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The agency of international students has long been neglected and undertheorised, though recent literature indicates that this has started to change. This paper systematically reviews 51 studies that address student agency in international higher education. Focusing on research published in the last two decades (2000–2020), the review draws on studies that foreground student voices, or international students' perspectives, rather than the perspectives of teachers, administrators or policymakers. A detailed discussion of how international student agency is positioned in the literature found that agency appears as either: a research object, as part of a theoretical or conceptual framework, or an emergent finding. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that the term "agency" is often used as a buzzword rather than as a fleshed-out concept. Thus, drawing on this initial analysis, the review synthesises varying but overlapping conceptualisations of international student agency in the literature into an integrative framework. Implications for future research are drawn, based on our findings about the understudied populations and methodological limitations in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing internationalization of Higher Education Institutions has facilitated universities from East Asian countries like Taiwan, Korea, and China to value university rankings more in enhancing their admissions and reputation. Especially when Taiwan and China are all considered belonging to Chinese social community, returnee doctorates are assumed to possess international experience that is theoretically helpful to improve their research productivity and university employers generally prefer foreign-trained doctorates. However, there is little research to prove that returnee doctorates are more productive than local doctorates because of more frequent international mobility. This research examines a University in Taiwan, a prominent academic research university, credible for its research productivity. From the perspective of bibliometrics, this study used the Scopus International Academic Database to identify publications, citations, and Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) as credible indicators of research productivity, controlling for personal background, doctoral training, international mobility, and research collaboration. We hope that the differences in research productivity between local and returnee doctorates can be measured more comprehensively and objectively. The results of this study found that there is a significant difference in the higher FWCI score of research publications between local and returnee doctorates, and further found that there is a significant positive relationship between local doctorates, published papers during doctoral studies, prestige of supervisors, and international and domestic research collaboration on research productivity. Those that identified international mobility in careers had a stronger impact on research productivity compared to those of the doctorate educating stage, and both international and domestic research collaboration were important for research productivity. The results based on empirical analysis broke the myths of returnee doctorate corresponding to high research productivity in this study, and can serve as a reference for faculty recruitment and research environment enhancement in research-oriented universities in Taiwan and other Asian countries. Policy implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies Appadurai's notion of scapes in globalisation to study international student mobility. Thirty mainland Chinese students were interviewed; the majority of whom studied at prestigious institutions in the West before enrolling in their current PhD programmes at a research-intensive university in Hong Kong (HK) in the immediate aftermath of HK's large-scale social protests and amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. We seek to understand why these students relocated to HK to further their studies given these turbulent circumstances and how their mainlander identity and sojourns in the West influence their perceptions of HK's social movements from the perspectives of ethnoscape and ideoscape, respectively. Our findings reveal that HK represented the 'best' compromise for our participants, mitigating their nostalgia for home (i.e. mainland China) whilst offering a superior education to the Chinese mainland. Most participants perceived HK as a nationalistic ideoscape, wherein HK people's pursuit of autonomy is subordinated to the putative Chinese national interests. Moreover, ethnoscape and ideoscape dynamics were found to crisscross other scapes. Generous scholarships (i.e. financescape) provided additional incentives driving student relocations. The persistent consumption of Chinese social media (techno-mediascape) was found to have resulted in worldview conformity between our participants and the Chinese state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PhD (non-)completion rates have been considered important criteria with which to evaluate the effectiveness of doctoral programmes and of universities' performance. To date, there has been a lack of qualitative studies on the voices and experiences of funded international students who discontinue doctoral research degrees. This paper uses qualitative methods and six themes of a life course perspective to uncover the 'hidden' experience of international Vietnamese students who dropped out of funded doctoral programmes in social sciences and humanities. Its findings suggest that linked/independent lives and the timing of live themes helped to understand reasons for international doctoral students to drop out, which underline their engagement with research networks, academic identity and familial responsibilities. Meanwhile, the consequences of dropout illustrate the intersections of five themes: linked/independent lives, development risk and projects, the timing of lives/interplay of human lives and historical times, and diversity in life courses. The five themes capture diverse life trajectories and forms of agency developed by PhD non-completers while negotiating social pressures and institutional politics in their home institution as well as their perceptions of well-being and life priorities. Their life trajectories and forms of agency are gendered and culturally specific, with female non-completers being more active in searching for and building back their 'agentic orientations' through learning new skills, entering motherhood or leaving academic institutions. These findings are useful for reflecting on the current supporting structures, especially mental health support, for international doctoral students and supervisor training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid internationalizing shifts in higher education, universities around the world are simultaneously becoming more integrated and more disparate. This paper examines the role of immigration policy in producing convergent and divergent educational attainment among international and domestic students at Indian and US universities and shows that student and work visas influence international students' decisions about where to study, what to study, and how much education to pursue. Using original data sources and a transnational data collection strategy, this study develops new approaches to measuring international student mobility and offers a window into transnational phenomena not easily observable in other datasets. An analysis of 7177 education histories and 105 in-depth interviews with international students, university administrators, and immigration lawyers shows that migration policy contributes to the growth of international student enrollment and multinational educations but also creates asymmetrical student flows and funnels international students into certain fields of study. The results of this study indicate that migration policies simultaneously contribute to integration and differentiation between the US and Indian university systems. The findings show that immigration policies play an important