scholarly journals Three Levels of Push-Pull Dynamics Among Chinese International Students’ Decision to Study Abroad in the Canadian Context

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Mian Chen
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Chinese International Students ◽  
Student Migration ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
The Individual

The extant literature on student migration flows generally focus on the traditional push-pull factors of migration at the individual level. Such a tendency excludes the broader levels affecting international student mobility. This paper proposes a hybrid of three levels of push-pull dynamics (micro−individual decision-making, meso−academic marketing, and macro−national marketing) to paint a more accurate picture of student migration flows. A case study of 15 semi-structured interviews with Chinese international students at a Canadian university was conducted to illuminate the underresearched reality that universities and Canada as a nation offer additional incentives, in conjunction with individual/familial reasons, for study abroad. The paper concludes with recommendations for new research directions arising from the present study.

Institutional Asymmetry Regarding Inbound and Outbound Student Migration

2016 ◽  
pp. 68-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Starr-Glass
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
International Study ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Student Migration ◽  
Short Term Study ◽  
Multiple Challenges ◽  
Dramatic Growth

During the last twenty years there has been a dramatic growth in international student mobility. These students face multiple challenges in adapting to their new country, its culture, and its educational system. To some extent, these experiences are faced by all international students whether they are participating in short-term study abroad experiences (outbound), or in extended sojourns in a foreign country (inbound). However, whereas outbound students usually receive institutional guidance and support, inbound students often receive little or none. The asymmetric institutional awareness of, and response to, international students adversely impacts those who are inbound. Asymmetric ways of understanding and recognizing international students also limit colleges in optimizing the potentials of international study and constrain their efforts in becoming comprehensively internationalized institutions. This chapter explores the negative consequences of asymmetrical understandings of international student migration and recommends ways in which they might be mitigated.

scholarly journals International Students’ Motivations and Decisions to do a PhD in Canada: Proposing a Three-Layer Push-Pull Framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
You Zhang ◽  
Michael O'Shea ◽  
Leping Mou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Students ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Doctoral Studies ◽  
Individual Motivation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Past Experiences

The study aims to explore which factors influence international students’ decision to pursue doctoral studies in Canada. Drawing on the push-pull model and the mechanism of educational decision making, this study uses semi-structured interviews to gather data and explores themes such as political and economic forces, institutional factors, social background and experience, and individual motivation in students’ decision making. Our study identifies multiple factors at the individual, institutional, and country levels that influence students’ decision making, including students’ past experiences, funding, faculty members, and immigration policies. Moreover, it finds that the factors vary by students’ regions of origin and disciplines of study. Our findings, focused on international doctoral students in Canada, add to the ongoing conversation about  student mobility and add nuances on international students’ decision-making process in times of shifting landscape of higher education internationalization.

scholarly journals Making Sense of One's Feelings

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
Jean-Michel Montsion
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Chinese Student ◽  
Chinese International Students ◽  
Student Migration ◽  
Canadian Universities ◽  
Migration Experience ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
Feeling Rules

Canadian universities’ sharpened focus on international students starting in the early 2000s coincided with the growing interest by students from China to study abroad. Various actors, including states, have shaped and benefited from this increase in student migration. I examine how student migrants deal with the feeling rules transmitted to them, as an under-explored site where the migration experience is shaped and justified. In light of the work of Sara Ahmed and Arlie Russell Hochschild, I explore how students feel and are asked to feel about their studies abroad, and how emotions work in framing and maintaining the migration narrative. Through Ahmed’s concept of skin of the collective, I argue that Chinese student migrants are affected by and contribute to an affective atmosphere regarding their years of study in Canada as specific feeling rules help them make sense of similar experiences of confusion, frustration, self-reliance, and responsibility. Based on interviews with students and university staffers, I discuss the links between this type of migration, the actors involved, and the emotional landscapes students navigate in order to highlight how they interpret their own experiences and how these interpretations contribute to maintaining a general narrative about being Chinese international students in Canada.

