Surveys and Research on International Students

The report brings together recent literature and data on student mobility. It looks at the trends in UK international students' mobility and compares these internationally. It also considers the causal factors for students' choice to spend time abroad, the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of mobile students, and the impact that time abroad has on their employability; and it highlights policy and practice in HEIs in respect of student mobility.

The purpose of this research study was to map Ontario universities’ strategies, programs and services for international students (IS). In mapping these programs, we aimed to understand the opportunities, challenges and gaps that exist in supporting IS. We focused on services at various levels, including from the first year of study all the way through to graduation, the job search process, entry into the labour market, and students’ transition to permanent resident status.

This paper presents results of a questionnaire survey of 1400 Year 13 (final-year) school and sixth-form pupils in two contrasting areas of England, which asked them about their thoughts and plans to study at university abroad. Key questions that the survey sought to answer were the following. How many and what proportion of all higher education (HE) applicants, apply, or consider applying, to university outside the UK? What are their reasons for doing so? What are their distinguishing characteristics as regards type of school (state vs. private), academic record, parental socio-occupational background and prior contacts abroad? The questionnaire data were supported, but occasionally contradicted, by interviews with school staff members responsible for coordinating and advising on the HE application process. Approximately 3% of pupils apply to study abroad (most also apply to UK universities) and another 10% consider applying but do not do so. North America, Australia and Ireland are favoured destinations; not mainland, non-English-speaking Europe. Quality of university and desire for adventure are the most important motivations. Decisions to apply abroad are strongly correlated to the academic results of pupils (the best apply), to prior connections abroad (travel, holidays, residence abroad, etc.) and to a range of overlapping indicators of parental wealth and social class. The theoretical and policy implications of the research are also considered. Study abroad creates an 'elite within an elite' and works against government agendas of widening participation. On the other hand, English students' foreign experience potentially enhances their interculturalism and graduate labour market competitiveness, yet raises spectres of 'brain drain' of the 'brightest and best'.

A number of international students, predominately from Asian countries, are present in universities in the UK, United States, and Australia. There is little research exploring their experiences as they negotiate the disciplinary requirements of their courses. This paper investigates students' agency as they write their first assignment for their Master's of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages course and the academics who teach them. Talk around texts and the positioning theory are used to analyse the data. It is argued that the students demonstrate strategic agency, which allows them to better understand the academic requirements of their disciplines. The analysis reveals the complexities involved in international students' adaptation to disciplinary discourse and the implications for teaching and learning in higher education.

Executive Summary:

International student mobility, especially diploma mobility (students taking their entire degree outside the UK), has received little attention from researchers. This report summarises the findings of research funded by the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills aimed at improving understanding of the motivations behind the international diploma mobility of UK students. It also seeks to evaluate the scale and significance of UK international diploma mobility. 

The research was undertaken by a collaborative team from the Universities of Dundee and Sussex during 2008 and 2009 led by Professors Findlay and King. It involved three key elements 

• a metadata analysis of sources providing statistics on international student mobility, 

• a survey of the application intentions of 1400 final-year pupils from schools in two regions of England, and 

• a survey of 560 UK students currently enrolled for study at universities in the USA, Ireland, Australia, the Czech Republic, France and Germany. 

In addition to the two questionnaire surveys, interviews were conducted with UK international students, international recruitment officers in 16 higher education institutions from around the world, as well as with school careers guidance teachers. 

According to the OECD the number of UK students studying abroad has risen from 16,866 in 1975 to 22,405 in 2005. This growth is less than that for most OECD countries. Metadata analysis reveals many problems with using international agency datasets to evaluate trends in diploma mobility. Careful examination of national datasets suggests that OECD statistics may over-estimate the true figure for UK international diploma-mobile students by more than 10 per cent. Best estimates produced by the researchers nevertheless point to UK diploma-mobile students accounting for the equivalent of about 1.7% of all UK domiciled students enrolled in higher education and over the last two decades the number has been growing 

Responses to the researchers’ English school questionnaire survey indicate that, amongst UK-nationals, some 2.8 per cent of state sector pupils and 5.5 per cent of independent sector pupils apply to universities outside the UK. Only a proportion of these are offered places to study abroad and choose finally to enrol. The survey revealed that many more pupils consider applying abroad, but in the end do not do so. The USA is by far the most popular destination for pupils considering studying abroad. It is particularly significant that it is the academically most gifted pupils who are the most likely to apply to foreign universities.

