The global space of international students in 2010

Abstract

International students have become an increasingly important research object -not only on the basis of the overall expansion and importance of international students in higher education and in national economic policies, but also since they constitute a strategic research object for understanding the global landscape of higher education. By using correspondence analysis on a data set on countries of destination and regions of origin, the global space of international students is depicted. The analysis reveals a structure with three main poles, a Pacific pole, a Central European one and a French/Iberian one. The three poles correspond to three different logics of recruitment: a market logic, a proximity logic and a colonial logic. The three poles and logics are also related to linguistic structures. The Pacific/Market pole is dominated by English, while the Central European pole has German and Slavic languages as a common denominator, and the French and Iberian pole has French, Spanish and Portuguese in common with their former colonies. It is argued that the Pacific/ Market pole is the dominating pole in the space due to the high concentration of resources of different sorts, including economic, political, educational, scientific and not least, linguistic assets.

Attracting International Students to Semi-peripheral Countries: A Comparative Study of Norway, Poland and Portugal

“…Portugal relies mostly on the ties with former colonies to recruit international students, while Poland recruits primarily from neighbouring countries, taking advantage of cultural and linguistic proximity. These illustrate the colonial and, respectively, the proximity logic (Börjesson, 2017), which could be seen as tied in to political rationales.…”

“…Thus, despite the general mobility flows from economically less developed toward economically developed countries, regional hubs in the periphery are capable of attracting students largely originating from other countries of the periphery (Kondakci, 2011). In turn, Börjesson (2017) identifies three distinct mobility patterns and poles of recruitment: the Pacific pole, describing student flows from Asia to North America, Oceania and the UK; the central European pole, comprising intra-European mobility; and the French/Iberian pole, describing recruitment from former colonies to South Western Europe. These reflect different recruitment logics: a market logic, a proximity logic and a colonial logic, respectively.…”

Portuguese Institutions’ Strategies and Challenges to Attract International Students

“…The geography of international student mobility is in a state of flux, as an increasing number of countries are now actively engaged in the recruitment of international students. This is evident in the diminishing global share of the four key players-the USA, the UK, Australia, and Canada (Choudaha, Chang, & Kono, 2013)-and in the diversification of mobility destinations (Börjesson, 2017;Brooks & Waters, 2011;França, Alves, & Padilla, 2018). A tendency toward regionalization has also been observed recently (Becker & Kolte, 2012;Kondakci, 2011), as certain countries become regional education hubs, which recruit students from neighboring countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, or the United Arab Emirates (Cross-Border Education Research Team, 2018).…”

UK policy discourses and international student mobility: the deterrence and subjectification of international students

“…Not all the UK's main sending countries are amongst the global leaders in outward student mobility: Nigeria, Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Canada are important for the UK, but not in the top 10 sending countries globally. These are all ex-imperial territories, highlighting the importance of historical or colonial ties, suggesting a recruitment logic based on non-market factors (Börjesson 2017). These countries also send students elsewhere, suggesting a multiplication of imperial sites (Madge, Raghuram, …”