|
Dear colleagues,
What started as an idea at the beginning of 2020 eventually became reality in October 2021: Researchers and practitioners involved in international student mobility (ISM) across Europe – and beyond – finally have a platform where we can explore and develop interdisciplinary and internationally comparative studies, with a focus on how to connect research and daily practice. Such a platform was much needed, as the main proposers of the ENIS network, we (Mette Ginnerskov-Dahlberg, Thais França, Nicolai Netz, and Christof Van Mol) have observed that ISM researchers worked quite isolated from each other. Moreover, there has been too little interaction and exchange between individuals involved in research and practice. In our view, the first meetings of the Action have illustrated the need for the ENIS Network. We are very happy to see how enthusiastic and motivated everyone is to make this Action a great success!
Today, we are excited to launch the first ENIS newsletter. This newsletter will inform you twice a year on the general progress of our COST Action, significant outcomes, possibilities for international collaboration and mobility, interesting events, funding opportunities, and member publications, as well as profiles and innovative ideas of researchers and stakeholders involved in ISM.
|
As you will see, our newsletter will be a medium that will keep you informed about recent developments regarding ISM. Furthermore, you can use it yourselves to reach out to a broader public of professionals involved in ISM research and daily practice.
We are very much looking forward to collaborating with you in the framework of the Action over the next four years, to significantly advance the scientific state-of-the-art of research on ISM, and to build bridges between research and practice. After seeing all the enthusiasm during the first online meetings, we have no doubt that the Action will generate long-lasting collaborations and professional relationships between the Action members. Future face-to-face meetings, the first one taking place in Lisbon on 16 th-17 th May 2022, will help us further develop such relationships. We are very much looking forward to meeting all of you online and in person in the future!
Enjoy reading the first ENIS newsletter.
With best regards,
Christof Van Mol and Nicolai Netz
 
|
|
Information About the Network
|
|
|
|
ENIS committee members and officers
|
|
|
The network currently has 176 members.
- 61% of network members are female; 39% are male.
- 44% of network members are young researchers; 56% are not.
- 83% of network members' institutions of affiliations are located in Europe; 13% in the Asia Pacific; 4% in the Americas.
Young researcher = a researcher whose career spun less than 8 years between the date of the PhD/doctorate (or similar experience) and the date of involvement in the COST Action.
|
|
WG1: Global ISM Flows & Trends at the Macro Level
|
|
|
WG1 focuses on ISM flows and trends at the macro level. The group aims at conducting reviews in order to document the latest developments in ISM flows and trends. In order to realize this purpose, WG1 is conducting extant literature of ISM and macro-level and retrieving data from large-scale quantitative data sets in order to map ISM patterns and trends across the globe.
Leader: Prof. Dr. Yasar KONDAKCI (Middle East Technical University, TR)
Yasar KONDAKCI is a professor in Educational Administration at the Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey. His research focuses on internationalization in higher education, change and development in educational organizations, educational leadership and social justice in education. His most recent book is Higher Education Challenges for Migrant and Refugee Students in a Global World. He is the founding editor of Higher Education Governance and Policy journal.
Co-Leader: Queenie K. H. Lam, Ghent University, Belgium (BE) & University of Kassel, (DE)
Ms. Queenie Lam is PhD candidate in “higher education communication” research in a self-tailored joint programme agreed between UGhent and UniKassel. In the run-up to the conclusion of her doctoral training, she is preparing a momtrepreneurial start-up to make use of all her qualifications and work experiences gained in the past 20 years, namely higher education research & consultancy (esp. EU projects), media monitoring, and cross-cultural translation. Queenie is based in Trier and networked internationally.
Stakeholder advisor: Umar Bin Qushem, University of Turku, FI
Mr. Umar is a project researcher at Centre for Learning Analytics and engaged in research and development pertaining to Future technologies in Precision Education, Industrial Talent Development, and Learning Analytics. Besides, he has been actively involved with EU funded research projects and communities particularly ‘JANUS’, ‘SELI’.
|
|
|
Past activities
WG1 has attracted the attention of many researchers and practitioners on ISM from all around Europe. Right now, there are 41 registered members, either researchers or practitioners in ISM. The group has conducted two meetings in order to develop a work plan for the short term (systematic review on the impact of Covid-19 on ISM) and long term (broad systematic review on ISM and developing a database for quantitative analysis on ISM trends and flow) goals.
