JAPAN - Foreign students set to return but damage ‘already done’ [University World News, February 2022]

Title:

Foreign students set to return but damage ‘already done’ 

 

Author:

Suvendrini Kakuchi  

 

Published:

University World News, 24 February 2022 

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220224140714779

 

From the article:

Japan is set to ease its stringent COVID-19 entry ban on foreigners next month ahead of the new university academic year on 1 April.  

 

Strict border controls have kept out thousands of international university students, dealing a blow to the internationalisation of Japan’s higher education, and many universities are concerned that damage has already been done to Japan’s reputation as a country that welcomes international students.

 

Rhodes University, South Africa - South Africa’s universities are adopting an international lens: why it matters

Title:

South Africa’s universities are adopting an international lens: why it matters

Author:

Orla Quinlan, Director of Internationalisation, Rhodes University     

 

Published:

Rhodes University, 7 October 2021

https://www.ru.ac.za/latestnews/southafricasuniversitiesareadoptinganinternationallenswhyitmatters.html

 

Focus of news article:

South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training released a policy framework in 2020 to enhance the sector’s effort towards internationalisation. The Conversation’s Nontobeko Mtshali asked Orla Quinlan to share her insights.

 

Research on internationalisation and globalisation in higher education—Reflections on historical paths, current perspectives and future possibilities [Scholarly Article - EJED, May 2021]

Title:

Research on internationalisation and globalisation in higher education—Reflections on historical paths, current perspectives and future possibilities 

 

Authors:

Jenny J. Lee & Bjørn Stensaker 

Published:

European Journal of Education, 1st published 4 May 2021

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ejed.12448

 

Abstract:

Internationalisation and globalisation are intertwined and complex phenomena that have attracted the interest of higher education scholars for several decades. This article offers some reflections on how research on internationalisation and globalisation has developed over the years and the perspectives that appear to have dominated these studies. A key argument is that while the field is, in many ways, booming—both in the numbers of publications and with respect to topics explored—whether substantial theoretical advances have been made is questionable. Many publications still tend to be quite descriptive with shallow observations, mostly on reporting national trends and political agendas. As internationalisation and globalisation undoubtedly continue to make an impact on higher education in the years to come, there is a need for a stronger theoretical basis, which can underpin future studies. The current article discusses potential future advancements enabling a more integrated, theoretical grounding for understanding and interpreting internationalisation and globalisation in the years to come. 

Narratives of ‘stuckness’ among North–South academic migrants in Thailand: interrogating normative logics and global power asymmetries of transnational academic migration [Scholarly Article - Higher Education, 11 January 2021]

Title:

Narratives of ‘stuckness’ among North–South academic migrants in Thailand: interrogating normative logics and global power asymmetries of transnational academic migration 

 

Authors:

James Burford, Mary Eppolite, Ganon Koompraphant & Thornchanok Uerpairojkit  

Published:

Higher Education, 11 January 2021

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00672-6

Abstract:

Higher education (HE) researchers have become increasingly interested in transnational academic mobility as a field of inquiry. A phenomenon frequently associated with ‘progress’ and ‘development’, research accounts are written about academic migrants who harness career momentum and experience upward social mobility resulting from their travels. In contrast to scholarly accounts which link mobility with progress of many kinds, this article foregrounds under-considered accounts of migrant academics who describe themselves as moving ‘backwards’ and feeling ‘stuck’. Drawing on an empirical study with 25 migrant academics employed in Thailand, we investigate ‘stuckness’ via two narratives of Global North academics. These narrative portraits reveal how migration may be prompted by career immobilities and that migrant academics in Thailand may perceive that they lack opportunities for career progression. We also examine how Thailand is configured as a ‘weird’ mobility destination, one that may struggle for recognition as a site for international academic career progress. The key contribution we make to critical academic mobilities scholarship is to weave in decolonial analyses of the geopolitics of knowledge production, examining ‘South’ and ‘stuckness’ as potentially linked categories for North-to-South academic migrants. We argue that narratives of stuckness among Northern academic migrants in Thailand are deeply interwoven with assumptions made about desirable directions of global travel, assumptions which are born from the profound inequalities which characterise global HE’s core/periphery structure.