Social structures in the economics of international education: perspectives from Vietnamese international tertiary students

Abstract

Drawing on the findings from in-depth interviews with Vietnamese international students studying at Australian universities, this article presents insights into the sociological influences that stem from international students' social networks, at home and abroad, and how they impact on students' aspirations and engagement in international education. Underpinned by Bourdieu's social capital framework, this article critically challenges human capital ideology for its assumptions of individualism and utilitarian function of education as economic goals. The implication for international education providers is to create learning and living opportunities that consider students' social and cultural conditions so as to develop their capacity, self-determination and citizenship.

Knowing, Being, Relating and Expressing Through Third Space Global South-North COIL: Digital Inclusion and Equity in International Higher Education

“…Borrowing from Bourdieu (cf. Pham, 2013) we suggest how such capitals and values for South-North COIL exchange need to be recognized to address access and inclusion needs of students.…”

Higher Education in Times of Instability and Disruption: Rethinking Notions of Values, Value Creation and Instructional Practices in Vietnam and Beyond

“…In another example, given Vietnam's attempt to modernise and internationalise its education system to make it a much more competitive, collaborative, and innovative environment, English language learning has proven to be a major barrier to this effort as students appear to have very little incentive to engage second language acquisition and the corresponding disciplinary benefits to be derived from having access to alternative streams of knowledge (Ashwill, 2020;Minh, 2020). Furthermore, this is part of a much broader pattern of decreasing language proficiency among the nation's students (Phan, 2019;Nguyen, 2020;Nguyen and Duong, 2020), which is also connected to the outputs of local higher education institutions in terms of limited human capital development and capacity building (Tran, 2013b;Dang et al, 2013;Pham, 2013;Duong, 2019;Kataoka et al, 2020).…”

Segmented pathways of educational mobility: English language schools, working holidays, and divergent prospects among South Korea's global youth

“…The stories of the two women are not unique but reflect the increasing number of young people in their twenties leaving South Korea on a variety of mobility pathways for language acquisition, travel, study, work, and cultural exposure that crisscross destinations between the Global North/Global South and West/East. These flows are not just limited to South Korea but are widespread, also occurring in places like China (Fong 2011), India (Robertson 2015), Japan (Kawashima 2010), Vietnam (Pham 2013), Taiwan (Tsai and Collins 2017), New Zealand (Conradson and Latham 2005), and Thailand (Wattanacharoensil and Talawanich 2018). The International Consultants for Education and Fairs (2015) reports there are approximately five million college-age students studying in postsecondary educational institutions outside of their home country with close to two million of them engaging in language study, of whom two-thirds study English.…”