|
Upcoming activities
A webinar on ISM trends and flow is planned for the last week of March 2022 is planned. Besides, WG1 has launched its work for systematic reviews. Progress has been made in the development of a cross-WG database for data mapping together with colleagues from W2-5. All WG members will receive the request to “populate” the database with known data sources relevant to the project.
|
|
WG2: Social Inequalities In Access to & During ISM
|
|
|
|
|
WG 2: Social inequalities in access to and during ISM focuses on social inequalities in the context of ISM, on one hand considering the student’s characteristics as impacting the access, experiences and outcomes such gender, age, socio-economic status, and ethnicity, on the other hand, considering the global and regional inequalities that condition the international student movement. Our reflections will go around the inequalities in access to different types of ISM, disadvantages impacting the studying abroad and its outcomes, as well as the influence of institutional, national, and international policies on reducing or increasing ISM-related social inequalities.
WG 2 is led by Dr Sanam Roohi, who has worked on high skilled migration from India to the US and resource flow back to India. She has started work on a new project that looks at STEM students' educational mobility in the EU and how it simultaneously produces social mobility and inequality in the host and home country due to such migration.
The group is co-led by Dr Ewa Krzaklewska, a sociologist from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow interested in youth studies, academic mobility, and gender equality. She has been working on the ERASMUS mobility for more than 15 years, also using youth studies perspectives. Recently, she is engaged in the research on transformations of student mobility due to the COVID pandemic.
|
|
|
Past activities
The recent work of the WG 2 has concentrated on setting up the structures for working on the thematic reviews, in particular the review in regards to impact of the COVID pandemic on inequalities in ISM. The group already met twice as a group on 25 November 2021 and 12 January 2022, as well as three times during the Online Training and Working Group meetings between 24-26 January 2022.
|
Upcoming activities
The WG2 Webinar will take place on the 24 of May 2022, 13h30 pm CET, online. The keynote speaker is Prof. Thomas Faist, Bielefeld University.
|
|
WG3: The Social & Cultural Integration of International Students in Their Host Countries
|
|
|
|
|
Working Group 3 focuses on the social and cultural integration of students in their host countries. Our working group therefore contains a wide scope of interest ranging from second language acquisition through to cultural integration and experience accumulation. Our members all have a keen interest in this thematic area of mobility and we are looking forward to nurturing our collaboration over the course of the project.
The leaders of our group are:
Dr Alex Seal is currently the Associate Dean International for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Surrey, UK. He has a keen interest in creating more opportunities for students to have an international experience during their studies. Dr Seal Seal’ current interests focus on how international experiences can broaden and benefit students’ wider experiences of higher education. Recently, he has carried out and written research on the opportunities for Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) in the age of a pandemic. His PhD research looked at the motivations, experiences and aspirations of UK students studying for part of their degree abroad. Specifically, this research focussed on how the concept of ‘authenticity’ shapes people’s perception and experiences of travel and how travel decisions are linked with social class.
Dr. Zeynep Köylü is a postdoctoral teaching and research fellow at the Department of English, University of Basel, Switzerland. She received her doctoral degree in Second Language Acquisition and Instructional Technology (SLA/IT) from the University of South Florida with a Fulbright Scholarship. Her research focuses on the influence of the study abroad context on linguistic and intercultural communication development.
|
|
|
Past activities
To date, we have begun to explore the range of areas that are topical to the working group’s focus. These areas are pertinent to both the researchers and practitioners within our group. We have now started a sub group of members who will preside over the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This group of researchers and practitioners are now underway in conducting a comprehensive review of the pandemic’s impact on the social and cultural integration of students. We very much look forward to the Lisbon meeting in May to develop this strand of our activities.
|
Upcoming activities
In the immediate future, Zeynep and Alex will be creating the opportunity for researchers to begin to network together to establish writing and project ideas. Similarly, we are excited to create a practitioners group where our members, who administrate student mobility, will be able to share and facilitate best practice with one another. Across our whole membership group, we hold aspirations for our researchers to present to our practitioners on the best practice they identify through their research. In turn, this will allow our practitioners to have a strong platform to report back to our research community on the implementation of the research findings into mobility practices. We feel that this aspiration, that will be pursued through our group, will, no doubt, help to develop our understanding of the social and cultural integration of internationally mobile students.
|
|
WG4: The Impact of ISM on Graduates' Careers
|
|
|
|
|
This working group is about career impacts of international student mobility. Our aim is to increase the knowledge on if and how education undertaken abroad influences the careers of graduates and their choices of further spatial and social mobility. Job prospects for the graduates vary in diverse socioeconomic contexts within the EU, and WG4 aims to focus on a range of employment outcomes.
