Johanna Waters

Student Mobilities, Migration and the Internationalization of Higher Education

List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Policy Context Mobility of East Asian Students Mobility within Mainland Europe International Mobility of UK Students Geographies of Student Mobility Student Mobility and the Changing Nature of Education Conclusion References

A second chance at 'success': UK students and global circuits of higher education

While the literature on highly skilled international migration has grown substantially over recent years, the motivations and experiences of an important sub-group — the internationally mobile student — have remained under-researched. In an attempt to redress this gap, this article draws on in-depth interviews with 85 young adults, to explore the choices and motivations of UK students who choose to study abroad for the whole of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. While studies of east to west migration have typically emphasised the importance of an international higher education as a high-prestige, first choice option for those students who can afford it, we argue that, for UK students, choices are configured differently. For many of our respondents, overseas education offered primarily a ‘second chance’ at accessing elite education.

Accidental Achievers? International Higher Education, Class Reproduction and Privilege in the Experiences of UK Students Overseas.

To date, scholarship on international students has generally focused on flows from non‐western economies to the main English‐speaking destination countries (such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia). In contrast, we draw on a qualitative study of 85 UK students who have either completed or are considering undertaking a degree programme overseas. We found that, in opposition to a common image of ‘international students’, UK students are not overtly motivated by ‘strategic’ concerns. Instead, they are seeking ‘excitement’ and ‘adventure’ from overseas study and often use the opportunity to delay the onset of a career and prolong a relatively carefree student lifestyle. Despite these ostensibly ‘disinterested’ objectives, however, UK students remain a highly privileged group and their experiences serve only to facilitate the reproduction of their privilege. The paper calls for a more critical analysis of the spatially uneven and socially exclusive nature of international higher education.

Social networks and educational mobility: the experiences of UK students

A recurrent theme in the literature on transnational mobility – and particularly that pertaining to the young and/or highly skilled – is the individualised nature of such movement, as people move to take advantage of opportunities in an increasingly interdependent world. Drawing on research with 85 young adults who had moved overseas for their higher education, or were seriously contemplating doing so, this paper subjects this claim to critical scrutiny. Indeed, it suggests that while internationally mobile students are clearly only a subset of the broader category of transnational migrants, they nevertheless demonstrate important ways in which mobility is often socially‐embedded, grounded within networks of both family and friends. It then points to the socially reproductive nature of such ties, and discusses their implications for the development of ‘mobility capital’.

In pursuit of scarcity: transnational students, ‘employability’, and the MBA

‘Credential inflation’ is perhaps one of the more contentious consequences of the recent expansion of higher education. Concerns over the effects of credential inflation have spawned a number of debates around concepts of ‘employability’ and postgraduate learning. In the contemporary knowledge-based economy, it is argued, the employability of young graduates is increasingly dependent upon their ability to maintain ‘positional advantage’ in a labour market characterised by ‘boundaryless careers’. I examine these debates in the context of East Asia. Here, young peoples positional advantage is sought, firstly, through the acquisition of an international first degree, obtained at an overseas institution. However, with more and more middle-class students going abroad for their education before returning to seek work, the ‘overseas degree’ is also increasingly subject to devaluation through credential inflation. I highlight the significance of postgraduate education and particularly the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) for young, overseas-educated, graduates in Hong Kong. I argue that the MBA is now seen as a vital supplement to an overseas undergraduate education and as part of an extended temporal and spatial process of study, in the face of prevalent discourses of ‘employability’, individual responsibility, and the need for the continual upgrading of skills.

International education and the employability of UK students

A common theme within the literature on higher education is the congested nature of the graduate labour market. Researchers have highlighted the lengths to which many students now go, in response to this congestion, to ‘distinguish themselves’ from other graduates: paying increased attention to university status; engaging in a range of extra-curricular activities; and pursuing postgraduate qualifications. Studies that have focused on the strategies of Asian students, specifically, have pointed to the important place of studying abroad as a further strategy in this pursuit of distinction. Given that there is now some evidence that the number of UK students enrolling on a degree programme overseas is increasing, this article explores the extent to which an overseas education can be seen as part of a broader strategy on the part of British students to seek distinction within the labour market and whether such an education does indeed offer tangible employment benefits.

Transnational Geographies of Academic Distinction: The Role of Social Capital in the Recognition and Evaluation of "Overseas" Credentials.

This paper examines the role of specific and place‐based social capital in the recognition and evaluation of international credentials. Whilst research on labour market segmentation has contributed towards an understanding of the spatial variability of the value of human capital, very little attention has been paid to the ways in which the credentials of more privileged social groups may in certain local contexts become valorised. At the same time, an increasing body of work in sociology has drawn attention to the globalisation of credentials and labour market competition. This paper brings together these perspectives, demonstrating how transnational social connections are put to work in the valourisation of ‘overseas credentials’ within a particular local labour market – Hong Kong’s financial services sector. It reveals the extent to which social capital, which is at once transnational and locally embedded, confers value upon particular international credentials, with consequences for individuals’ employment prospects. The paper stresses the continuing need to examine international academic credentials in localised contexts.

Immobile Transnationalisms? Young People and Their in situ Experiences of ‘International’ Education in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, the number of international degree programmes available locally to students has proliferated in recent years, and British universities are the largest provider of so-called ‘transnational education’ in the territory. This paper draws on the findings of a qualitative project examining British degree programmes offered in Hong Kong, and their implications for local young people. In particular, it explores the fact that the vast majority of these ‘international’ qualifications involve no travel whatsoever, and are taught and awarded entirely in Hong Kong. Interviews with students/graduates, with direct experience of a British degree, elucidate the relationship between (im)mobility and the accumulation of cultural capital through international education. It is suggested that immobility does have an impact upon young people’s experiences of higher education. The findings contribute to discussions around the relationship between education, mobility and class, and the implications of a consolidating international education industry for class reproduction and social inequalities.

Youthful escapes? British students, overseas education and the pursuit of happiness

This paper draws upon the findings of a recent project examining the motivations of UK students seeking higher education overseas. We argue that notions of fun, enjoyment and the pursuit of happiness abroad featured strongly in young peoples stories, in contrast to an emphasis in recent academic and media accounts on overt strategising around educational decision making. Several students wanted to escape the UK, particularly the rigidity of British higher education; the perceived flexibility of a liberal arts education was extremely appealing. Others saw education overseas as a chance for personal reinvention. Moving the focus away from stressing the negative effects of academic-related pressures upon young people, in this paper, we argue that education can offer up new possibilities for fun and excitement, which for privileged individuals work alongside more strategic objectives around the accumulation of cultural capital.

The Hidden Internationalism of Elite English Schools

Analyses of UK higher education have provided compelling evidence of the way in which this sector has been affected by globalisation. There is now a large literature documenting the internationalisation of British universities, and the strategic and economic importance attached to attracting students from abroad. Within the schools sector, it has been argued that parents are increasingly concerned about the acquisition of valuable multicultural ‘global capital’. Nevertheless, we know little about whether ‘internationalism’ and/or the inculcation of ‘global capital’ is an explicit focus of UK schools. To start to redress this gap, this article draws on an analysis of websites, prospectuses and other publicly available documents to explore the extent to which internationalism is addressed within the public face that schools present to prospective pupils, and the nature of any such messages that are conveyed.