role in regulating the flow and nature of international student migration streams and lead to simultaneous convergence and divergence in the educational attainment and field of study between Indian international students enrolled in US universities and their domestically educated peers in India. Through an empirical case, this paper develops a conceptual bridge between two dominant frameworks on internationalization and theorizes the central role of migration policy in shaping processes of higher education internationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the prevalence of group work in higher education in Australia can be construed as a cultural or institutional practice, it has become a site of struggle for many international students who must negotiate the normative practices embedded in group work. This paper aims to investigate how six Japanese international students at Australian universities explore, negotiate and respond to the normative practices of group work through group projects. The findings reveal that students actively sought and negotiated hidden and implied normative practices of group work. Their responses to the norms were underpinned by the norms being inculcated into their dispositions or, namely, habitus, in the form of beliefs and values, which enabled them to critically examine their group practices. Additionally, when they identified a mismatch between their perceived norms and the responses of their peers, which is realised through Bourdieu's concept of 'hysteresis', they were found to take leadership opportunities. We contend in this paper that when their practices or group practices are at odds with the perceived or identified norms, it induces their hysteresis encounters, which represent initiation of alternative actions and capacity to embrace learning opportunities. We also argue that the investigation into this phenomenon is vital in identifying practices that reproduce fallacies and missed opportunities or prevent students from embracing true virtues of group work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the burgeoning doctoral mobility scholarship, inhabiting an entwined international and doctoral student status has been argued to render the PhD enterprise peculiarly challenging for candidates. Nonetheless, recognizing that this academic population has a relatively higher level of maturity and sophistication, research has increasingly turned attention to their agency exercised in navigating the international PhD experience. Notwithstanding the surge of research adopting this agential lens, a clear and integrated knowledge of what precisely constitutes agency has yet to surface. To address this concern, we systematically reviewed 28 papers wherein references to the agency of international doctoral students have been explicitly present. The results reveal that agency has more often appeared as an epiphenomenal phenomenon than being prioritized as a focal research object across the literature. For this reason, the characterization of agency as a static human property has been found to take dominance and evidence to the varying individual and structural influences over students' agentic actions are largely bereft of theoretical underpinnings. Furthermore, while enacting agency has been substantively cited to induce individuals' development and change, there are few testimonies to the difference it makes on social and cultural structures that have commonly transpired as constraints. Informed by the findings, we outline a research agenda serving to promote the central empirical investigation and the fluid conceptualization of student agency in the international academic mobility context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research on international student migrants has sometimes homogenised this group, framing it as predominantly made up of privileged members of the global middle-class. This has led to calls to acknowledge and address the precarity faced by international students in their respective host countries more comprehensively. This study aims to explore how levels of financial precarity vary among international students in Australia, and how this in turn contributes to varying levels of precariousness in the personal spheres of students' lives. In doing so, we centre and refine the concept of precarity for use in studies of internationally mobile students, arguing for its use as a 'relational nexus', bridging financial precarity and broader lived experiences. Drawing on a large-scale survey and semi-structured interviews with 48 students, we emphasise the linkages between financial precarity and precariousness as a socio-ontological experience, explored through the examples of time poverty, physical and mental wellbeing, and relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to the pandemic, approxiately 42,000 students from countries in sub-Saharan countries in Africa enrolled in U.S. universities (IIE 2021). Despite this strong and growing presence, little research exists focusing on their experiences of education in the U.S. Through a small-scale study of the experiences of graduate students from sub-Saharan African countries, we see evidence of material and discursive representations of race that produce material inequalities that are then used to legitimize racial formations. We couple these experiences to the background of campus internationalization policies and the university's responses to argue that the policies reproduce and reinforce cultural and social racism that positions white Americans as the norm and unproblematically contributes to Western supremacist positionality in the academy and beyond for economic benefit. In this paper, we demonstrate ways in which the implementation of campus internationalization programs is part of the larger discourse of racism on both the national and international arenas, perpetuating white superiority and implementing policies that reproduce the inequities that reify and legitimize neoracism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social isolation has been a central focus within international student research, especially with regard to international/host national relations. While a worthy area of study, we argue that the sheer volume of such research stems from the fact that universities' recruitment of foreign students is often justified by the claim that a more international campus will engender cross-cultural skills. The main argument of this paper is that, from this perspective, the "point" of such sojourns is seen as social, and any lack of interaction becomes problematic. This is an intellectually respectable position, but it is problematic that it has come to dominate the field to such a degree that the students' own experiences and goals are rarely heard. This paper calls for a de-muting of international students in research, so that more research is oriented by their stated priorities. While there has been a shift in this regard around the turn of the millennium, presumptions as to the purpose of educational sojourns remain and continue to colour research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a reconceptualisation of international students' transitions into and through UK higher education. We present two case studies of students which explore their transitions in terms of their academic speaking skills from pre-sessional courses into their disciplinary studies. Students describe how the development of their confidence and performance in academic speaking was contingent on a number of factors and micro-moments, and how this progress into and within disciplinary studies often involved regression and discomfort. Nevertheless, they also talked of developing strategies to overcome challenges and the resultant learning. We argue that transitions to disciplinary studies in terms of academic speaking can be more helpfully understood as non-linear, fluid and rhizomatic. This study offers valuable insights for individuals and institutions to move away from a fixed student lifecycle perspective to consider instead how reciprocal, embedded and on-going support for international students may better reflect students' experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether international student mobility (ISM) has an impact on the transition from higher education to work. Two measures of labour market outcomes are investigated: unemployment and skills mismatch. To go beyond existing research, we analyse whether the effect of ISM on these outcomes vary by fields of study, intake grades, sociodemographic variables and more. Our analyses are based on data from the Norwegian graduate surveys time series from 2007 to 2017. After controlling for several confounding factors, we find very small differences in labour market outcomes between graduates with and without ISM experience. In comparison with field of study, immigrant background, previous labour market experience and business cycles, the effect of ISM on the examined labour market outcomes is small. Investigating whether graduates with different backgrounds benefit differently from ISM, we find evidence of moderate effect heterogeneities: Graduates with high intake grades and graduates in business and administration seem to benefit somewhat more. Regarding social origin and immigrant background, no heterogeneous effects are found. Contrary to findings from previous studies, we do not find that those least likely to study abroad benefit the most from it. Rather, there is a tendency that groups with the greatest likelihood of studying abroad are those who benefit most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more European higher education students decide to take part in international student mobility (ISM). However, not much is known about the actual benefits of studying abroad. This paper assesses UK and Italian students' returns from ISM. Three research questions are addressed. First, does international student mobility increase graduates' employment probability and postgraduate study uptake? Second, do the returns to ISM differ according to the socio-economic background of graduates? Third, do the returns to ISM vary between two countries with contrasting labour market and education systems? Results, based on propensity score matching, indicate that mobility is positively associated with a higher employment probability. Mobility abroad is likewise linked with a higher likelihood of enrolling in postgraduate studies in Italy. The benefits of mobility in terms of employment do not differ significantly across socio-economic groups. However, mobility is particularly effective in boosting the uptake of postgraduate studies among mobile Italian graduates with a low socio-economic background. In Italy, ISM returns are substantially higher than in the UK, which could reflect that the skills accumulated and the signals sent to potential employers through ISM are greater in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International student education in China has been continuously changing in response to the rapid social transition since the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949. Adopting a historical perspective, this scholarly paper begins with an analysis of characteristics of international student education in China in terms of rationales, role of government, and international students. Several challenges are then identified and this paper concludes with observations on future trends of international student education development, with a special focus on the implications of “the Belt and Road”. This paper contributes to a better understanding of China’s role as an emerging host nation of international students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study that investigated the range of institutional support needs of international students at one Australian university with a view to increasing understanding of their needs and the ways in which support was provided. The study involved a number of data collection methods including focus groups, key informant interviews and a larger scale survey, undertaken in an inductive and sequential process. The results indicated that the levels of awareness about services differed, that lack of knowledge of how to access a service and finding information about it were key reasons for non-use, and that the helpfulness of staff impacted on the perception of services as useful. The paper concludes by recommending a reconsideration of current practices to move towards a model of student support service provision in which the student is at the centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is now the second most popular destination country for African international students. This paper investigates the discourse surrounding this emergent flow of students, and the main aim is to offer a new means to conceptualize mobility between non-Western nations. The article highlights weaknesses in current postcolonial conceptualizations of student mobility. A key contribution to the literature on international student mobility is that it extends and adapts existing work on the unequal and asymmetrical nature of international student mobility by drawing on the concept of semi-peripheral (post)coloniality, to examine how specific modes of integration into the "world-system" result in particular discursive formations around international student mobility. The main argument is that relative structural positions between the sending region and receiving country are mirrored in discourse around international student mobility, which contains examples of civilizational paternalism and pursuit of pragmatic foreign policy goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing market of international students puts increasing pressure on higher education providers to also provide language support, as students from non-English speaking background face the dual challenge of developing their English language proficiency alongside their subject content. However, there is little research on how knowledge about language is actually integrated with content knowledge in practice or how such an integration can be supported by curriculum design. Using a case study of a popular academic language support program implemented in an Australian university, this paper examines the relationship between academic literacy and business ethics as two distinct forms of disciplinary knowledge, to investigate how the complexity of their integration is managed dynamically in the classroom. In this study, we draw on Legitimation Code Theory to analyze the role of language in constructing discipline-specific knowledge. Our findings suggest that students do not automatically understand the relevance of language support and that shifting knowledge practices during classroom interaction can enhance students' motivation as well as help students to relate their knowledge about language to the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, research on higher education has increasingly examined the realities of internationalisation, with a particular focus on international students' experiences and internationalisation at home programs. These studies have explored the friendships of international students, including their relationships with both locals and internationals from other countries. However, local students' perspectives and experiences of friendship are largely absent from this literature. The few accounts examining local students' lives explicitly focus on improving their cross-cultural knowledge and engagement, or on rare cases of local-international student friendships. The overriding assumption in this literature is that the understandings and social practises of local students are major barriers to their relationships with internationals. This paper addresses this gap by exploring local students' perspectives on the absence of friendships with their international peers. We utilise findings from a research project on internationalisation at home, involving interviews and focus groups with local and international students and staff at an Australian university. Focusing on locals' discussions of potential friendships with internationals, we propose that these missing friendships are an important area of study. We find that these friendships are missing for several interrelated reasons: local-international friendships are considered