University rankings have gained prominence in tandem with the global race towards excellence and as part of the growing expectation of rational, scientific evaluation of performance across a range of institutional sectors and human activity. While their omnipresence is acknowledged, empirically we know less about whether and how rankings matter in…

As the transnational education market continues to grow, Asian universities are experiencing a more significant influx of short-term visiting and exchange students from western nations. This article summarises research on the motivations of American international students studying in Thailand. The purpose of this study is to better understand the…

Short-term international mobility programs are being increasingly adopted by universities to achieve internationalisation, secure international accreditation and prepare graduates for global careers. A plethora of beneficial outcomes of student participation in short-term mobility education programs [Roy, A., A. Newman, T. Ellenberger, and A.…

On the one hand, studies of African international students in China document their instrumental role in "telling China's story and spreading China's voice" while, on the other hand, this research indicates how their lived experiences are shaped by racialisation and exclusionary practices in social life. However, there remains…

This article explores the issue of internationalisation in the teaching of political science at universities. We first provide an overview of the mix of courses in terms of geographical focus offered by high-ranking political science departments. Second, with survey data from students, we assess the factors affecting their attitudes towards…

This paper focuses on Vietnamese PhD students' imaginative geographies of their destination countries. Using the data collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 Vietnamese PhD students, the study examines the participants' preparation for their sojourn before their departure, as well as their first multi-sensory experiences of the…

Under the tendency of the marketisation of tertiary education, universities/colleges and governments across the world have increasingly regarded international education as an education services export sector. Vietnam has always been regarded as a country of importing rather than exporting international education. Nevertheless, more and more…

Despite a large number of Sino-foreign joint education programmes, little research has examined the pre-departure academic preparations of students on these programmes. This study aims to fill the research gap by interviewing 22 Chinese students on 2 + 2 programmes studying at an Australian host university. Findings show that while more than half…

A recurrent narrative in the recent literature on international student mobility is that overseas study is motivated by a desire for onward international mobility or oriented towards specific goals such as an international career. However, the way in which transnational mobility after graduation is perceived and experienced by international…

This paper empirically examines whether former international students, i.e., global graduates, are more likely to be 'liquid migrants' than those who hold higher education degrees from home and the factors which enable or inhibit transnational mobility among global graduates. Based on an analysis of a subsample from a large-scale web survey of…

This article contributes to debates about international student mobility and the globalisation of higher education by attending to the caring practices of Indian international students at Australian universities. Drawing on qualitative material produced with postgraduate students, it examines the practical, economic, emotional and social ways they…

Many papers on international student mobility have analysed different macro factors influencing the decision making of international students. However, only a limited number of studies have considered the role of language distance on international educational choices. This paper aims to fill that gap by identifying the role of language proximity…

Taking the UK and Japan as contrasting national case studies, this article supplements existing research into student migration by consolidating a regulatory perspective with individual narrative accounts. Reported here are the results of a mixed-methods two-phase study. Phase 1 is a concerted trajectory analysis of student migration policy in the…

The increase in international student mobility raises questions of how many international students choose to stay in their host country and the reasons why some stay and others leave. This study examines factors affecting international students to stay in Finland three years after graduation. Tracking 13 (years) graduating cohorts across national…

Thinking with four non-EU academic migrants from the global South, and their experiences of working/studying or starting to work/study during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unravelling the current geopolitics of the internationalised higher education in the global North. Our central argument is that COVID-19 has not simply affected the national and…