International Student Migration: Regional Aspect

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-121
Author(s):  
A. Vartanyan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Students ◽  
Foreign Students ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Student Migration ◽  
The World

The article provides a profound analysis of the main trends of international student migration for tertiary education, discusses the key factors influencing the choice of destination for studying abroad, and reveals the regional peculiarities of instruments for student migration regulation. The first part of the paper highlights the official statistics showing that in recent decades the world witnessed the steady increase in the number of international students, concentrating mainly in the USA and the European Union. Almost 48% of all international students in the world study in the European Union. This region also shows the highest internal student mobility. Among others, such countries as Austria, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand demonstrate the biggest shares of foreign students in the total number of university students. As for donor countries, the dynamics proves the major role of the Asia region, with a half of all international students originated from it. The largest number of foreign students come from China, India and South Korea. Nonetheless, the Asia region becomes a popular destination of student mobility nowadays. The second part of the article concerns different coordination policies of tertiary migration in the regional context. Mostly in developed countries, practices of attracting foreign students to study in professional programs and degree programs with a perspective to enter a national labor market after graduation become more and more popular. Postgraduate migration remains a priority. Most countries encourage job-searching for foreign graduate students, as they are considered to have a high-skill level, international views and an opportunity to live and work in a variety of socio-cultural conditions. Further analysis refers to the main factors determining the choice of destination for foreign students, which are: geographical proximity, language skills, cultural proximity, the cost of education, and a country's reputation in the field of higher education. The paper reveals the leading role of the EU in the developed intraregional educational mobility, the regional asymmetry of migration processes in other regions of the world, and Asian countries actively promoting temporary educational and labor migration to developed countries with incentives to return to a home-country in the future. In recent years, due to positive dynamics of the return migrants number, an interest in the creation of the returnees strategy grows as well as desire of developed and developing countries to benefit most from the return migration.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ BURNOUT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (15) ◽  
pp. 54-74
Author(s):  
Rüyam KÜÇÜKSÜLEYMANOĞLU
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
International Students ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Qualitative Part ◽  
Common Understanding ◽  
Academic Demands

International student mobility has been expanding in the past twenty years. Creating economic value and strategic colloborations, developing a common understanding in a socio-cultural context, and generating scientific knowledge at a universal level through projects and research in higher education are the main reasons that play a role in the increase of internationalization efforts. International students who prefer to study outside of their country face many academic, socio-cultural, psychological and economic problems. The purpose of this study is to determine the burnout levels of international students. A descriptive approach incorporating quantitative (MBI-SS) and qualitative methods (semi structured interviews) were adopted in the present study to collect data. A total of 1284 international students were selected fort the quantative and 20 studets for the qualitative part of the study. The results of the study revealed the fact that international students has high burnout levels due to academic demands, cultural differences, financial problems, language and homesickness.

scholarly journals Phenomenological Study of Lived Experiences of International Students in Turkey

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 853-871
Author(s):  
Ali C Kılınç ◽  
Kürşat Arslan ◽  
Mustafa Polat
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
International Students ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
International Student ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
State University ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Studying Abroad

Internationalization trends in higher education have become a significantly accentuated issue and student mobility is considered as one of the core components of internationalization in higher education. This study focuses on investigating the lived experiences of international students at a state university in Turkey using qualitative research method and phenomenological design. The research data were collected through semi-structured interviews in order to reveal the participants’ experiences and their overall insight into studying abroad. 10 international students from various countries in accordance with the maximum variation sampling technique participated in the current study. The findings provide a rich description of the lived experiences of international students regarding their perceptions of studying abroad. Results of the data analysis yielded two major themes entitled “Perceptions of being an international student: What does it mean? What have they experienced?” and “The assistance and challenges they have been through during their study”.

scholarly journals International Student Mobility

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishna Bista ◽  
Ghanashyam Sharma ◽  
Uttam Gaulee
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
International Students ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
International Student Mobility ◽  
Mobile Students ◽  
Simple Logic

