International postgraduate students' labour mobility in the United Kingdom: A cross‐classified multilevel analysis

Abstract

This article models the migration flows of international students who have graduated from master's and doctoral programmes in UK universities. Previously, access to sufficient data from the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) data set on the destinations of higher education (HE) international students has been difficult, despite the fact that international student numbers have grown substantially. Two 1‐year extracts from the DLHE data set were analysed (2013/2014 and 2014/2015) using cross‐classified multilevel modelling in order to estimate influences on ‘stay rate’: the likelihood of highly skilled graduates remaining in the United Kingdom for work after graduation. The home domicile and the UK higher education institution (HEI) attended for study were modelled as random effects that allowed the variance in stay rate to be partitioned between the student, higher levels of domicile and HEI attended. Variance at the domicile level was estimated to be 1.67 times greater than variance at HEI level, indicating that home country is a better predictor of stay rates than the HEI attended. The cross‐classified model was a better fit to data than simpler, two‐level hierarchical models (students nested in domicile or students nested in HEI attended). A number of student, domicile‐ and HEI‐level factors were added to the models. At HEI level, attending a Russell Group university and university location outside London were factors that led to significantly lower likelihood of graduates staying in the United Kingdom for work. At the domicile level, none of four factors (GDP, unemployment rates, English language and commonwealth affiliation) were significant in predicting stay rates.

‘Going to study or plan to stay on?’ Mobility profiles of Angolan and Cape Verdean students in Portugal

“…11See the special issue edited by King and Raghuram (2013), especially the theoretical overview paper by Raghuram (2013). Also the following papers in PSP : Hazen and Alberts (2006), Collins et al (2017), De Jong and Fonseca (2020), Bahna (2021), Zhan et al (2021) and Wang (2022). This is not a complete list of papers on international student migration/mobility in this journal but a selection of those most relevant to the contents and argument of the present article.…”

Unveiling Sri Lanka’s brain drain and labour market pressure: A study of macroeconomic factors on migration

“…Weber and Van Mol [9], Rozhenkova [12], Zhan, Downey [26], Vosko [27], Reha ´k and Eriksson [29], Khan and Bin [40] EGÀ !Migration…”

“…Existing literature shows that international students are highly likely to remain in the host country for employment after completing their studies. The claim is Zhan, Downey [ 26 ] that various factors that could influence international students’ decisions to stay in host countries for employment are affected by individual-level, higher educational institutions (HEI), and country-level factors.…”

Spatial Patterns and Determinants of Inter-county Migration in California: A Multilevel Gravity Model Approach

“…This step helps capture the influence of place-based determinants such as local policy. Using the UK labor mobility data and cross-classified multilevel modeling, Zhan et al ( 2021 ) demonstrate that international graduates’ county of origin and university of study have prominent roles in predicting their employment destinations, in addition to the influence of micro-level characteristics (e.g., age, gender). They show that approximately 18% of graduates’ labor mobility outcomes can be attributed to the origin county and 10% to the university of study.…”