The working group is lead by Jannecke Wiers-Jenssen and John Cullinan. Wiers-Jenssen is a sociologist has a long career in research on different aspects of international student mobility, including career effects. She is currently associate professor at Oslo Metropolitan University, along with an adjacent position at NIFU (Nordic Institute for studies in Innovation, Research and Education).
John Cullinan is an Associate Professor in Economics at the National University of Ireland Galway. His interest in international student mobility (ISM) focuses on its impact on education and labour market outcomes. John has extensive experience with COST Actions, having previously been a Management Committee member of CA15111.
The stakeholder advisor is Dr. Sahizer Samuk Carignani. She is a post-doctoral researcher at IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca, Italy. She worked in the Horizon2020 project MOVE (in 2017-2018) and published public reports and scholarly articles on Erasmus+ and its effects on employability.
|
|
|
Past activities
Two online meetings are held, and groups for two thematic reviews are set up. One group aim to sum up research on the impacts of COVID19 on career for internationally mobile students. This group is led by Gerorgiana Mihut (Assistant Professor at the Department of Education Studies, University of Warwick, UK). Another group will investigate effects of full degree mobility on career outcomes. This group is led by Charles Mathies (Academy research fellow at University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
|
Upcoming activities
A webinar addressing previous research on career impacts of ISM is planned for April 27th, 2022. Preliminary title of this webinar is “Does studying abroad pay off in the labour market? Evidence from recent research”, and Nicolai Netz will be the main presenter. This will be open to all members of the ENIS COST action as well as a wider audience.
WG members involved in the thematic research groups will meet in Lisbon on May 16-17th.
|
|
WG5: Connecting Research & Practice
|
|
|
WG5 brings together over 50 researchers, as well as experienced practitioners and representatives of various stakeholder organisations at different levels, all with an active interest and expertise in international student mobility. Through a number of emerging activities, and while supporting the work of the other four thematic groups of the ENIS network, WG5 members aim to gradually contribute to a change of mindset in the field of ISM in how researchers and practitioners think about and work with each other to advance field knowledge and institutional practice.
In the shorter term, and more concretely, the group aims to increase the engagement of stakeholders in outlining research findings and in making resulting recommendations more actionable, as well as of researchers in conversations with practitioners about their practices and needs, which are seen as essential for improving the quality of ISM, for better integration and for removing remaining barriers to ISM.
|
|
|
2022 plans
In 2022, the group is working on:
-
developing a comprehensive mapping of different types of stakeholders active in ISM, at various levels and in varying dimensions;
-
carrying out a needs analysis of different types of actors and stakeholders vis-à-vis research on ISM; and
-
building on this knowledge, propose a set of guidelines for the policy briefs that will be prepared by the five working groups,
all with a view to put forward more targeted and actionable recommendations at action level.
|
Upcoming activities
In late April 2022, WG5 will also be organising a webinar addressing a wider public on the topic of the working group – Connecting Research and Practice on ISM.
|
|
Announcements / Upcoming Events
|
|
|
Webinar on Mobility Data Collection Challenges & Forced Migration Mapping
Date: 30 March 2022
Time: 13:00 – 15:00 CET
Zoom link
Meeting ID: 932 0050 3778
Passcode: 917240
This webinar is brought to you by WG 1 (Global ISM flows and trends at the macro level). As the first of the series, we will start by addressing (1) the common challenges in international student mobility mapping and projection, and (2) a timely topic on forcibly displaced people’s access into higher education. Both talks will be presented by our in-house experts of ENIS based on previous projects and studies. Following the talks, participants are welcome to interact with the speakers and other participants by bringing to the table related mobility mapping issues and scenarios for discussion.
The webinar aims at not only sharing knowledge in the network but collecting feedback from members for future collaboration.
Who should attend?
The webinar targets primarily members of the ENIS community. However, you are welcome to bring along other colleagues interested in the announced topics. Feel free to share the Zoom link within your organization.
|
|
|
First Working Group meeting in Lisbon
Dates: 16-17 May 2022
Venue: The Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-Iscte) of University Institute of Lisbon (Iscte-IUL)
RSVP
|
|
|
ENIS Conference
Dates: 5-7 October 2022
Venue: Estonian National Museum, Tartu, Estonia
Save the date!
|
|
|
Dr. Aleksandar Karadimce (WG5)
|
|
|
Affiliation
University of Information Science and Technology (UIST) "St. Paul the Apostle" - Ohrid, R.N. Macedonia
In 2 sentences, tell us what your research/work is about.
My research is in the area of computer science and engineering and is focused on information processing. Particularly, detecting or uncovering patterns and trends from the collected data using data analytics tools and visualisations.
Why did you join the ENIS network?
I can contribute to the ENIS COST Action with my experience data-driven analysis to fill the gap between the research and practice. Researchers frequently do not fully expand on the potential implications of their results for stakeholders' daily practice, hence connecting research and practice will be my main priority in the COST Action WG5. The COST Action outcomes of WG5 will concentrate on developing strategies to enhance the interaction between international mobility scholars and practitioners to collaborate on empirical research projects.
What is your advice for ENIS members, on any aspect of research, career, or life in general?
Believe in your students they are leaders and ambassadors of your knowledge, your scientific research achievements and innovations. Today’s digital world provides a unique opportunity to be omnipresent using the benefits of Virtual and Augments Realty. Enjoy and share a unique learning experience with international mobility, learn from world-class education and life-changing opportunities for you in your careers.
|
|
|
How does this image represent your research/work?
Today big data analytics and visualisation transform the way companies make business decisions. The data-driven analysis makes recommendations on what kind of content will be shown on our social media profiles. My research is dedicated to developing analytical tools responsible for intelligent data collection, aggregation and guided analytics producing meaningful insights for users using visual formats. We at ARTICONF project offer an intelligent social media ecosystem in a blockchain federated environment, supported by an underlying blockchain technology seamlessly coupled with optimised trust-based measures in an anonymised environment. ARTICONF simplifies traceability to identify bad actors, malicious contents and disinformation.
Image credit: https://articonf.eu/
What are you currently working on, and why/how does this project excite you?
The data-driven analysis supported by a decentralised back-end infrastructure such as the ARTICONF can help counter fake news. These decision-making methodologies engage community experts, which enable efficient and trustworthy content management, to confront the infodemic across social networks. For this reason, decentralisation can bring reliability and security into the entire process. I believe that our research is a leader in innovation for algorithms and data-driven analytics tools that will oppose fake news, infodemics and solve future privacy concerns in the digital world.
|
|
|
Dr. Anita Kéri (WG1 & WG3)
|
|
Affiliation
University of Szeged, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
In 2 sentences, tell us what your research/work is about.
My research areas include studies on international students, internationalization, higher education, motivation, expectations, satisfaction, loyalty and WOM. I am also interested in teaching methodologies, co-creation and gamification in the classroom, international students' volunteering activities, and measuring higher education service quality.
Why did you join the ENIS network?
I joined because I would love to conduct cross-country research and widen my international network with colleagues, who are working on and are interested in the same topic.
What is your advice for ENIS members, on any aspect of research, career, or life in general?
Internationalization is your choice, take a step and jump in any challenge that interests you!
|
|
How does this image represent your research/work?
It is a picture taken by me and of our own university foreign students. We are continuously engaging them in different activities, so that they feel welcome and home at our faculty. This picture was taken on a trip with the freshmen and their mentors. This connects to my research, as I am interested in factors that influence perceived HEI service quality, student satisfaction and loyalty.
What are you currently working on, and why/how does this project excite you?
I am currently working on a research on the mediating effect of the covid pandemic on our foreign students at the faculty. This is an exciting research, as previous studies has just started appearing in the field. I'd also love to see how our students are affected.
Share a significant personal/team achievement over the past 2 years.
I finished my PhD in 2020 and recently won a Fulbright Visiting Scholar scholarship to the United States, San Jose State University.
|
|
|
Professor Paolo Ruspini (WG1 & WG3)
|
|
Affiliation
Roma Tre University/University of Geneva
In 2 sentences, tell us what your research/work is about.
I have been researching international and European migration for the last 25 years with a comparative approach and mainly qualitative methods.
Why did you join the ENIS network?
ENIS is ideally the continuation of my four-year work in the COST Action Study Abroad Research in European Perspective (SAREP) where theoretically and empirically the migrant transnational approach was well received. I am currently interested in expanding on transnationalism, inclusion processes and international student mobility.
What is your advice for ENIS members, on any aspect of research, career, or life in general?
Keep resilient as much as you can on what you stand for, but at the same time be open to unusual scientifical or life paths.
Internationalization is your choice, take a step and jump in any challenge that interests you!
|
|
How does this image represent your research/work?
The photo was shot in August 2010 in Ulcinj, an Albanian minority town in Southern Montenegro, close to the Albanian border. In my view the Pekara Europa 2 (Europe Bakery 2) in the focus and the surrounding Orthodox, Muslim and Catholic churches ideally represent the historically richness, variety as well as difficulties of the European model of cultural, language, migration and minority co-existence.
What are you currently working on, and why/how does this project excite you?
I have been further implementing a migrant transnational approach to different subthemes related to migration and mobility including International Student Mobility.
Share a significant personal/team achievement over the past 2 years.
I finally landed a tenure-track professorship in Summer 2021.
|
|
|
Want to see your profile being featured in the next newsletter?
Share your profile and thoughts to the network. You never know who else might share similar research interests. Collaborations arise from serendipitous connections!
|
|
Members' Recent Publications on ISM
|
|
Bahna, M. (2021). The intergenerational social mobility of internationally mobile students: The status attainment of returnees from abroad compared with non‐returnees. Population, Space and Place, 27(6). https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2425
Borràs, J., & Llanes, À. (2021). Investigating the impact of a semester-long study abroad program on L2 reading and vocabulary development. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 6(2), 276–297. https://doi.org/10.1075/sar.21015.bor
Breines, M. R., Menet, J., & Schapendonk, J. (2021). Disentangling Following: Implications and Practicalities of Mobile Methods. Mobilities, 16(6), 921–934. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2021.1942172
Cairns, D., França, T., Calvo, D. M., & de Azevedo, L. (2021). An immobility turn? The Covid-19 pandemic, mobility capital and international students in Portugal. Mobilities, 16(6), 874–887. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2021.1967094
Cheng, Y., & Koh, S. Y. (2022). The ‘soft infrastructure’ of the Belt and Road Initiative: Imaginaries, affinities and subjectivities in Chinese transnational education. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12420
Cordua, F., & Netz, N. (2021). Why do women more often intend to study abroad than men? Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00731-6
Cullinan, J., Flannery, D., & Palcic, D. (2021). Study abroad programme participation and subsequent academic performance: evidence from administrative data. Education Economics. https://doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2021.1978936
Czerska-Shaw, K., & Krzaklewska, E. (2021). Uneasy belonging in the mobility capsule: Erasmus Mundus students in the European Higher Education Area. Mobilities. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2021.1971053
Entrich, S. R., & Fujihara, S. (2021). New Horizontal Inequalities in Japanese Education? Examining Socioeconomic Selectivity in Study Abroad Intent and Pre-College Study Abroad Participation. CSRDA Discussion Paper Series |
Giorgio, D. P. (2021). Studying abroad and earnings: A meta‐analysis. Journal of Economic Surveys. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12472
Köylü, Z., & Tracy-Ventura, N. (2022). LEARNING ENGLISH IN TODAY’S GLOBAL WORLD. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263121000917
Köylü, Z. (2021). The ERASMUS sojourn: does the destination country or pre-departure proficiency impact oral proficiency gains? The Language Learning Journal. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2021.1930112
Levatino, A. (2022). What do exchange students value when choosing a destination for their study period abroad? A conjoint experiment. Globalisation, Societies and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2022.2033111
Mathies, C., & Karhunen, H. (2021). International Student Migration in Finland. Journal of International Students, 11(4). https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v11i4.2427
Mitchell, R., & Güvendir, E. (2021). The language affiliations of mobile students in the international university. International Journal of Multilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2021.197571
Tsiligiris, V., Kéri, A. and Cheah, J.E.-T. (2022). Exploring the relationship between student individual culture and service quality expectations in higher education. Quality Assurance in Education, 30(1),51-72. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-11-2020-0137
Yang, Y., Lomer, S., & Lim, M. A. (2021). Study of Chinese Students’ Application to UK Universities in Uncertain Times. Journal of International Students, 12(3). https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v12i3.3777 |
|
Call for submissions
Would you like to share your recent publications on ISM (from 2021 to be present) with the network?
|
|
|
|
|
