Student perceptions of international education and study abroad: a pilot study at York University,Canada

International student mobility has been identified as a key strategy for the internationalization of higher education. Although an institutional priority, Canada has among the lowest levels of international student mobility, with only 2% of full-time university students participating in study-abroad programs. This pilot study, conducted at a large public university in Toronto, examined the value that students place on international education, their awareness of opportunities made available by the university, their attitudes toward, perceptions of, and preferences toward study abroad, and the institutional and individual factors that influence their intent to engage in study abroad. The study found associations between students’ intent to study abroad with their perceived social and institutional support and academic hassles at the host and home institution. It identified three distinct groups within the population, those intending to study abroad, those unsure about their plans, and a third group who does not seek to pursue study abroad. In terms of applied value, the findings will inform program administrators how to customize their support services and programs to both assist interested students and attract new students that otherwise would not be interested in such an experience.     

International Academic Mobility in Chinese Academia: Opportunities and Challenges

International academic mobility is an important dimension of the internationalization of higher education institutions, which aims to enact practical changes in economies and societies. Although many studies have investigated the mobility of international students, the mobility of international academics has been less investigated, particularly in the context of mainland China. This qualitative study explores the experience of international academics in Chinese academia. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with twenty-six international academics from different countries, working at different universities in Beijing. Through a four-stage systematic analysis, the study shows that international academics’ engagement with mobility in Chinese academia can be characterized by a combination of gains and losses. This article explores how international academics view Chinese academia as either resourceful or restrictive for their academic career. It then discusses the hidden narratives concerning the challenges that international academics face in relation to mobility.     

How Do Students Perceive the International Dimension in Social Work Education?: An Enquiry among Swedish and German Students

Globalization, internationalization, and regionalization affect domestic social work. This paper explores how undergraduate students perceive international aspects of their social work education. A questionnaire was distributed to social work undergraduates in Stockholm, Sweden (n=97), and Darmstadt, Germany (n=43). Results showed that a majority of students in Sweden were prepared to work with immigrants and refugees. A majority of students in both countries wanted more education about refugee social work and social work in other countries. The amount of exchange activities was modest, but many students could consider working abroad. Students related most strongly to international aspects of domestic social work such as work with immigrants and refugees.     

Asymmetric learning in a short-term,macro-oriented international students’ exchange: an exploratory study

International social work organizations’ call for a Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development emphasizes promotion of social justice-oriented policies. A major challenge for international student exchange programs, especially when the visitors are from affluent countries, is to overcome the asymmetric process of the relative lack of power, in student hosts’ in comparison to student visitors’ relationships, as well as to focus on macro-practice orientation. Through analyzing a case study of student exchange, we propose a set of pedagogical strategies that may help to overcome these challenges through using processes of mirroring to address this asymmetric situation. This exploratory research is based on a three-year assessment of a short-term, macro-oriented MSW travel study course between graduate students from two universities (in the US and in Israel) using an exchange framework. It includes a comparison of joint experiences of students using both written and arts-based data. The findings demonstrate that the use of relationship building and mirroring enables both hosts and guests to learn about their own macro-reality through the eyes of the others and helps diffuse asymmetry and create relationships not only on the micro-, but also macro-levels. Implications for teaching methods in international courses are discussed.     

Youth,Mobility, and the Emotional Burdens of youxue (Travel and Study): A Case Study of Chinese Students in Italy

Based on fieldwork in China and Italy, this article examines the affective dimension of middle-class Chinese students’ youxue (travel and study) practices in Italy. With the liberalization of state policy in China’s self-funded study abroad market and the proliferation of educational intermediaries, youxue has become a special type of educational consumption that caters to the middle-class Chinese family’s desire for transnational mobility and cosmopolitan life styles. The blurring of the line between travel and study points to the open-ended and multi-linear nature of transnational student mobility. However, due to the limitations and pitfalls in international education policies in both the sending and the receiving countries, Chinese students’ youxue experiences in Italy are marked by notable contradictions between mobility and immobility, hopes and frustrations, self-appreciation and self-reproach.     

上海留学生教育的实证研究

随着中国融入国际社会程度的加深,留学生也逐渐成为中国教育系统的重要成员。上海作为中国最国际化的大都市,吸引着越来越多的留学生。大力发展来沪留学生教育,不仅可以推动上海城市人口构成的国际化,可以推动上海城市人口素质的国际化,而且可以增强我国学生国际交往和国际竞争的能力。留学生教育质量的好坏直接影响着世界对中国高等教育竞争力的评价。由于理念的不同,市场经济发达的国家往往将教育质量的检验交由市场进行,我国则更倾向于由政府通过若干个硬性指标完成教育质量的评估。因此,应关注留学生的核心诉求点,打造教育质量管理体系。     

The Effect of International Social Work Education: Study Abroad Versus On-Campus Courses

Despite a growing emphasis on international offerings within social work education, researchers have conducted few outcomes studies regarding the implications of these courses for students’ professional development. This study addressed this gap by analyzing data from a survey of 122 social work students at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, before and after they completed (a) a guided study-abroad course or (b) an on-campus course on international social work. Results indicated that students in both courses demonstrated gains across multiple domains, including self-rated skills, understanding of international service, identification as a global citizen, and empowerment. Students in the study abroad courses demonstrated greater gains in self-rated skills than students in the on-campus course.     

