments in the area have also been described through quantitative and qualitative data generated from primary and secondary sources.

Nursing international student mobility in the University of São Paulo

“…In addition, many EEUSP students went to exchange programs after taking classes that enabled them to engage in practical activities. This result is similar to studies carried out in the United States, Dominica and Ireland, where students developed their activities mostly in the hospital area; thus, the practical learning of nursing in another country was one of the main motivations for studying abroad (11)(12) .…”

“…A study that evaluated the impact of Australian students' cultural experiences in Tanzania showed that in a period of 10 to 16 weeks there is already personal growth and changes in decision making, values and personal beliefs (8) . In addition, a study showed that experiences lasting up to 10 days, if well conducted, may be significant for sensitiveness and proximity to cultural care (12) . Therefore, the period of one semester seems to be significant for personal and professional training.…”

“…Studies addressing student mobility in nursing evidence the opportunities to increase cultural competencies, cognitive abilities, personal growth and knowledge regarding nursing practices in culturally different learning environments (8)(9)(10)(11) . In addition, these studies document the effects of these programs for students, professors and for the profession (12) . Therefore, the broad participation of USP students in the SwB program has aroused interest in systematizing personal, academic and institutional information concerning the experience of this internationalization for undergraduate students of the School of Nursing of the University of São Paulo (EEUSP), in order to improve the institutional student mobility processes.…”

Motivations of Vietnamese Students in Study Abroad: A Case of Vietnamese Graduate Students in the Philippines

“…1 OECD, 2014. This trend is explained as the growing of regional integration and internationalization processes, and the harmonization initiatives at regional higher education (Woldegiorgis et al, 2015) In the wave of student mobility in Asia, the number of Vietnamese seek for study abroad has increased every school year, it was estimated that more than one hundred thousand even they are not accurately recorded (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, 2012). According to statistics of UNESCO (2014), Vietnam is one of the top ten countries of origin of mobile students (UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 2014).…”

“…It is proven that study abroad not only brings benefits to students themselves but also to the host countries (Altbach & Knight, 2007;Mpinganjira, 2009;Brux & Fry, 2010;OECD, 2013;Woldegiorgis et al, 2015), for instance, the additional country's annual revenues, cultural diversity, academic exchange, country's assertiveness, potentials for quality improvement, attracting talented minds from other countries.…”