unnecessary and are therefore unimagined by locals, who tend to assume that similarity and affinity naturally lead to friendships, and the structures and spaces that might facilitate friendships are absent. Ultimately, uncovering why these friendships are missing sheds fuller light on how relationships might be facilitated, potentially informing and improving universities' internationalisation initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketisation, increased student mobility, the massification of Higher Education (HE) and stagnating staff numbers in universities have combined to cause a ripple effect of change both in the demography and size of university classes across the world. This has implications for the quality and equity of learning and the need to examine and to transform pedagogical practices. Despite the growing attention of literature on teaching large classes, there is a scarcity of research addressing the twin issues of large classes in an increasingly internationalised context. This paper seeks to contribute towards filling this gap. The paper provides a theoretical exploration of the causes of such classes in HE, reviews the empirical evidence against large class teaching and examines the difficulties associated with teaching demographically diverse classes in HE. The paper identifies eight pedagogical strategies to address the issues of class size and diversity, which relate to increasing student participation and engagement; increasing curricula access and the language of instruction; increasing staff intercultural understanding; increasing opportunities for deep learning for all; on-going monitoring of student satisfaction; increasing opportunities to achieve; diversification of assessment; and the merit of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS). It calls for new research on global learning cultures; reviews of global assessment and promising pedagogical practices and processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, based on the data of 48 countries and regions from 1999 to 2008, studies the economic and educational determinants of how countries of different types attract international students. The study finds that: the volume of merchandise trade between countries facilitates international student mobility across borders; international students from developing countries put the same weights on educational and economic factors for peer developing countries as potential destinations, while only economic factors are taken into consideration for developed countries as potential destinations. On the other hand, international students from developed countries often value educational factors more for developed countries as possible destinations, while equally weigh educational and economic factors for developing countries as possible destinations. Therefore, countries aiming to attract talents from other countries should pay more attention to attract international students and encourage them to seek working opportunities in local employment markets after finishing study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data generated during a semester-long programme to support international students from countries in Melanesia and Asia embarking on masters research in education in a New Zealand university. All were scholarship recipients. The researcher-and facilitator-of the programme, was interested in documenting and understanding the nature of the students' experience as they planned and wrote research proposals. The process of developing a research proposal, as one of the early stages of 'becoming' a researcher, highlighted a number of challenges for the six case study students. The challenges are viewed from a transition or 'resituation' perspective (Eraut in Stud Contin Educ 26(2): 247-74, , ) rather than an adjustment one. A resituation perspective assumes that students brought with them 'personal expertise, practical wisdom and tacit knowledge' (Eraut , p. 42) which needed to be reconciled with what was demanded of them by different aspects of the research planning process. The resituation challenges experienced by the students included situating a perceived problem or issue in the research literature; reconciling personal research goals with the limitations of one's own agency as a researcher; integrating new learning with research goals; and reconciling the new role or identity as a researcher with the previous role as colleague or community member. The paper presents a case for providing a context for postgraduate students in which explicit recognition of what they bring to the research task, and acknowledgment of the resituation challenges can take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are around 400,000 international students studying on Australian campuses in 2018, and the education of international students is Australia's third largest export, behind that of iron ore and coal, thereby playing a significant role in the country's economy and particularly the financial sustainability of Australian universities. Chinese international students, account for one-third in this cohort, are paradoxically both coveted as 'cash cows' and labelled as a 'security threat' to Australian society. The paper examines this particular 'Chinese Student Syndrome' through the lens of 'colonial modernity' and argues that along with the problems of Chinese firms in Australia, Chinese international students on Australian campuses, in many ways, take on the persona of China itself in Australia, and the implications associated with its global rise. At the core of this syndrome lies a deep-seated ontological framing of a historical teleology that centres the Anglo-European pathway to modernity as universal that grounds the epistemic certainty of higher education institutions in Australia and regards Chinese students as the outsider to this teleology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Images of students in overseas settings have become a common feature of university websites in the USA, as universities employ bold visual imagery to encourage student participation in study abroad programs and to market the university more broadly. In this paper, we analyze the content of this visual material, reporting on an extensive analysis of 2000 screenshots from the websites of 39 leading U.S. research universities. We focus on three recurring visual categories of meaning that show up across the cases: images of students jumping, horizon-gazing, and standing with their arms open wide. We extend prior analyses of how marketing imagery commodifies study abroad, arguing that these images must also be situated within the cultural context of elite American higher education, where college is not only seen as a utilitarian or academic pursuit, but is also—or perhaps mostly—understood as a time of fun, maturation, personal discovery, and self-transformation. This work makes a methodological contribution toward the use of visual imagery in higher education research and also advances theoretical studies of how the meaning of study abroad is constructed and communicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International students undertaking higher education in foreign countries bring with them some perceived beliefs about academic conduct. These beliefs are often in contrast with the host countries' academic practices, which may generate confusion and frustration among international students, affecting their learning behaviours. As a consequence of intercultural interactions in a foreign country, international students' beliefs and behaviours may change. Since Malaysia has emerged to be a hub of educational excellence in the region by transforming its higher education, thereby attracting increasing number of international students, this paper aims to investigate whether international students' acculturation-oriented attitudes impact their ethical academic conduct pertaining to research, exams and assignments in a public university in Malaysia. The results reveal that students adjusting to the local academic norms demonstrate significant positive commitments to host country's academic norms concerning research, exam and assignments. However, students