International Travel Security and the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration

This article examines the security dimension of the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact for Migration and explains how the global compacts expand international cooperation on travel security. Although the Global Compact on Refugees contains relatively few security‐related provisions, many of the Global Compact for Migration's commitments are largely devoted to increasing security by strengthening border controls, improving travel documents, collecting data, using new technologies, like biometrics, and sharing data. By agreeing to increase cooperation on international travel security aimed at reducing irregular migration, migrant origin states have won commitments from migrant destination states to improve conditions for their nationals working abroad. Given that both global compacts are non‐binding and states may take actions to realize some of the compacts’ commitments but not others, the actual consequences of the compacts may vary greatly and lead to unanticipated outcomes.     

Bounded Explorers: Online Constructions of Solo Women Travelers

Women have navigated the world with much less freedom than men—with restrictions particularly great for their solo, or independent, travel. Although much research documents women’s experiences of these constraints, less is known about travel media’s framing of women as solo travelers—with online media an especially neglected research area. Drawing on a leisure constraints perspective, our study examines differences in online travel articles (n = 100) targeting solo women versus men. Resonating with this perspective, as well as the findings of studies examining women’s actual travel experiences, our findings reveal a framing of women as “bounded explorers,” constrained in their solo travel by the emotional, social, and behavioral burdens imposed upon them, hinging on their perceived vulnerability and men’s perceived dangerousness. We find two processes through which women are constructed in online travel articles as bounded explorers—creating negative expectations and encouraging vigilant risk avoidance. As one of the first studies to examine cultural representations of solo travelers in online media, our research provides further evidence of gendered constraints in leisure by revealing the framing in travel articles of women as more bounded than men—a framing that may, in turn, have implications for women’s experiences in the realm of leisure and perhaps beyond.     

Educationally Channeled International Labor Mobility: Contemporary Student Migration from China to Japan

International education is an important channel of labor migration. Most commonly, this form of labor migration is considered as “brain drain,” represented by the retention of graduate students in science and engineering in the host labor market. This case study of contemporary Chinese student migration to Japan shows that international students have different credentials, interests, and motivations for migrating abroad, and consequently provide the host society both unskilled and skilled labor power. Moreover, Chinese students’ labor market practices as skilled labor migrants show their important roles in the economic globalization. Aside from scientific and engineering skills, Chinese students use their linguistic and cultural competencies to act as intermediaries between their host and home economies.     

Internationale Mobilit?t und soziale Selektivit?t: Ausma?, Mechanismen und Entwicklung herkunftsspezifischer Unterschiede zwischen 1990 und 2005

In the course of educational expansion social inequalities in access to upper secondary education declined, while the differences in transition to tertiary education increased. In the light of these changes the assumption arises, that the patterns of social selectivity in access to higher education have changed. While in the past status maintenance was mainly due to differences in access to higher education, today it is to a greater extent a question of kind and place of study. Because of the growing importance of international experience for labour market success, students of privileged classes might increasingly opt to study abroad in order to preserve their privileged position. Drawing on a series of panel-datasets of upper secondary graduates in Germany, we estimate the extent and development of social differences in international mobility behaviour between 1990 and 2005, and apply a decomposition method in order to single out the underlying processes and mechanisms. We find remarkable social differences in the intention as well as in the decision to study at a foreign university. Students from privileged classes more often decide to study abroad, while students from underprivileged classes stay close to their hometown. These differences can partly be explained by school performance, language skills, social costs and institutional differences. Furthermore we find that these differences have rather increased than decreased.     

Just how small is this world really? An application of small world theory to the study of globalization

Abstract Inspired by recent research on the dynamics of ‘small‐world’ networks, in this article I apply its basic arguments and findings to the study of integrative processes in the international system. Employing the logic of network models we can learn, by analogy, from fields as diverse as neural science and forest fire prevention, much about the likely changes caused in the international political environment by increased interaction among its various units. I first explain recent developments in network theory and demonstrate their relevance for the study of international politics and economics. I then develop the most important insights to be transferred from network theory to the study of globalization. Network theory suggests that our world truly ‘shrinks’ only to the extent that relations among international actors cross pre‐existing alliances or cooperative arrangements. Making the world a single place seems to require flexibility in forming attachments with other actors which goes beyond culturally and historically justified efforts at exchange and cooperation.     

When difference creates dissonance: understanding the ‘engine’ of intercultural learning in study abroad

Why do some study abroad students improve their intercultural skills, while others revert to less sophisticated ways of making sense of cultural difference? Both intercultural competence theory and transformative learning theory attempt to explain why student intercultural learning occurs, but they only provide partial answers. Building on our previous study assessing intercultural competence in a 2015 field school in India, this article applies the concept of cognitive dissonance to explain the process behind intercultural learning. In the context of study abroad, students experience cognitive dissonance when they encounter cultural differences or similarities that confound previously held expectations about culture. Adapting Maertz, Hassan, and Magnusson’s cognitive dissonance resolution framework, we employ qualitative analysis of students’ written reflections to show how the resolution of cognitive dissonance could act as the ‘engine’ of intercultural learning.     