The international student survey identified a diverse range of motivations driving international student mobility. 

• The dominant influence was the desire to attend a world-class institution (55% said this was important and 89% said it was important or very important). The significance of this driver of UK student mobility may be interpreted in several different ways as discussed in the main report. For some, failure to gain a place at their desired UK university was a trigger to mobility.

• Other motivations that were seen as very important included the opportunity for adventure (50%) and the desire to take the first step towards an international career (34%)

The report provides an analysis of which students were most likely to be driven by the desire to attend what they perceived to be the best universities in the world. It also considers whether this group of students was significantly different from those going abroad in search of adventure, or as a first step towards permanent emigration, or because of a desire to gain a place to study a particular discipline (where the opportunity to do so did not exist in the UK Higher Education system).

Amongst students in our survey, UK international diploma mobility is shown to be a selective process influenced by class and parental educational background. For example:

• Students who had attended independent schools were much more likely than those from the state sector to claim that their mobility was triggered by the search for a world class university

• Students from families where one or both parents had higher education were much more likely to go abroad in search of a world class university than those from other backgrounds.
 
The student survey suggested that it was not only students from fee-paying schools that succeeded in gaining a place to study abroad. Almost 30 per cent of respondents had attended a UK state comprehensive and 54 per cent of respondents had received state schooling. Nevertheless, the independent sector was much more strongly represented in the sample of UK international students than one would expect relative to the size of this sector in the UK education system. 

Another key finding is that international diploma-mobility is highly differentiated by destination. 

• UK students enrolled at US universities are often from more privileged backgrounds. They often claimed that their move was in search of an elite university and many were seeking to enter an international career. 

• UK students in Australia were likely to be interested in permanent emigration.

• UK students in Ireland were much more likely to report that they would consider returning to the UK after graduation. 

Another important issue addressed by the report is the relationship between international student mobility and intentions to return to the UK. Some 24 per cent of students in the survey claimed that they had no intention of ever returning to the UK once their studies were complete. The vast majority did, however, plan to return, although many wanted to work abroad before coming back to the UK. Significantly, the survey results point to the students with the strongest A level results being more likely to want to return to the UK at some point after their studies. International student mobility should not therefore be interpreted as a brain drain of the UK’s best and brightest young people.

Cómo citar este artículo: Ríos, D., Martínez, D. y Carvajal, M. (2016). Retos y oportunidades competitivas para el sector textil-confección desde la perspectiva del Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) Colombia-Estados Unidos Funcionalidad de los cuadernos ATA dentro de las perspectivas del comercio exterior en Colombia. Sinapsis (8), 61-81. Resumen El presente artículo se aborda desde un tema que hace referencia a la importancia que en la actualidad representa el acuerdo comercial con EE.UU. que trajo impactos en diferentes sectores productivos del país, generando respuestas empresariales a fin de hacerle frente de manera competitiva a los retos que emergen de las relaciones de libre comercio en este escenario. En razón a lo anterior, el análisis planteado reconoce los retos y oportunidades competitivas del sector textil-confección de Manizales a la luz del TLC con EE.UU, soportado en el análisis de contenido, matrices externas y conclusiones del estudio de caso, con enfoque mixto y método inductivo-deductivo. Los resultados obtenidos dan luces para entender que lo esencial no es la firma del acuerdo comercial, sino su aprovechamiento como proceso que se construye a partir de empresarios, sectores y regiones y para su efectividad se requiere promover trasformaciones en cada uno de ellos. Abstract This article is tackled an issue that relates to the importance that currently represents the trade deal with US brought impacts in different productive sectors, generating business to cope with competitive challenges emerging from the free trade relations in this scenario so answers.  Artículo de investigación resultado del proyecto: " Oportunidades competitivas para la empresa INDUDISE a la luz del TLC, entre Colombia y Estados Unidos.

