The last ten years have seen the deepening and expansion of the process of internationalization in relation to higher education. This process is multi-faceted and has included the development of education 'brands' as governments and educational institutions become increasingly entrepreneurial in their approach to higher education. The number of students who choose to study abroad has also increased considerably. Although there is a growing academic literature on the internationalization of higher education, students' own perspectives - on their motivations, objectives and experiences - are sorely lacking. Student Mobilities, Migration and the Internationalization of Higher Education is intended to address this gap. Its strong empirical focus, drawing on case studies of mobile students from East Asia, mainland Europe and the UK, helps to develop an in-depth understanding of both the commonalities and differences in the experiences of students from different parts of the world who choose to move abroad to pursue a higher education. It discusses the implications of their movement for contemporary higher education and for our understanding of migration more generally.

Student Mobilities, Migration and the Internationalization of Higher Education

As the number of students traveling from the Global South to study in the Global North continues to grow (OECD in Education at a glance 2014: highlights. OECD Publishing. Retrieved from http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2014_eag_highlights-2014-en, 2014), we argue that it is necessary to broaden our conceptual approaches to the study of this dynamic. This article utilizes the framework of “global imaginaries” to examine the links between intensifying international student recruitment and international students’ experiences with racism. We suggest that both recruitment and racism are framed by a dominant global imaginary rooted in Western supremacy. This imaginary both makes Western higher education a desirable product in the global higher education market and shapes the reception of international students.

Cash, competition, or charity: international students and the global imaginary

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of changing patterns since the mid-1990s in the Korean government’s policies for internationalizing its higher education system. The study examin...

Shifting Patterns of the Government’s Policies for the Internationalization of Korean Higher Education:

Research on the patterns of international student mobility and the dynamics shaping these patterns has been dominated by studies reflecting a Western orientation, discourse, and understanding Considering political, economic, cultural, historical, and ecological factors, this study argues that international student mobility is not only an issue of the economically developed, politically stable, and academically advanced Western world but also one that involves countries with different economic, political, and academic characteristics Taking into account various theoretical orientations, this study argues that political, economic, cultural, and historical factors have led to the emergence of non-traditional destinations for international students; these countries are labeled as emergent regional hubs In order to empirically test this, a social network analysis was conducted on a worldwide dataset representing 229 countries The findings evidenced the strong position of traditional destinations for international students However, the results also suggest the rise of several regional hubs, which are undergoing internationalization processes in different forms and with different rationales The mobility patterns in emerging regional hubs deviate from those in traditional destinations, which fundamentally change the nature of internationalization in this context

Social Network Analysis of International Student Mobility: Uncovering the Rise of Regional Hubs.

This study analyzes whether academics with advanced degrees from foreign universities are more research productive than their domestic counterparts in the three selected East Asian higher education systems – Korea, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. The three systems have relatively large proportions of foreign degree holders among their professoriates. The data for this study is drawn from the Changing Academic Profession survey. In our negative binominal regression analysis, we found that foreign degree holders are not more research productive than their colleagues with domestic degrees, and even slightly less productive than domestic degree holders in soft disciplines (arts, humanities, and social sciences) in Korea unless they have further foreign post-doc experience after their PhD. Furthermore, foreign degree holders are less productive in hard disciplines (natural sciences, engineering, and bio-medical sciences) in Malaysia. Finally, we discuss the findings and attribute them to contextual differences between the three localities.

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Research Productivity of Returnees from Study Abroad in Korea, Hong Kong, and Malaysia

This study explored the reasons for current reverse mobility patterns in South Korea and how the country benefits from returning U.S. doctoral recipients in the forms of brain gain and brain circulation. Based on interviews of Korean faculty who studied in the U.S., this study found that while the political economy might help to explain why Korean students choose to study in the U.S., it does not fully capture their decisions to return. Family ties and cultural reasons transcended reasons related to economic mobility. The study also found that while both brain gain and brain circulation were present, brain adaptation was especially prevalent.

Johnny J. Lee

Papers

Brain gain or brain circulation? U.S. doctoral recipients returning to South Korea