Adjusting for Change of Status in International Migration: Demographic Implications

The calculation of net immigration for the purpose of estimating the resident population in Australia is based on net permanent and long–term (12 months or more) movements into and out of the country. All international movements with duration of stay in Australia or travel abroad of less than 12 months (defined as short–term) are excluded. However, changes between short–term and long–term/permanent status can occur when people extend or shorten their stay or travel. Because net immigration is a significant component of Australia’s population growth (accounting for 40–50 per cent of annual growth), adjusting for these changes in migration status is thought to result in better estimates of net immigration and the resident population. The paper shows that adjusting for change of status can have a large impact on net immigration, particularly when the immigrant intake is small. Failure to adequately adjust for change of status can also lead to misleading conclusions about the relative contributions of net temporary and permanent movements to total net immigration. The effect on the resident population, however, is relatively small, being less than 1 per cent of the total population. The paper also addresses the question of how important it is for countries to adjust for change of migrant status in international migration statistics in the context of increasing international mobility.     

Cultural Responsiveness: a framework for re-thinking students’ interculturality through study abroad

While intercultural competence is commonly a goal of university study abroad programmes, debates around criteria for assessing this competence have highlighted the challenges in appropriately identifying students’ intercultural learning in relation to specific university programmes. To overcome these issues, this research moves beyond conceptualising the intercultural in terms of ‘competence’ and instead proposes a framework termed Cultural Responsiveness to illustrate students’ intercultural learning. Through questionnaires and interviews, the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate students after a year of exchange in France or Switzerland were collected and analysed. Using the Cultural Responsiveness framework, three parameters of students’ intercultural experiences emerged: Awareness, Engagement and Bringing Knowledge Home.     

Zwei Dimensionen der Internationalisierung: Eine empirische Analyse deutscher Grossunternehmen

In order to analyze the impact of internationalization on national institutions, methods of measuring the degree of internationalization are required. The article presents a method for measuring the degree of internationalization of firms. We assume that the internationalization of firms has several dimensions which cannot be combined into one index, and therefore, have to be distinguished. The first dimension refers to the production activities of firms abroad; the second is measured by the proximity of the firm to international capital. Using a group of the 100 largest German companies both dimensions are empirically tested. Factor analysis supports the assumption that both dimensions, the product-oriented and the financial dimension, do not co-vary and can be separated. Using the measurements we can rank firms into higher and lower degrees of internationalization.     

The Risk of Historical Artefacts in Travel: The Construction of Risk in the International Travelling Exhibition

Abstract  This article interrogates the risk of historical artefacts in travel, emphasising especially on the construction of the risk of boundary-crossing when museum exhibits travel abroad through "outbound" international travelling exhibitions. This follows the history of a controversial exhibition, the "Splendour of Imperial China"– held in 1996 that travelled from the National Palace Museum in Taipei which is renowned for its abundant and unique Chinese art collection to one of the most prominent museums on the global stage – the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Drawing upon Mary Douglas's analysis of danger/risk and classification, this paper argues that the risk within the "outbound" international travelling exhibition is less ontological than constructed. Often the controversy over the risk re-delineates the boundary between "us" and "them". This article, first of all, examines the power-laden relationship, regulated by the struggle of the global museum field, when museum experts at home and abroad co-write the risk of an exhibition's travel in the language of insurance calculation. Second, it analyses the laymen's protesting discourses against the historical artefacts' overseas travel through outbound international travelling exhibition. The protest which appropriated the "keeping-while-giving" logic of exchange, and backed up with both national sentiments and international symbolic sources, rendered the exhibition a hot potato. Finally, it interrogates how the settled outbound travelling exhibition actually renders the museum collection reclassified and revalorized according to their suitability for overseas travel.     

大学生社会实践长效性机制构建的探索

通过调查分析了大学生社会实践活动取得的成果和存在的问题;结合国外大学生社会实践的经验,提出构建大学生社会实践长效性体系的构想:领导重视,形成制度,突出实效;转变学生社会实践观念,满足学生需求;多方联系,寻求社会支持;建立网络实践平台,全程推进社会实践活动;为学生社会实践提供实践教师指导,为学生提供全程服务。     

Effectively preparing students for international field placements through a pre-departure class

Goals of international social work internships include greater cross-cultural sensitivity, professional growth, increased awareness of the impact of culture on the helping process, and a greater degree of intercultural adaptability, however, purposeful preparation is required to these desired goals. Therefore, a US BSW program developed a semester-long pre-departure class for students preparing to complete international internships. Theories of intercultural development and cross-cultural competence shaped the curriculum to help students increase self-awareness and critical reflection on their home culture; develop an understanding of cultural values about helping and social work as a profession in the destination country; and learn practical aspects of international travel and living abroad. Utilizing a non-randomized comparison group, significant differences were found on the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory.