Student Mobility and the Changing Nature of Education

Abstract

There is an important historical legacy to student migration: the ‘Junior Year Abroad’ has long been part of the American higher education experience, while a qualification obtained from the ‘mother country’ carried high levels of prestige in certain countries under conditions of colonialism (Madge et al., 2009). Moreover, Rivza and Teichler (2007) have emphasized the medieval precedents of much contemporary migration, suggesting that about a tenth of the student population in medieval universities came from outside countries. Nevertheless, as we have intimated in earlier chapters, the scale of international student migration is considerably larger than previously witnessed and, in contrast to the past, is now associated with significant and explicit policy formulation — at national, regional and international levels (see Chapter 2 for further details). As we have noted in preceding chapters, countries that have traditionally been seen primarily as ‘destination’ countries are now actively encouraging more outward migration of domestic students.