World class? An investigation of globalisation, difference and international student mobility

Abstract

This paper explores the motivations and meanings of international student mobility. Central to the discussion are the results of a large questionnaire survey and associated in-depth interviews with UK students enrolled in universities in six countries from around the world. The results suggest, first, that several different dimensions of social and cultural capital are accrued through study abroad. It is argued that the search for 'world class' education has taken on new significance. Second, the paper argues that analysis of student mobility should not be confined to a framework that separates study abroad from the wider life-course aspirations of students. It is argued that these insights go beyond existing theorisations of international student mobility to incorporate recognition of diverse approaches to difference within cultures of mobility, including class reproduction of distinction, broader notions of distinction within the life-plans of individual students, and how 'reputations' associated with educational destinations are structured by individuals, institutions and states in a global higher education system that produces differentially mediated geographies of international student mobility. key wordsinternational students higher education universities mobility globalisation difference

International mobility: Findings from a survey of researchers in the EU

“…In line with the predictions of Findlay et al (2012), who argued that mobility choices and experiences at different stages of an individual's life course may reflect a broader motivation towards a transnational or international life/ career, we find that having been internationally mobile as a student, or having experienced an industrial placement or similar whilst a student, has a positive effect on the likelihood of a respondent having been internationally mobile at some point during their later research career. Interestingly, for those who have been internationally mobile, we find that experience of student mobility increases the probability of having experienced a research visit but has no statistically significant effect on the probability of international job mobility.…”

“…Finally, it may be that mobility at an earlier stage of the life course of the researcher may be associated with greater likelihood of mobility as a researcher. Findlay et al (2012), exploring the mobility of students between the UK, Ireland, Australia and the USA, found that UK students enrolled in foreign universities often had prior life experience of living abroad and that those students often saw student mobility as contributing to a longer term goal of an international career following graduation. Similarly, Harvey (2011) found that Indian scientists who migrated to the USA as students often made the decision to seek a US education in the context of longer term career plans.…”

Educational Mobility and the Gendered Geography of Cultural Capital: The Case of International Student Flows between Central Asia and the UK

“…These movements have been dominated by flows from Asia (and to a lesser extent Africa and the Middle-East) to the Global North (including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the USA) reflecting the uneven development of the global education industry and, to a lesser extent, the dominance of the English language (Findlay, 2010). However, flows of students between countries within the global North are also important (Brooks and Waters, 2009;Findlay et al 2012;King et al, 2011), as are emerging destinations, such as Singapore, which has sought to establish itself as a world-class education hub (Olds, 2007). The education industries in the receiving countries are an important influence on these flows, as at both school and University level they have responded to neoliberal reform by seeking to attract fee-paying international students in order to sustain and develop their sector through times of fiscal difficulty (Findlay 2010;Madge et al 2009;Waters 2006a).…”

“…At first sight, young men and women describe the accrual of cultural capital through overseas education in similar ways, a fact which has underpinned gender-neutral analyses of international student mobility in a range of contexts (Findlay et al, 2012;Waters, 2009). However, the greater emphasis women place on searching for employment in which their educational qualifications will be recognised suggests that we need to move beyond purely classbased analyses of the geography of cultural capital.…”

International curriculum transfer in geography in higher education: an example

“…Degree credit mobility (Findlay et al 2012) and short exchanges are yet another strand of this mode of internationalization, facilitated in the European Union by the Erasmus funding programmes and by the improved alignment of pedagogic and assessment regimes under the Bologna process (Sweeney 2012). In a sense this idea is an extension of the already well-established tradition of intercalated degrees for language or medical students spending a year overseas.…”