International Student Mobility

International Student Mobility (ISM) refers to the movement of students across national borders to pursue education in a country different from their home country. This phenomenon has gained significant traction in recent years, influenced by globalization, advancements in technology, and the desire for diverse educational experiences. ISM offers students the opportunity to immerse themselves in different cultures, gain international perspectives, and enhance their employability in a competitive job market.

The motivations behind ISM can vary, including the pursuit of higher academic standards, the desire for cultural exchange, and the aspiration to learn new languages. Countries with robust educational systems often attract international students, contributing to a diverse academic environment. However, challenges such as financial constraints, language barriers, and cultural adjustments can also accompany the experience of studying abroad.

International Student Mobility is a complex and multifaceted topic that encompasses educational, social, and economic dimensions. Understanding these aspects can provide valuable insights into the benefits and challenges of pursuing education in a foreign country, making it a relevant area of interest for students and educators alike.

Published in: 2021

By: Dewey, Joseph

Subject Terms

International Student Mobility

Abstract

International student mobility refers to the increasing trend among students at the college or university level to complete all or part of their education in a country other than their country of origin. University systems want to attract the best students to their programs and governments want to create viable and skilled workers (Verbik, 2007). Companies as well as governments are interested in ensuring that students in any country will have access to the education system best able to develop their skills, even if that education system is not in their native country.

Overview

In the twenty-first century, demand for qualified and talented workers drives many college and university students to study abroad. International business concerns and nations share in the commitment to developing a stable and talented workforce, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, which include computer science, engineering, and healthcare. Unlike the economic landscape of the Industrial Era in which a nation's actual physical resources defined its economic potential, in the digital age, information transcends geopolitical borders. Information is not particular to any single country, and national economies must function within context of each other. Thus, the new generation of human resources must be able to work competently and confidently within an international environment. In addition, workers around the world must share a sense of basic concepts, critical vocabulary, and technological protocols with workers from other cultural and national backgrounds.

Promising students in countries whose educational system may not be developed sufficiently to give a specific degree in a given field sufficient currency must consider studying abroad. This is what is known as the internationalization of higher education—graduates in the high-end technology fields must be at ease in an international culture. That transformation of the workplace has created enormous pressure to produce educated workers from all countries by offering them the opportunity to study in academic environments, often in other countries, environments most conducive to developing their skills. Computer science programmers in Peru, for example, must understand the same fundamentals as computer science programmers in Singapore.

The idea of pursuing education abroad is certainly not new to the digital era. For centuries, families of the wealthy sought the prestige of sending their adult children to other countries as a way to finish their education, to give them invaluable experiences in other cultures as a way to complete their development into adulthood (Gürüz, 2012). Until the 1970s, study abroad was primarily seen as key to personal development and refinement rather than as a way to ensure lucrative employment. At that time, a very limited number of university programs in a very few select countries would dispatch a relatively small percentage of college students into study programs abroad for a semester as a way to broaden their cultural awareness. Better career opportunities after graduation, the opportunity to earn a substantial income, and the chance to participate in very real ways in a chosen tech field have all fueled the growth in student mobility since then, and the economic stakes are now considerably higher.

Apart from career ambitions and apart from the lack of significant education opportunities in their home country, students who participate in international education should as well have certain personality traits that would make the rigors of study abroad feasible. A study of European students who elected to study in different countries, commissioned in 2008 (Pietro), revealed that even more than educational competencies and in-field expertise, students who cross borders to complete their studies must have an unusually strong sense of themselves, a certainty of their own skills, and a confidence in asserting their presence in an environment in which a number of barriers, most notably language, can easily create feelings of anxiety, isolation, and inadequacy. In addition, the study revealed that students with a strong family background and back-home emotional support system can make a significant difference in the success ratio of international students. In an era of casual international conversation and social media, such support systems can give international students the emotional grounding to make a whole-hearted commitment to their curricula.

Applications

The growth rate of students studying abroad is remarkable. In just the first decade of the twenty-first century, despite a range of international political and military tensions and despite an often bleak global economic picture, the number of students participating in study abroad leaped by 95 percent. As of 2014 there were just over 4.5 million students matriculated at a college or university outside their country of citizenship, according to the Institute on International Education. Given the rate of expansion, the number of international students is predicted to grow to seven million by 2020 (Böhm, 2010).

Destination Countries. Host countries enjoy an economic boon from international students. "International education is an economic section that is extremely attractive to the [host] country; it is knowledge-intensive, high value added and… [its] growth (both achieved and projected) is extremely impressive" (Böhm, 2013). The primary nations of destination for these students are the major industrial nations of the digital era: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Germany, although the trend since 2009 has begun to favor Far Eastern and Pacific Rim nations, most notably Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

The position of the United States is changing. For more than a generation since the boom in technology and information systems first exploded in the 1980s, the United States was consistently the dominant destination for international students. At one point, more than a third of the total mobile population attended colleges in the United States. The widespread growth of technology resources into other nations and the general decentralization of technology, along with a growing anti-immigrant movement in the United States, has noticeably diminished the position of the United States as a host country. The development of strong university programs outside the United States, the progressively more friendly student protocols adopted by other host countries (including generous tax and tuition rates), and the development among non-U.S. universities of progressively more aggressive (and tech savvy) programs to recruit the best and brightest students has succeeded in diversifying the mobile student population internationally. Nevertheless, the percentage of students who come to the United States—estimates put the number near 20 percent at the end of 2013 (or just over750,000 students)—was still the highest of any single country (Zong & Batalova, 2016).

Countries of Origin. Although students representing more than one hundred countries are documented as participating in some form of study abroad, the majority of students now come from Asia, particularly China and India (Chan 2012). Both countries have large populations (indeed, one-third of the world's entire tertiary student population is Chinese) and both nations have relatively limited technology superstructures and relatively limited university development. Add to that the reality that both countries represent significant potential for economic development with a skilled labor force and their mobile student population is a clear necessity.

Governments in both countries have diligently worked to create avenues for the most promising students to pursue study abroad. Most often students begin university work at home (where they become so-called semi-finished human capital) and then complete their studies, often including highly specialized postgraduate work, abroad. In 2015–16, India and China alone accounted for nearly half of the United States' international student population. By then, the market shares of students from Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Canada, and Brazil also had begun to establish a dominant presence (Institute of International Education, 2016). Education trend forecasters regard the developing countries in central and western Africa as the next frontier for expanding the reach of international study, particularly in the field of medicine and medical research.

Viewpoints

The desire to access the university system (as well as the cultural environments) of different countries as a way to further or complete their education clearly motivates students from developing countries to take advantage of programs in place to study abroad. Studying abroad is perceived to be a mark of distinction and promise for the students, most of them from middle-class families interested in promoting the career success of their most promising children. Those children, as they move through the secondary education system, are often frustrated by the lack of opportunity in their native country. Thanks to websites and social media, these students can access information about opportunities for international study. Education abroad is considered to be a smart investment for these families—often career success in an adopted country can mean eventual emigration for the entire family.

Studying abroad is not easy, however. As catalogued in 2012 by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by Manuel Souto-Otero of the Education Department in England's Bath University, significant barriers keep the number of students studying abroad relatively low in relation to student interest in the programs. Competition for placement in these programs and the visas that make it possible can be fierce. Despite the benefits to universities, academic programs are not always tailored to individual student needs—study abroad programs come with academic prerequisites, often rigorous as a way to protect the places of actual residents. These prerequisites can include a high grade point average, a high percentile academic ranking, and/or a certain number of cumulative degree credits.

More practically, there are financial concerns (scholarships and trade programs seldom cover all costs of living abroad). There are as well more specific concerns such as diet, housing accommodations, and transportation needs. In addition, many academic programs in countries demand students pass a rigorous set of examinations to qualify for study abroad. To pursue education in a different country often demands language proficiency beyond simple familiarity with the host language (which accounts for the trend emerging in the late 2000s of students studying abroad but within their own home region, thus largely avoiding the language barriers). The selected field of study can become an issue—although there are programs that offer curricula in the arts, programs generally cater to the sciences, mathematics, engineering, and healthcare, as those fields promise immediate rewards within the country's workforce.

Additionally, students face an assortment of intangibles difficult to gauge and impossible to quantify, including emotional responses to studying abroad such as feelings of alienation and cultural isolation, separation anxieties from friends and family, a fear of radical changes to a personal living environment, and a lack of social skills. International students chosen for programs benefit from self-confidence and social charisma to help in dealing with the variety of interpersonal transactions inevitable with study abroad. Finally, significant requirements for academic performance once the student begins academic work abroad are often required by government programs, scholarship foundations, and think tank sponsors to maintain a student's international status.