Student mobility has increasingly become a key issue of policy and practice in higher education. This chapter presents a set of critical views about international student mobility globally, setting the context for emerging voices and critical lenses. The authors argue that educators should look into the bigger picture of mobility to understand its complex and multifaceted issues which go beyond counting enrollment numbers. Where do students go to study and why? Where do they come from and who was able to leave home? What obstacles do students face and how do they overcome them? There are some of the central questions of student mobility discourse. In this backdrop, the authors argue that students must be treated fairly by the simple logic of reciprocity: international students are “international” in the host countries in the same way as study abroad students will be “international” by default in the receiving countries. The only question is whether we are ready to accept a humane world where mobile students are valued as part of a global community and for global good, rather than just viewed in terms of mercenary drives of the market.

scholarly journals Academic Failure: Unspoken Experiences by International Postgraduate Students in a Malaysian University

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Jasvir Kaur Nachatar Singh
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
International Student ◽  
Research University ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Academic Failure ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
International Student Mobility ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
The Impact

Malaysia aspires to become a regional and international hub of higher education through an international student mobility initiative. Existing scholarly work on international students is skewed towards understanding the general challenges faced by international students, but limited work has been conducted in exploring the impact of severe supervision challenges on international postgraduate students’ experiences in a Malaysian research university. Hence, this paper explores the evidence of academic failure experienced by international postgraduate students by drawing on semi-structured interviews with 33 international postgraduate students. Academic failure experiences were faced by international postgraduate students as a result of two major challenges: supervision issues, and faculty mismanagement. The experience of academic failure has impacted the students’ enthusiasm, motivation and inspiration in progressing in their research work and has also impacted them psychologically. The implications for developing significant and profound strategies to assist international postgraduate students in achieving positive educational outcomes are also discussed.

Visualising global currents of international students between 1999 and 2018

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110551
Author(s):  
Hengyu Gu ◽  
Zhibin Xu ◽  
Jiansong Zheng ◽  
Tiyan Shen
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Chord Diagram ◽  
Global Circulation ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
The Way

The flows of international students are like the currents of the oceans, not only affecting the individuals adrift in them but the global circulation of policy, economics and academics as a whole, bearing pros and cons for each country or region along the way. To date, there has not been a detailed and elaborate description of the fluxes of international students over decades. In light of the research gap, the article utilises the chord diagram to draw threads between each pair of origin and destination of international students in the last 20 years and divides the periods into four main phases. With each phase exhibiting its specific features, we have tentatively concluded that the global student mobility structure has evolved from Arterial (1999–2003), Breakthrough (2004–2008) to Catch-Up (2009–2013), and lastly, Diversification (2014–2018). Corresponding reasons underpinning each change of the migration flows are also discussed briefly in the article.

scholarly journals The role of international student interactions in English as a lingua franca in L2 acquisition, L2 motivational development and intercultural learning during study abroad

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-517
Author(s):  
Gianna Hessel
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
International Student ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Intercultural Learning ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Student Interactions ◽  
European Universities ◽  
Intercultural Interactions ◽  
The Uk

Crossing borders features prominently as a theme in study abroad, not only in terms of students’ physical border crossings but also in their intercultural interactions with second language (L2) speakers whose background (linguistic and otherwise) they may perceive as markedly different from their own. Researchers have had a long-standing interest in study abroad participants’ interactions with other L2 speakers abroad for their perceived potential to enhance L2 development, L2 motivation and intercultural learning processes. The focus of existing studies in this area has been on the interactions of study abroad participants with host national students, while their interactions with other international students who are also L2 users abroad have received far less attention, despite the ever-growing international student populations at European universities. This study examined students’ views regarding the role that lingua franca (LF) interactions with other international students played in their L2 acquisition, their L2 motivational development and their intercultural learning during study abroad. The data were derived from an empirical study that involved 81 German ERASMUS students who were studying in the UK for up to one academic year. The students’ views were elicited at the end of their stay with open-ended questionnaire items, and their verbal responses were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The analysis of the students’ reflections revealed a number of functions in each of the three areas, highlighting the potential of international student interactions as a viable source of L2 acquisition, L2 self-motivation, and intercultural learning during study abroad.

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