The Geographies of International Student Mobility

Spaces, Places and Decision-Making

Suzanne E. Beech

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9789811374418
• eBook ISBN:
  9789811374425
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice
• Index: Social Sciences

This book offers critical insights into the geographies of the international student higher education experience from initial recruitment, through to the plethora of personal factors which influence their decisions to become mobile and experiences when abroad. From the student perspective these include, but are not limited to, the importance of social networks, desire for a multicultural experience and the attraction to certain locations as discussed in this volume. However, unlike other work, it also reflects on the motivations of the HEIs themselves and their need to continue recruiting students in the face of greater competition from overseas. Recognising this omission, this book also analyses the resulting migration industries and how these are sustained (and even necessitated) by the sector. It is, therefore, the first to bring together these wider institutional narratives with those of the students resulting in a holistic and comprehensive insight into the student mobility process.

© The Author(s) 2019

Suzanne E. BeechThe Geographies of International Student Mobilityhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7442-5_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: Conceptualising the International Student

Suzanne E. Beech¹

(1)

School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Ulster University, Coleraine, UK

Suzanne E. Beech

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

A visit to the University of Kent at Canterbury reveals signage at the entrance proudly adorned with the words “Welcome to the UK’s European University” (Image 1.1). It seems a fitting place to open this book, with a university which was keen to make its links to a wider international community. The University of Kent, located on the south coast is, indeed, closer relatively to some of its European neighbours than it is to other UK universities. Furthermore, the wider city of Canterbury, in which it is located, is also something of a mecca for short-term English language students who throng the streets at all times of year but particularly during the summer months when the image below was taken. The city is also one with important historical European connections—its architecture notably includes a Huguenot weaver’s house on the waterside of the River Stour as the city became a haven for those fleeing the continent, and its significance as a place of religious pilgrimage also reveals evidence of historical migrations and mobilities to the city. No wonder then that the University should choose to align itself in this way.

Image 1.1

“The UK’s European University”. (Source: Author’s Own, August 2018)

This desire to focus upon the university as an international space is common within higher education marketing, particularly in the quest to try to attract a diverse student community. However, there is an added dimension to this when we consider that the University of Kent was established in 1965 shortly after the publication of the Robbins Report. The report urged that there was a need to expand university provision in the UK. The purpose, in part, was to provide a civic alternative to the elite universities of the past. These particular universities therefore aimed to be higher education institutions (HEIs) which were both of and for the people, and to which every person could aspire to attend. There are, therefore, two elements to how the University of Kent wishes to promote itself—one is this civic identity and as a university for the local community, but likewise this desire to show how the University is an international (and therefore something of an elite) space. An interesting contrast, and perhaps even a contradiction, but one which other universities also negotiate no doubt.

Yet of course, at the time of writing, the spectre of Brexit looms large. With no real understanding of the effect that leaving the European Union (EU) will have on international student migration, or our ability to recruit international students, or academics, or to secure EU funding, it is a worrying and uncertain time for UK universities. This makes this volume even more relevant to this changing climate as it sets out to analyse not only the international student experience, both in terms of their decision-making and their experiences when they arrive, but is also the first to incorporate with this an analysis of how UK universities actively attempt to recruit such students. Whilst much of this research took place prior to the Brexit vote, analysing student decision-making can point to the potential impact of a “hard Brexit” on our international student recruitment. This is particularly with regard to those students coming from Europe to the UK, who are likely to be subject to international student fees when we do leave the EU, and poses interesting questions given that we already charge them significantly higher fees than many of our other European counterparts.

Work on international student mobilities has flourished since the early noughties, and this time period has also corresponded to increasing international student mobility, as well as a democratisation of mobilities more widely. This book offers a new and original perspective on international student mobilities by constructing an holistic understanding of the international higher education student in a UK context as detailed above. However, second, it also comes at a time when wider public concerns regarding immigration are ongoing, and operate alongside the development of UK policy agendas focused on discouraging longer-term immigration. This applies to international students as well, who tend to be treated as an exclusively short-term benefit to our economic system, and not as part of a long-term workforce within English policy documents especially (Brooks 2017).

Finally, this volume is timely because international student numbers worldwide are greater than ever before. Universities UK (2014) suggested that in 2012 there were some 4.5 million international students worldwide, a figure which had more than doubled from the estimated 2.1 million in 2000. This growth in numbers has coincided with new opportunities for international student mobility in new and emerging markets, such as those of North and Southeast Asia and Australasia (Collins and Ho 2014). With greater choice, however, has also come a declining market share for some of the key exporters of higher education, and the UK has been no exception in this regard (they do, however, continue to be the key exporters even in spite of this) (Universities UK 2014). It is, therefore, more important than ever that we consider the geographical dimensions of these international student mobilities, not only as an intellectual project, but also in terms of the economic, political and cultural implications of their recruitment. This opening chapter provides a short overview of some of the international student mobilities literature to set the scene for the rest of the book, as well as offering some brief insight into the methodology employed and the findings discussed in each of the subsequent chapters.

Setting the Scene

The Making of the Modern International Student

From the outset it is worth noting that growth in international student numbers has been particularly pronounced since the 1980s and Madge et al. (2009) reported that this continued until the early twenty-first century, with an increase in their number of 70 per cent between 2000 and 2009 alone (Raghuram 2013). Despite this, student mobility has a long historical context (Ennew and Fujia 2009), something which has a tendency to be overlooked. Indeed, Biblical stories suggest the presence of travelling scholars (van’t Klooster et al. 2008), and there is evidence that some 10 per cent of all European medieval scholars left their home regions to study elsewhere on the continent, especially in renowned centres of learning in cities like Bologna and Paris (Rivza and Teichler 2007; Teichler 2004; Kibre 1948). Whilst neither of these examples would ha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction: Conceptualising the International Student
• 2. Recruiting Students: Negotiating Policy
• 3. Recruiting Students: Developing Migration Industries
• 4. Why Study Overseas? Identifying the Instrumental Factors in Student Mobility
• 5. Reputation, Rankings and the Russell Group: What Makes an Excellent University?
• 6. Friendship and Kinship: Driving Mobility
• 7. Understanding Place: Imaginative Geographies and International Student Mobility
• 8. Writing Biographies, Travel and a Multicultural Experience?
• 9. Conclusion: Developing a Theoretical Framework of International Student Mobility
• Back Matter