These programs offer several benefits to the students selected to participate. Some of the benefits for the international students are obvious—an enhanced education, more rounded cultural experiences, better social skills, and a strong range of interactions within an international environment. Study abroad can enhance student's language skills, improve their self-confidence, and significantly improve their employment opportunities and potential long-term income range. Sponsoring universities benefit as well, and not merely from the generation of significant additional income from expanded student numbers. Participation in international study can be used as a mark of achievement and can be instrumental in student's acquiring critical networking contacts.

But students are not the only ones to benefit from student mobility. Universities in the United States impacted by prolonged recession and rising costs, began to recruit international students as a source of revenue (Choudaha, 2013). Universities involved can gain prestige by developing an international reputation, carefully orchestrated through recruitment programs and social media. Their faculty resources are better used, giving their teachers the chance to work with a much wider variety of skilled students, who bring a range of different perceptions to the classroom. Universities can apply for increased funding from the business community and from government programs not only to enhance their technology curricula but also to develop English as Second Language programs. Universities with a significant international population enjoy an culturally diverse student body, which better prepares all their students for the challenges of a global marketplace.

That success, of course, creates a dilemma for the students as well as for the sponsoring nations. During their education, these students form significant friendships as well as establish critical career contacts in the host country and frequently the host country offers a variety of life amenities not found in the native country. These highly educated students may decide against returning to their native countries after graduation, a phenomenon called the brain drain. Without returning students, a country of origin is in virtually the same position it was in before investing in sending students abroad, that is, its technological superstructure may remain deficient. Countries have begun to craft attractive employment packages to counteract what is perceived to be a potentially devastating diaspora. Inexpensive travel programs ensure that during their education abroad students maintain close ties to their native country. Governments have also begun attaching specific post-graduation work stipulations that require students to return to work in their country for at least some period of time in the hopes of retaining their services in the long term.

Terms & Concepts

Brain drain: In economics, the phenomena of a sudden and deep loss of the educated and skilled in a particular area of expertise to other areas considered more promising in terms of job satisfaction, salary range, and living conditions

Globalization: In economics, the process of the world's markets—governments, peoples, and businesses—coming together as single integrated, cooperative enterprise, shaped by the networking of information technologies

Internationalization: The redesign of a product or service to make that product or service useful and marketable in different national markets

Semi-finished human capital: Term applied to college and university students who complete a partial degree at a home university before transferring across national borders to complete the degree

STEM: An acronym that represents a designed program of study directly related to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and designed as a way to foster greater mastery of skills in technology fields

Bibliography

Beaven, A., & Spencer-Oatey, H. (2016). Cultural adaptation in different facets of life and the impact of language: A case study of personal adjustment patterns during study abroad. Language & Intercultural Communication, 16(3), 349–367. doi:10.1080/14708477.2016.1168048. Retrieved December 27, 2016, from EBSCO online database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=116286140&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Böhm, A., et al. (2011). Vision 2020: Forecasting international student mobility: A UK perspective. International Gateway Foundation. Retrieved December 25, 2014 from www.internationaleducationgateway.org

Chan, S. (2012). Shifting patterns of student mobility in Asia. Higher Education Policy, 25(2), 207-224.

Choudaha, R., & Chang, L. (2012). Trends in international student mobility. World Education Services Research Foundation. Retrieved December 25, 2014 from www.wes.org/RAS.

Gürüz, K. (2011). Higher education and international student mobility in the global knowledge economy. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Institute of International Education. (2016). Open doors data. Retrieved December 27, 2016, from http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data

Pietro, G. di, & Page, L. (2008). Who studies abroad: Evidence from France and Italy. European Journal of Education, 43(3), 389-398. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=33923853&site=ehost-live

Souto-Otero, M., et al. (2013). Barriers to international student mobility: Evidence from the ERASMUS program. Retrieved December 25, 2014 from www.academia.edu

Verbik, L. (2007). International student mobility: Patterns and Trends. World Education Services Research Foundation. Retrieved December 25, 2014 from www.wed.org

Zong, J., & Batalova, J. (2016, May 12). International students in the United States. Migration Information Source. Retrieved December 27, 2016, from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/international-students-united-states

International Student Mobility

On this Page

Subject Terms

International Student Mobility

Abstract

Overview

Applications

Viewpoints

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

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