Mobility in Higher Education

Academic mobility in higher education has become a high-profile issue in recent decades, as the numbers of students and staff engaged, as well as the number of countries involved, have increased significantly. This book reports research on the many facets of the experience and people involved, both now and in the past, driven by political, cultural, and educational reasons. While the emphasis in research has tended to focus on contemporary student mobility, this collection deliberately includes articles on mobile staff, as the question of mobility is a matter for universities and higher education in its entirety, not just a matter of bringing new students into existing and unchanging lectures, laboratories, and seminars.

Despite the fact that universities have been international institutions in their composition from the beginning, they became de facto national institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries. This has changed and continues to change in the 21st century, often for financial reasons, as universities seek to enhance their budgets in a globalized economy, and students seek to enhance their employment chances by acquiring qualifications with a difference. However, even if the starting point is financial, the chapters in this book demonstrate that the effects of mobility are much more far-reaching.

The effects are on host universities, on the university community of staff and students, on the ways in which staff and students understand the nature of university study, and on the ways students may or may not integrate with a local community. By experiencing something different—for institutions, an influx of students with different ideas about academic study; for students, an interaction with 'locals' and with other 'internationals'; for staff, a challenge to their assumptions about teaching and learning—all see themselves in a new light and are often forced to change.

This book charts the changes that are happening now and will undoubtedly continue for the foreseeable future. It therefore offers all involved a reflection on their own experience and practice and the means of improving them. The emphasis in research has so far tended to focus on contemporary student mobility, but this collection deliberately includes articles on mobile staff, as the question of mobility is a matter for universities and higher education in its entirety and not just a matter of bringing new students into existing and unchanging lectures, laboratories, and seminars.

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