Geographies of International Education: Mobilities and the Reproduction of Social (Dis)advantage

Abstract

This paper provides a critical perspective on emergent geographies of international education, suggesting what these might mean for the reproduction of social (dis)advantage. The assertion that formal education may have regressive consequences for social mobility is hardly new – work on the sociology and geography of education has for a long time shown uncontrovertibly that the opportunities and rewards associated with formal education are unevenly distributed across space, as well as being differentiated by social class. Until relatively recently, however, work focussing on the remarkable transformation of formal education through internationalisation, and its implications for social inequalities, has been limited. This paper provides a critical review of a now burgeoning area of geographical scholarship around international education and student mobilities. It argues that the evidence, to date, suggests that international education entrenches (and in some cases, within emerging economies, actively creates) social inequalities.

In what sense ‘distinctive’? The search for distinction amongst cross-border student migrants in the UK

“…This is the way in which the glocalisation of student mobility is evident in the research that we have reported. While student migration is geographically embedded within social class reproduction and the formation of an educated elite across the four nations of the UK (King et al, 2011;Waters, 2012), it is equally true that the paper points to the importance that global forces have in the geographical organisation of higher education and in the student flows (internal and international) that result from this. In particular the paper has argued that while the search for distinction is a global process entwined in the complexities associated with the internationalisation of higher education, the outworking of this is not limited to international student flows.…”

“…In summary, while there has been considerable work in recent years on international student mobility (Waters, 2012), intra-state flows have received less attention than one might expect from geographical researchers, especially given the significant divergence of the HE sectors in Scotland and England. In what follows, we argue that the patterning of internal student flows within the UK provides a useful empirical lens for studying the country's increasingly differentiated higher education market.…”

“…Geographers have been particularly interested in examining the link between higher education, distinction and international student mobility (King et al, 2011;Waters, 2012;Raghuram, 2013). King et al (2011) demonstrated that secondary school pupils in the UK perceived the opportunity (and ability) to progress to study in HEIs abroad as a particular marker of distinction, while Brooks and Waters (2009) note that failure to secure a place at an 'elite' university within the UK was sometimes a stimulus to international movement.…”

“…It is therefore particularly valuable in this paper to examine concepts around cultural capital that are offered by the international student mobility literature (Waters, 2012). The paper argues that in addition to there maybe being an interconnection between internal and international student flows (illustrating the importance of geography in the globalization of higher education), there may also be a glocalisation effect evident in the way that these student flows focus on certain universities and specifc types of places, representing the geography of globalization (Faulconbridge and Beaverstock, 2009) in relation to higher education.…”

Mobilities of Knowledge: An Introduction

“…geographical scales, focusing on professionals in high-tech industries (e.g., Harvey, 2009;Saxenian, 2006;Van Riemsdijk, 2014) and advanced producer services (e.g., Beaverstock, 2005;Beaverstock & Hall, 2012;Fechter & Walsh, 2012;Walsh, 2012), on researchers and academics (e.g., Ackers, 2005;Heffernan & Jöns, 2013;Jöns, 2003;Leung, 2013;Pietsch, 2013;Storme, Faulconbridge, Beaverstock, Derudder, & Witlox, 2016), and on international students (e.g., Alberts & Hazen, 2013;Brooks & Waters, 2011;Findlay, King, Smith, Geddes, & Skeldon, 2012;Geddie, 2015;Holloway, O'Hara, & Pimlott-Wilson, 2012;King & Raghuram, 2013;Madge, Raghuram, & Noxolo, 2015;Waters, 2012).…”