The rapid growth of international student mobility has attracted much research on the many benefits it offers to students, higher education institutions, and societies in general. However, studies on the costs and potential tribulations caused by mobility are comparatively rare, despite increasing evidence of such costs inherent in the…

While most literature examines the determinants of international student mobility on a single scale, either global, regional, or national, differences between various patterns are under-investigated. To address this gap, this article explores the determinants of international student mobility at three distinct levels: global, Asian-outward, and…

Literature suggests that the international student industry faces increasing risk, given the substantial dependence on a few source countries. Inbound international student mobility (ISM) data of leading higher education (HE) destination countries were examined, with China and India as the source countries. This study classifies Australia, Canada,…

Based on two representative cases drawn from a larger multi-sited ethnographic project, this study examines the process of identity construction among Chinese international students in the U.S.A., focusing on how the students (re)negotiate their subject positions vis-à-vis their home and host societies. Building on a conceptualization of the…

How did the highly skilled Italians who chose to live abroad benefit from participation in the Erasmus program? How did they define and describe their experience with Erasmus, especially advantages and disadvantages? After conducting 51 semistructured and in-depth online interviews with highly skilled, spatially mobile, emigrant Italians, we used…

The paper examines preconceptions and assumptions behind common understandings of 'scholarship awards' in international higher education research, and analyses how these influence the production of knowledge on scholarship programs and their effects. The paper aims to make a major theoretical contribution by proposing an alternative approach to…

Blended Mobility refers to the strategic combination of phases of online learning with periods of short physical mobility. This approach to international learning has gained considerable interest in European university education in recent years due to the introduction of Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) in the new Erasmus + programme. BIPs are…

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected and continues to impact several areas of human lives and activities. With a particular focus on China, this reflection shares authors' observation on how COVID-19 may affect future trends of student mobility from and to the country. The reflection revealed that the impact of COVID-19 might not…

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption in education. We employ a gravity model to estimate its impact on international student credit mobility. Data on inbound and outbound students to and from four Spanish universities between the academic years 2017-2018 and 2021-2022 are used. While COVID-19 significantly reduced participation…

Academic freedom and global student mobility are both topics high on the scientific and political agenda. However, the relationship between transnational student mobility and academic freedom in national higher education systems has not yet been investigated cross-nationally. This study intends to answer the question on how a countries' level of…

We examine the impact of credit mobility exchange programs' timing on students' academic performance, focusing on the moment in which students travel and the length of the period spent abroad. To provide causal evidence, we exploit unique data from more than 10,000 students from a well-known and internationalized Brazilian university from 2010 to…

For decades, Luxembourg did without a national university. Before and after the University of Luxembourg's founding (UL) (2003), tertiary education and the status of being a Luxembourgish student have been closely linked to international student mobility (ISM). This long-standing tradition was maintained in the new university via compulsory ISM:…

This article deals with two key legal issues for study abroad (SA) in Europe, namely (i) the lack of a comprehensive and legislative definition of SA, and (ii) the need to shift from the concept of non-EU "student immigration" to that of student mobility. Italy is the only EU Member State to recognise and define SA, with the other 26 EU…

Despite an extensive body of literature scrutinising international students' short-term and long-term mobility experiences, little is known about the connection between the two. To address this gap, this study looks into the perception of a group of Chinese international students on how participation in their short-term mobility (STM) experience…

In educational research, scales are often presented as the ontological reality of a study. This study problematises this starting point and suggests approaching scales as experienced and epistemically used. Thus, this study asks how international students studying at Finnish universities during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic negotiated…