Educational Equality and International Students

Justice Across Borders?

Stuart Tannock

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783319763811
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft

In an increasingly globalised educational landscape, this book examines whether the principle of educational equality can be applied across nation state borders. Exploring the tension between the theory of educational equality and the reality that most educational institutions are rooted in local communities and national frameworks, the author thus probes the consequences for institutions, individuals and communities as the number of international students grows exponentially. A topic that has previously received limited attention, the author draws upon theoretical literature and an empirical study of how universities in the United Kingdom conceptualise and promote principles of educational equality for international as compared with home students. This pioneering work will be interest and value to students and scholars of international education, international students, educational equality and globalisation, as well as practitioners and policy makers.

© The Author(s) 2018

Stuart TannockEducational Equality and International Studentshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76381-1_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: A Case of Ambivalence, Uncertainty and Contradiction

Stuart Tannock¹

(1)

UCL Institute of Education, London, UK

End Abstract

In an increasingly globalised world of education, should the principle of educational equality apply to all students – or only to some? If the principle of educational equality applies to all students everywhere, how exactly can this be made to work, given that most educational institutions and systems remain nationally and locally rooted, organised and funded? Or, if educational equality applies only to some – namely, students with citizenship or residency rights within a given country – what are the consequences for educational institutions, individuals, families, local communities and global society in general, as ever growing numbers of students, scholars, schools, colleges and universities now work across nation state borders in their pursuit and practice of knowledge, learning and education?

These core questions form the central concern of this book. To address these questions, the book draws on an empirical study of one specific real world case, that is international students studying at universities in the United Kingdom. The empirical study investigated a more focused set of parallel questions: How are universities in the UK conceptualising and promoting principles of educational equality for their international as well as their home students ? How do university staff, administrators and student leaders explain the rationale for extending, limiting or transforming principles of educational equality, according to whether an individual is considered to be a home, European or international student? How are the claims and arguments these staff and student leaders make supported or undermined by actual government and university policy and practice?

International students constitute an important if often overlooked group for considering questions of global or international educational equality and justice in today’s world. For one thing, they comprise a significant and growing proportion of higher education students worldwide. In 2015, international students made up 5.6% of all higher education students in OECD countries, 11.5% of all Master’s degree level students and 25.7% of all doctoral students; globally, the number of international higher education students increased by 160% between 1995 and 2011 (OECD 2017). The United Kingdom has some of the highest proportions and numbers of international students anywhere. In the 2015–2016 academic year, there were 438,000 international students studying in universities in the UK: together, these students comprised 23% of all full time higher education students in the country, 70% of full time taught postgraduate students and 51% of full time research degree students (HESA 2017). Given such figures, the question of how and whether principles of educational equality should apply to international students has significance not just for these students themselves, but for educational institutions more generally, as well as both host countries and sending countries from which international students come.

A second reason why international students are an important group for considering questions of global or international educational equality and justice is that they are often a vulnerable group of students, since most of them are studying and living temporarily in countries in which they do not have citizenship or permanent residency rights, protections or entitlements – and in which the rights, protections and principles of educational equality and justice that they might enjoy in their home countries do not apply (Marginson 2013). In the UK in recent years, international students have sometimes found themselves stuck between the global market forces that lead UK higher education institutions (and other social agents) to actively recruit them to come to the UK to study, and the populist political calculations that lead the UK national government to aggressively monitor, police, restrict and sanction the presence, rights and activities of international students who are studying and living in the country. For such a group of students, questions of educational equality – and of social justice entitlements more generally – are of paramount importance.

But there is another reason why international students are such an important group to consider when thinking about the question of global educational equality and justice. Very often when global educational justice questions are considered, this is in the context of international development education and the goal of establishing and promoting basic educational rights and entitlements that would apply to every individual in every location of the world – global (educational) justice is thus often seen as concerning the nature and extent of “our duties to distant others” (Williams and Death 2017, p. 105). But, as important as such agendas may be, they often appear to be missing one of the critical elements that make global educational justice such a vitally pressing matter in the first place: that is the deep and wide social, economic and institutional connectedness of individuals who are engaged in educational endeavours that already stretch across nation state borders . As a consequence, these efforts often fall foul of two criticisms: first, that there are no international or global institutions that have the power or authority to enforce global educational rights and entitlements throughout the world (thus making the issue of global educational justice seem somewhat hypothetical or fictional); and second, that the promotion of such educational rights and entitlements risks crudely imposing (western) ideals about educational goals on other peoples, ignoring and overriding important local cultural, political and social contexts and considerations that are currently shaping and driving actual, real world educational policies and practices in these distant places (Unterhalter 2008).

In the case of international students, however, questions of global educational equality and justice are not subject to these same critiques. International students are paradigmatic examples of global educational interconnectedness, who are already engaged in global or international forms of education; universities, along with other actors, are already functioning as international institutions that promote and enforce educational rights and entitlements across nation state borders ; and educational ideals, agendas, curricula and pedagogies (often of western origin) are already being engaged in and imposed at an international or global level, through the spread of international and transnational forms of education. International students, far from being “distant others,” are often right here, right now, despite not sharing common rights and identities of citizenship, continuing or permanent residency. If there is any context in which the concept of global educational equality and justice is necessary and appropriate, this is surely one of them. Conversely, gaining a better understanding of the complexities and challenges, innovations and opportunities for pursuing ideals of educational equality in this most internationalised of settings might help think through questions of global educational justice more generally, in less immediately or obviously globalised educational contexts.