upholding the norms of their home countries tend to show non-significant attitudes towards host country's academic norms. These findings have strategic policy implications for the host educational institutions that are highlighted in the paper. The paper also identifies its limitations and explores future research potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have identified the tendency among transnational higher education (TNHE) graduates to pursue master’s programmes, especially overseas degrees. Nonetheless, there is a lack of exploratory research on this ‘transnational’ group to understand the logic of practice behind this phenomenon. This article draws on interviews with 23 students at a Sino-US university to understand their perceptions of master’s study and explore the effect of TNHE experience on their decision-making about further study. Using Bourdieu’s theory of practice, we find students perceive pursuing master’s study as a natural progression and a remedy for failures in their educational backgrounds. This paper also argues that the ‘fit’ or ‘split’ between TNHE students’ habitus and the embedded field generates two distinct groups regarding choices of post-graduate study, international aspirants and returnees. While the acquisition of new habitus and capital through TNHE experiences steers most students towards international master’s study, the durability of old habitus and personal reflexivity lead a few to pursue domestic education. Our findings provide implications for TNHE administrators in supporting students’ post-graduate educational aspirations and further development of TNHE institutions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, over half a million Chinese students travelled abroad to study, making China the largest source of international students in the global higher education market. A large Chinese population on campus does not, however, generate prolific interactions between them and local students. Language barriers and cultural distance are frequently cited in the literature as factors that hinder communication, yet it is not clear how they actually affect the communication process. To address this gap, we utilise quantitative and qualitative data collected at one Australian university through an online survey (n = 124) and focus groups (N = 16) to investigate how Chinese international students and local students understand and experience intercultural communication. We find that both student groups are quite positive about language and cultural differences but struggle with comprehension problems and low-quality interactions. Intercultural communication requires interlocutors to establish common grounds between language and cultural variations via meaning negotiation. However, being restricted by intracultural practices and norms, students are not able to fully utilise communication techniques to fulfil this need. This, in return, affects their motivations to have further intercultural interactions. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for universities and suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has been very successful in recruiting international students. The Australian government regularly reports students' high levels of satisfaction with their educational experiences; however, there is also evidence of some dissatisfaction with regard to social and educational experiences. This paper explores the extent to which universities are meeting the social and educational needs of international students by analysing their experiences through the two dominate rationales in international education, namely neoliberal and cosmopolitan rationales. It discusses findings from a project examining the perceptions and experiences of international students at a large metropolitan Australian university. The study was conducted in two phases: an online questionnaire, followed by focus group interviews. The findings indicate that while international students might rate their overall satisfaction as high on questionnaires, deeper analysis through focus groups highlights the lack of social integration and belongingness that international students perceive. These results challenge universities to innovate their practices in order to develop and integrate cosmopolitan experiences that not only may benefit students but also assist in sustaining the neoliberal rationale of the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than four decades, studies of higher education have espoused the significance of fostering intercultural interactions between international and domestic students, yet numerous studies have provided widespread evidence of limited interactions between these cohorts and limited development of long-lasting relationships, such as friendship. After reviewing the conceptualisations of intercultural relationship development and their limitations in the extant literature, this paper outlines the rationale for a three-stage ecological and person-in-context conceptual framework of the development of intercultural relationships in university contexts. The proposed framework addresses: the issue of loose conceptualisations of intercultural relationships in the literature; the overlooked phenomena of dynamic interactions between individual and environmental dimensions that co-contribute to intercultural relationship development; and the developmental nature of intercultural relationships. The main proposal underpinning the framework is that the development of intercultural relationships occurs at the dynamic experiential interface between environmental affordances and students' agency, both of which evolve along three stages of relationships (i.e. interactivity, reciprocity and unity). The framework, illustrated by empirical data, addresses aspects of intercultural relationships that have been neglected in the higher education literature, and that are expected to stimulate further educational research and practices in various (inter-)national/regional and institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the transitioning process of international Chinese undergraduate students studying in Russia. The paper offers new insights into changes in the expectations and experiences of Chinese students at various stages of their joint educational studies in China and Russia. Drawing on a qualitative study of 20 Chinese undergraduates studying in Russia, the findings of the study indicate that before studying in Russia, most of Chinese students had low expectations about their study programme. However, once they were in Russia, students’ perception of the value of their international education experiences changes through varied opportunities for self-reflexivity in an unfamiliar cultural environment. The study also offers an example of methodological approach useful for researching international students’ experiences, particularly within but not limited to context of Sino-Foreign university partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of unprecedented student mobility, increasingly diverse student populations in many national contexts, and globally interconnected environmental and social concerns, there is an urgent need to find new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. Static assumptions about so-called 'Western' versus 'non-Western' teaching and learning approaches or 'local' versus 'international' students are inadequate for responding to the complex histories, geographies and identities that meet and mingle in our higher education (HE) institutions. In this paper, I use María Lugones' 'world-travelling' as a framework for discussing international and New Zealand women students' reflections on teaching, learning and transition in New Zealand HE. I conclude with some suggestions as to what effective pedagogy might look like in internationalised HE if we think beyond culturalist them-and-us assumptions and recognise students' complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the responses of a Malaysian public university, namely Universiti Sains Malaysia, to the impact of globalisation vis-à-vis three key issues: international students, academic publications and world university