International Student Mobility: A Critical Overview

Abstract

Greater interconnectivity has led to a growth in the number of students enrolling at universities outside of their home country. This chapter offers a review of the changing policies that have led to greater competition between both countries and universities for international students and the development of education as a key export industry in many industrialized societies. It analyzes the complex and multifaceted issues that play a part in student decision making. In particular, it assesses how greater consumerism and the marketization of higher education has led to an interest in these decision-making processes and led to a dramatic expansion in the literature detailing student mobility. This chapter systematically analyzes this information, detailing how students choose an international education on the basis of economically focused factors (such as the improved job prospects that potentially come with international mobility) and how these go hand-in-hand with the sociocultural aspects of overseas study (such as the improved intercultural communication skills), to offer an overview of the complexity of overseas students' decision-making practices. To conclude, it suggests some key areas for consideration in emerging research and how this is advancing our current understandings of student mobility further -such as work by Carlson (Popul Space Place, 19 (2), 168-180, 2013), who suggested that a greater understanding of mobility as "processional," rather than at a single point in time, was critical as we move forward.