The Research Study

The empirical study that forms the core of this book is a qualitative research project, funded by the UK based Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE Research Award reference 1552), that investigated how higher education leaders, staff and students working at the national level and within a diverse range of universities around the UK conceptualise and promote educational equality and justice for international as well as home students . Over the course of eighteen months from 2015 to 2017, I collected institutional documents and statistics , and conducted semi-structured interviews with a total of fifty nine individuals, who represented seven different national higher education organisations and twenty two universities, including both elite and non-elite (selecting and recruiting) universities in a range of geographical settings throughout England and Wales . University level interviews included student leaders, and academic and professional staff working in a range of different capacities with international students (from recruitment to immigration compliance to student experience) and/or in university equality and widening access offices.

The premise of the study was that because UK universities recruit an increasingly international student body, they are forced to address the question of whether and how ideals of educational equality and justice, which have traditionally been framed at the level of the nation state, should apply internationally; and that, due to the requirements of UK law (among other factors), the two extreme options of either extending national principles of educational equality to all students everywhere without exception or qualification, or alternatively, denying these principles outright to any student not considered to be a “home student ” are not viable choices for UK universities in the current historical conjuncture. As a consequence, there is an extensive grey area of global or international educational justice that universities in the UK, as in other countries, are now compelled to navigate daily, as they make decisions about such things as home and international student recruitment and admissions, tuition fees and bursaries (or grants), pedagogy and curriculum, institutional culture and structure, social rights and protections. The aim of the study was to understand both the explicit and tacit models of educational equality that are emerging in this context of higher education internationalisation in the UK; the kinds of equality concerns that are being foregrounded and backgrounded for different students, depending on their original national domiciles; and the conflicts and dilemmas that internationalisation is posing for higher education actors seeking to promote educational equality and justice for all students studying in UK universities today.

One of the central findings of the study was that when it comes to the matter of educational equality for international students, there is considerable ambivalence, uncertainty and contradiction among many professional and academic staff working in UK universities today. Consider, for example, the following four vignettes.

In one Russell Group (elite) university that I visited during the study, the director of international student recruitment insisted that her university’s commitment to providing educational equality for international students was no different than for home students . “I was interested by the scope of your research project,” she told me at the beginning of our interview, “because you know for me, I read that and thought, ‘Well, I can’t think of any instances where … we wouldn’t want to be equal and fair and open to international students.’” “Certainly in the admissions sphere, we’re very hot on equality,” the director continued, “we’re committed to making offers that are equitable, … so we take a very clear line in terms of equality at that stage.” But later in the same interview, just a half hour later, the director reflected that perhaps conditions for international students at her university weren’t so equal after all. “I suppose [one] thing that struck me was fee levels,” she said, as “we charge one fee for home and EU students, [and] we charge one fee for international [students],” and this is “one of the areas where there is clearly a big difference.” “But,” she offered by way of explanation, “that is a legislative reality.”

Other staff began with an opposite viewpoint. An immigration compliance officer working at a large former polytechnic in Greater London (who had initially come to the UK as an international student herself) reacted strongly to my question of whether she thought that equality and justice for international students were being promoted at her university. “Absolutely not,” she told me, “it’s so obvious, because [international students] have to go through these very stupid immigration rules and they can’t get a job here, not because they’re not good enough.” “From an immigration point of view,” the officer insisted, “there’s no equality [for international students]…. It’s not fair.” But here again, the picture was murky. For, in some respects, the compliance officer argued, equality for international students was strongly protected by her university. “While they [international students] are here, when they’re studying,” she explained, “I think it’s fine, I mean from their academic part of the thing.”

Some university staff seemed to have debates with themselves over whether and exactly how educational equality should be promoted for international students in the UK. A senior staff person working in a university widening participation office located in the north of England was quick to criticise the principle and practice of limiting widening participation activities to home students only. “If you believe in equality, it doesn’t stop at the Dover cliffs, does it?,” he told me, before going on to question UK tuition fee policy for international students as well: “Why set differential fees for international students compared to home students ? What’s the justice and equality in that?” Yet, in the same conversation, the widening participation officer also argued against his own principled claims. Pragmatically, he pointed out, “the fact that international students are such a big foreign exchange earner for this country [is the reason why] the Home Office allows any in at all.” If these students weren’t being charged differential fees, they might not even be able to be in the UK in the first place. Further, he insisted, the UK can’t get into the business of promoting widening participation beyond its own borders. Each national government around the world is responsible for promoting social mobility and social cohesion for its own citizens. “I don’t think it is a role for this country,” the officer argued: “We used to be the imperial power and I think we’ve given it up now…. So I don’t think it’s appropriate for this country to go around saying, ‘We’ll do that for you.’”

Finally, some university staff were ambivalent about whether equality was a core concern or not in the work they did with international students in the UK. At the start of a focus group I did with a group of staff from universities across the UK who worked in the area of international student marketing and recruitment , I was told that equality was not “a topic that comes up that much” in their work. However, the group then spent the next thirty minutes sharing stories, experiences, issues and concerns that suggested that, actually, equality was an essential part of an awful lot of the work they did. One recruiter reflected on the recent move by some British universities to reduce the number of Chinese students coming to their campuses, especially to their business schools , where some programmes have become primarily populated by international students from China. “That was widely reported in the newspapers,” he said, but “there was no furore around that to say, ‘Well, you can’t say ...