rankings. There are concerted efforts put in place by the university to recruit more international students. But a global branding is needed to offset factors that have worked against its recruitment of international students. In the area of academic publications, there has been an increased emphasis on publications in citation-indexed journals in line with the globalised context of academic publications. Concerted efforts have also been put in place to enhance the reputation of academic journals published by the university. It is in the area of world university rankings that the counter-globalisation stand of the university has been most thought provoking in that it has rejected this standard benchmark for academic excellence by proposing an alternative benchmark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much of recent study abroad research has focused on identifying and measuring different learning outcomes in terms of specific skills, competencies, perspectives and attributes acquired during study abroad opportunities, less research has considered how students’ deeper conceptions and understandings of international experience may change and develop during such educational encounters. This paper presents a phenomenographical research study that explored how students conceive of and make meaning out of their international education experience in a study abroad context. The data are based on detailed semi-structured interviews conducted with a sample of 28 undergraduate students at an American university who engaged in a variety of different study abroad opportunities. Guided by Variation Theory of Learning, the analysis of the data resulted in a typology of student conceptions of international experience (SCIE) that identified four distinct categories of conceptions of international experience (observing, interacting, participating and embracing) described across three constitutive features (being in the other culture, relating to the other culture and learning in the other culture). Hierarchically related through nine critical aspects of variation, the typology provides a unique and useful framework against which to map the “messiness” of students’ complex, often complicated understandings of their experience. It offers study abroad programmers opportunities to better understand and design student learning experiences and assessment instruments that go beyond competencies, skills and other learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the number of globally mobile students has expanded, governments are assumed to be consistently and intentionally competing for talent, in what has been called a 'great brain race'. While the notion of competition has become dominant, there is little evidence on long-term policy dynamics in this field, not only across jurisdictions but also over time. We seek to address this gap in this paper through a longitudinal analysis of the politics and public policies impacting international students in four major recruiting countries-Australia, Canada, England and the USA. Through this comparative analysis of the period 2000 to 2016, we demonstrate that international student numbers across the jurisdictions have grown steadily but that this appears to be decoupled from political and policy changes. We also discuss how 'internationalization' initiatives provide an insufficient policy umbrella for policy action on the recruitment and retention of international students. Public policy impacting international students spans multiple government agencies or ministries, encompassing different policy fields. This requires greater policy coordination, which remains elusive for the most part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a mixed-methods case study investigating how higher education staff and students understand, experience and envision the 'international university'. As it is becoming clear that international student mobility is not in itself a panacea for universities seeking to internationalise, 'internationalisation at home' and 'global citizenship' are increasingly permeating university policy documents and mission statements. However, little is known about how students and staff on the ground perceive and experience these concepts. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected at one British university through focus groups ( N = 19) and through an online survey ( n = 148). Findings revealed a conventional mobility-focused understanding of the international university among students and staff, and a great deal of cynicism as regards 'internationalisation at home' and 'global citizenship'. We discuss implications for practice and a research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International student mobility has traditionally witnessed a global South-North pattern. In recent years, a shift has occurred as the appeal of alternative geographies waxes, with Malaysia being an exemplar of inbound student mobility destination. To facilitate a deep probe of the under-researched global South-South student mobility, this study utilized a qualitative method to delve into 10 Chinese doctoral students' emic perceptions of their sojourn in Malaysia. Guided by a theoretical framework incorporating decolonization and recolonization, this study unpacks how these sociohistorical forces penetrate into and shape the students' preparation and navigation of a doctoral sojourn. Findings of the study reveal that while taking advantage of the Southern niche to yield commensurate benefits, thereby delegitimizing the Western supremacy, the students' make-do mentality and self-subjugating resistance inadvertently reinforce the Western dominance. Besides, these macro effects generate interlocking and conflicting affective consequences, instilling simultaneously positivity and inclusivity, inferiority, and anxiety. Altogether, decolonization and recolonization are concretely registered at the emotional level and bear a broader social significance. This article concludes with an alert and a call to address covert yet compelling inequalities in international student mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing students' intercultural competences through international higher education requires a thorough understanding of the way in which these competences develop over time, how they relate to outcomes, and which factors predict their growth. To answer these questions, a three-wave longitudinal study was conducted among a sample of first-year students in an international university program (n = 425). Intercultural competences were operationalized through the five dimensions of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ): Cultural Empathy, Openmindedness, Flexibility, Social Initiative and Emotional Stability. We examined development of these traits across one year, as well as their relationship with stress, life satisfaction, and academic performance (GPA). Cultural background (local vs. international student) and prior international experience (yes/no) were included as predictors. Results show that MPQ scores at the beginning of the year negatively relate to change across semester 1, which in turn is negatively related to change across semester 2. These findings suggest the presence of ceiling effects in MPQ development. In semester 1, emotional stability acts as a buffer against stress. In semester 2, stress is lower among students with higher scores on cultural empathy, and lower scores on flexibility. Cultural empathy and social initiative relate positively to academic performance. No significant main effects were found for cultural background, or prior international experience. However, these predictors interact on openmindedness and social initiative: local students with no prior international experience show a significant increase in these dimensions across the first semester, whereas the others do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationalisation is a major trend in higher education worldwide. Yet, little evidence is given on the net impact of international students on national economies. This study addresses this gap by estimating the benefits against the costs driven by international students in Belgium and its Flemish region in particular. Using a unique combination of various sources of micro-data, the results show net positive benefits that exceed costs by a factor ranging between 2.4 (lower bound) and 3.1 (upper bound) times. The results vary highly with the level of education, as the ratio is the lowest for doctoral students (1.2–1.6) and highest for master students (5.1–6.3). The effect is mainly driven by a high stay rate of international students, who are likely to work in the country after graduation. When considering indirect effects, our results show that there are no significant peer effects due to the presence of international students in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational higher education (TNHE) is one of the most important, even if often neglected, aspects in the internationalisation of higher education. TNHE constitutes a strategy for universities to expand recruitment. Nonetheless, it is often argued that TNHE could constitute a way for the countries where it is implemented to retain their students and to become themselves destinations for students from abroad. Numerous questions about TNHE's potential to substitute traditional international student mobility currently feed the debate among scholars and stakeholders. The scarcity of data makes it difficult to answer these questions. This paper offers a macro-level panel data analysis of enrolment in Australian higher education within Australia, i.e. onshore, and abroad, i.e. offshore. Two goals are pursued: first, to investigate whether and to what extent the macro-determinants of traditional student mobility, as identified by the previous research, are also related to offshore enrolment and second, to examine the relation between the two phenomena in order to assess whether they could be considered substitutes. The results indicate that the macro-factors which influence onshore enrolment are also related to offshore enrolment, even if some of these relations occur in different ways and with different strengths. Studying abroad seems to be connected particularly with the lack of labour market opportunities in the home country. No substitutive linkage is found between offshore and onshore enrolment, confirming, as hypothesised by the previous research, that the two types of enrolment are absorbing different segments of international students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper scrutinizes a set of paradoxes arising from a mismatch between contemporary discourses that praise and promote mobility in and internationalization of higher education, and the everyday effects of mobility and internationalization on university teaching and learning practice. We begin with a general characterization of the discourse of mobility and internationalization in a European context and then turn to Denmark as a specific case in which we unfold and discuss three paradoxes in turn: internationalization and linguistic pluralism, internationalization and intercultural understanding and, finally, internationalization and competitiveness. We then link our deconstruction of the three paradoxes to a critique of the concept of 'parallel language policy,' widely promoted in the Nordic context, and show how it potentially undermines the ideals of internationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the impact of membership in the Bologna Process on patterns and driving forces of cross-national student mobility. Student exchange flows are analyzed for almost all Bologna Process member states and non-Bologna OECD members over a ten-year period (from 2000 to 2010). We apply a social network approach focusing on outbound diploma mobility. Based on social network analyses, we first visualize the exchange patterns between sampled countries. In doing so, we analyze the student exchange linkages to gain descriptive insights into the development of the network. Second, we use exponential random graph models (ERGM) to test which factors determine transnational student mobility. The results of our network analyses reveal that cross-national student exchange networks are stable over time. At the core of these networks are the USA, Great Britain, France, and Germany; they attract highest shares of students from most remaining countries in our sample. Moreover, the results of the ERGM demonstrate that homophily between countries determines student exchange patterns. The most relevant ties exist between bordering countries. Moreover, membership in the Bologna Process impacts on mobility patterns, and the effect size increases over the periods investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has had an extremely adverse balance of trade in education. Though only a minor education exporter through Mode 2, India is the world's second largest student-sending country. Nevertheless, given English as the medium of instruction especially in apex institutions, low tuition and cost of living, quite a few world-class institutions, and a long tradition of hosting international students, India should have been an attractive destination. The paper, therefore, aims at investigating into the reasons for this failure by undertaking a two-phase empirical analysis. The findings of the first phase using the panel data and pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) techniques attribute this failure to India's lower per capita income, gross enrollment ratio (GER), and per-pupil expenditure, and none of its institutions being among the top 200 world university rankings. The findings of the second phase using the logit and probit models suggest that the probability of attracting international students by those institutions significantly increases which provide a hostel facility and fellowships, have a dedicated agency, and are accredited, privately-owned and unitary type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though there is an increasing number of degree-mobile students in Europe, not much is known about the effect of student employment on academic performance and study progress for international students. International students broadly engage in student employment during their studies. They differ in several characteristics from native students (e.g., by financial situation, language skills, and time spent on studying) and are a heterogeneous group (e.g., by country of origin, educational background, and intention to remain in the destination country). This study explores whether student employment and different dimensions of employment (e.g., study-related employment, employment amounts) affect the semester grade point average and the share of achieved credit points per semester. Using the first four semesters of a longitudinal study of international students in Germany and hybrid panel models (n = 1625), the study shows that students with a higher study-related employment tendency across semesters have, on average, better semester grades. When estimating the within-student effect, it is demonstrated that changes to student employment and different employment dimensions do not change the semester grades. In contrast, starting employment or increases in employment amounts (e.g., more hours per week) decreases the share of achieved credit points per semester. However, only specific student groups (e.g., students studying mathematics, natural sciences, and engineering) experience a delay in their study progress due to higher employment intensities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two crucial questions facing the UK HE sector: what motivates female Chinese globally mobile graduates to continue their education in the UK?; and, are they satisfied with their experience? First, this mixed methods study revealed that the primary motivations were: early and mid-career gains, competitive advantages derived from completing a 1-year master's programme, favourable exchange rates, and the opportunity to travel. Alongside these, a number of challenges and concerns were also noted, including: high UK tuition fees and living costs, shifting Chinese employer perceptions of an overseas education, and punitive UK visa regulations. Second, findings indicated mid- to high levels of satisfaction with