International student mobility:‘losing’ and ‘winning’ destinations since September 11—The case of Tunisian students

The goal of this paper is to underline the paradox of student mobility and notably the asymmetry between the circulation of goods and the mobility of persons, which is ever more and more notable. Today, the events of September 11 and the response to them raise new questions about academic freedom, freedom of movement, and the role of student mobility. They mark a sharp counterpoint to the celebratory discussions of globalisation and human mobility that dominated during the 1990s. Since 2001, student visa policies have been considered on the basis of country-specific variations (versus academic norms). This decrease of the institutional solution of Tunisian mobility (the cooperation postulate) is associated with a rising form of ‘informal mobility’ and alternative forms of mobility, in terms of networks, and use of the ITCE tools. By studying the institutional and alternative forms of student mobility, this research investigates the sociological composition of candidates for the new and old destinations: by age, discipline and geographic origin of qualified graduates who have opted for the institutional path since September 11. This new post-globalisation posture poses, or rather supposes, in terms of public policies, a certain number of answers which take into account the universal vocation of the university, such as diversification of destinations, the idea of partnership between different Mediterranean universities, and the exploration of new forms of mobility.