Theorizing student mobility in an era of globalization

Over the past two decades, considerable importance has been attached around the world to international student mobility as a way of internationalization of higher education. A whole range of institutional strategies have been employed to encourage students to consider education abroad, either on a short term basis, on a study tour or educational exchange, or enrolling for a longer period in degree awarding programs. At the same time, in many ways, international mobility for education has become a marker of success and social status. As a result, the number of students studying in higher educational institutions outside their national borders has increased from less than half a million in mid-1980s to almost three million now. In this paper, I want to discuss this historical phenomenon both as an expression of and response to the contemporary processes of globalization. I want to argue that the growing student interest in international mobility cannot be adequately understood without paying attention to the ways in which institutional strategies for the recruitment of international students articulate with the shifting social imaginaries of people, broadly linked to the processes of globalization. In developing my argument, I want to use the illustrated case of Australian higher education and the manner in which it has been enormously successful in capturing the changing cultural and political dynamics of globalization.