the experience. Students believed that the main strengths and benefits of a UK-based education related to the high levels of tutorial participation and interaction which facilitated increased subject-matter engagement, as well as to the development of interpretation and application skills. Nevertheless, respondents reported that there are many ways in which we need to improve, such as by: offering clearer language guidance, closing the assessment requirements expectations gap, offering more opportunities for classroom participation, cutting class sizes, reducing fees, and ironically, attracting students from geographical zones other than China to facilitate academic development and programme diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the demand for international education increases, middle-income non-English speaking countries, such as South Korea, play an increasing role in hosting the world's students. This mixed-methods study compares the different motivations and experiences of international students within and outside the East Asian region. Based on findings, this paper suggests the possibility of Korea developing its position as a regional hub for education in East Asia. It also discusses related issues such as English-Medium Instruction in Korean higher education as well as strategies for international student recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Tight (High Educ Res Dev 23(4):395-411, ; High Educ Res Dev 31(5):723-740, ; High Educ Res Dev 32(1):136-151, )'s journal analysis and review framework to review a sample of 497 journal articles on researches concerning international students over the past 30 years. It was found that a majority of the articles focus on the students' in-campus, academic and social experience. Even with different conceptualisation of the terms 'international student' and 'international student mobility', international students undergo similar challenges throughout their sojourn duration, and much of the responsibilities in managing international students fall on universities and respective faculty members within the institutions. It might seem as if we are going in circles in terms of the issues and concerns in managing international students, but the silver lining out of this observation is the increased ethnical awareness among countries and higher education institutions in hosting and safeguarding the students throughout their international higher education experience, albeit rather slowly. The analysis brings to attention how much have we achieved in internationalisation of higher education in general and international student-related research in particular, and the potential for greater expansion and focus on managing the student population within a comprehensive 'life cycle' approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored the power dynamics between domestic and international students in the context of higher education in an Asian non-English speaking country, Korea. Despite increased international student mobility in recent years, little is known about the relationship dynamics among students from different countries, especially related to power issues. The findings in this study suggested that international students' countries of origin and language of communication created different power statuses compared to Korean students by their empowerment and discrimination. Power differentials also existed among Korean students due to variations in their English ability to interact with international students. Conversely, international students' attitudes and acceptance influenced Korean students' attitudes toward them, irrespective of power differentials created by countries and language, as perceived by Korean students. The implications related to the recent trend of international student mobility are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The race to establish regional education hubs is a recent development in cross-border higher education. This article briefly examines the rationales and strategies used by three countries in the Middle East and three in South East Asia which are working towards positioning themselves as regional education hubs. The different approaches and purposes among the six countries highlight the need for a typology of education hubs. Three types are proposed: the student hub, the training and skilled workforce hub, and the knowledge/innovation hub. The final section of the paper takes a closer look at Malaysia's cross-border education initiatives and its actions to establish itself as a competitive education hub in a region where Singapore and Hong Kong have similar intentions. Whether Malaysia has the ability to make a quantum leap from being a student hub to becoming a knowledge/innovation hub remains to be seen and appears to be an optimistic outlook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of an Australian qualitative study ( N = 45) concerned with the way that employers, academics and students perceived connections between international experience and graduate employability. Drawing on the literature, the authors argue that increasing globalisation and internationalisation has heightened the need for graduates with the ability to operate in culturally diverse contexts. Universities have focussed upon exchange as part of internationalisation to prepare students for work but there is still limited literature on the nature of the relationship between international experience, more broadly and graduate employability. The findings suggest that all stakeholders identify clear connections between international experience and employability given outcomes associated with the forging of networks, opportunities for experiential learning, language acquisition and the development of soft skills related to cultural understandings, personal characteristics and ways of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a widely accepted maxim that, like business generally, higher education is globalising. For many countries, higher education is now an important export sector, with university campuses attracting international students from around the world. Licensing production, in the form of franchising degree provision to international partners, is beginning to mutate into foreign direct investment as many universities set up campuses in other countries. While there are clearly parallels between the globalisation of business and higher education, this paper examines the supply- and demand-side drivers within the university sector. It argues that an alignment of special factors, rather than an inexorable trend towards commercialisation, has caused the recent internationalisation of higher education and concludes that current trends are unsustainable in the medium-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the data from HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council) sponsored project `Responding Effectively to the Mental Health Needs of Students,' this article describes the difficulties academic staff experience when responding to students with mental health problems. The views of academic staff are also recorded concerning what was helpful to them when considering these needs. This data is linked to research on working cross culturally with international students and set within a national framework. Research data is also accessed from focus groups which centred on the mental health needs of international and home students. Identical questions were posed to both groups students and similarities and differences recorded. International students voiced experience of a range of economic, social and academic pressures which appear to be different in degree and often in kind from those experienced by `home' students. These factors in extreme cases may trigger and/or exacerbate mental health problems. Whilst these findings are mainly qualitative, they have a resonance with and help illustrate existing research. Finally this paper considers the potential of academic staff, student groups and the policies of the institution of higher education to contribute to improvements of the welfare of international students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]