TY - JOUR
T1 - International student mobility: the role of social networks
AU - Beech, Suzanne E.
N1 - Also available through the institutional repository at the University of Hull (hydra.hull.ac.uk).
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Building upon recent work on higher education mobility, this paper contends that social networks of friendship and kinship are critical determinants for students deciding to study overseas, not just, as has hitherto been suggested, a complementary factor. It uses original data collected through interviews and focus groups with thirty-eight higher education international students studying at three UK universities and argues that students who choose to study overseas do not operate within a vacuum but rather draw upon extended networks of individuals who have chosen to do so themselves or advocate studying abroad. While this encouragement may be of an explicit and unequivocal nature – telling students that they ought to study overseas – for the majority it is rather more implicit. The students interviewed invariably related that higher education overseas or mobility more generally was an accepted practice among their peers, thereby leading to a normalisation of the mobility process. The paper concludes that international students come to accept mobility as a taken for granted stage within the life course, and, whether intentionally or not, this is often the driving force behind their decision to study overseas.
AB - Building upon recent work on higher education mobility, this paper contends that social networks of friendship and kinship are critical determinants for students deciding to study overseas, not just, as has hitherto been suggested, a complementary factor. It uses original data collected through interviews and focus groups with thirty-eight higher education international students studying at three UK universities and argues that students who choose to study overseas do not operate within a vacuum but rather draw upon extended networks of individuals who have chosen to do so themselves or advocate studying abroad. While this encouragement may be of an explicit and unequivocal nature – telling students that they ought to study overseas – for the majority it is rather more implicit. The students interviewed invariably related that higher education overseas or mobility more generally was an accepted practice among their peers, thereby leading to a normalisation of the mobility process. The paper concludes that international students come to accept mobility as a taken for granted stage within the life course, and, whether intentionally or not, this is often the driving force behind their decision to study overseas.
KW - international student mobility
KW - social networks
KW - decision making
KW - transnationalism
UR - https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/international-student-mobility-the-role-of-social-networks-3
U2 - 10.1080/14649365.2014.983961
DO - 10.1080/14649365.2014.983961
M3 - Article
VL - 16
SP - 332
EP - 350
JO - Social & Cultural Geography
JF - Social & Cultural Geography
SN - 1464-9365
IS - 3
ER -