Transformative learning has been important in the development of college and adult education since Jack Mezirow proposed it more than 40 years ago as a theoretical description of the steps learners undergo in changing their worldviews. From the educator's perspective, transformative learning is when a learner is struck by a new concept or way of thinking and then follows through to make a life change; it supplements more common types of learning such as acquiring facts or learning new skills (Cranton, 2006) [1]. Little quantitative study has been made of the incidence of transformative learning or the ten steps predicted by Mezirow to precede it (Taylor, 2007) [2]. More European involvement in research on transformative learning is needed, given that the theory of transformative learning does not have concrete roots in the conceptual formation of the European adult educators (Kokkos, 2012) [3]. European adult educators' rich scholarship on the social and critical dimensions ...

Global student mobility is at an all time high with more than five million students attending university outside of their home country each year. Canada and the United States are two of the largest international student receiving countries, and the impact of this demographic shift is felt across our institutions. Learn and dialogue with professionals in student services, academic affairs, and faculty from U.S. and Canadian institutions on embracing the impact of international students on our work.

The purpose of this research study was to map Ontario universities’ strategies, programs and services for international students (IS). In mapping these programs, we aimed to understand the opportunities, challenges and gaps that exist in supporting IS. We focused on services at various levels, including from the first year of study all the way through to graduation, the job search process, entry into the labour market, and students’ transition to permanent resident status.

"This paper examines the attitudes and plans of Year 13 (final-year secondary school or ‘upper sixth form’) pupils towards studying at university abroad. Our main empirical base is a questionnaire survey of more than 1400 Year 13 pupils in a stratified sample of schools and sixth-form colleges, both state and independent sector, in two parts of England (Brighton and Sussex, and Leicester and Leicestershire). In addition, 15 face-to-face interviews were taken with teachers and HE advisers in the schools surveyed, and follow-up telephone interviews were made with 20 pupils from the questionnaire survey. The objectives of the research were, firstly, to discover the proportions of school-leavers who are applying to study at a non-UK university, or who had considered doing so but not actually gone ahead with the application, and which countries and universities they were attracted to. Against this orientation to (think about) studying abroad as the key dependent variable, the paper analyses several independent variables, based on quantitative data drawn from the questionnaire results and informed by insights from the qualitative interviews. These include pupils’ academic profile, type of school, gender and ethnic heritage, parental socio-economic class, and family and personal links (prior residence abroad, travel experiences, friends or relatives who had studied abroad etc.). Results show that students applying abroad, or who considered this option, are academic high-achievers and high-aspirers, more likely to come from independent schools, have parents who are in the higher socio-occupational classes (managers, directors, professionals, teachers etc.) and who are themselves graduates, and have family links and extensive travel experience abroad. Females are slightly more likely to consider the study-abroad option. The relationship with ethnicity is not clear, except that foreign-domiciled non-UK nationals have a greater propensity to apply to non-UK universities, as do UK-nationals studying at international schools. Overall, however, and for all groups surveyed and interviewed, the study-abroad strategy appears to be supplementary to the dominance of what are widely perceived as the best UK universities, above all Oxford, Cambridge, and the other Russell Group research-intensive universities."

Tran, L.T. & Nguyen, N.T. (2013). Mediating teacher professional identity: The emergence of humanness and ethical identity. International Journal of Training Research. 11(3), 119-212.

Over the past couple of years, international vocational education and training has been much debated at the nexus of the commercialisation of education and social justice for international students. This nexus has significantly affected the professional identity and responsibilities of teachers who are involved in providing vocational education for international students. Drawing on a research project funded by the Australian Research Council, this paper offers an alternative lens on vocational teachers’ process of mediating professional identity within the context of the commercialisation of education. It employs the logic of relationality as a conceptual framework to interpret teachers’ journey of identity re-construction.  The humanness and ethical dimensions of identity have been at the heart of the teachers’ negotiation of the kind of teacher they are and they aspire to become. The teachers in this research draw on humanness and ethical dimensions to engage in the critical reflection of their own teaching practices, their interaction with international students and the socio-political context shaping international vocational education and training. They perceive their professional responsibility not only in relation to the facilitation of students’ development of vocational skills and knowledge but also the provision of pastoral care for international students and the advocating for social justice for this student cohort.