Is international education ethical and political enough? Rethinking the ethics and politics of international student mobility

International education is both political and ethical in nature. However, for too long it has focused on economics, placing the recruitment and retention of students (and hence the extraction of student fees) above the question of political and ethical relationships between key actors involved in international student mobility (ISM). Importantly, discussions of the politics and ethics of ISM have been thus far relatively underexplored from an institutional perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 55 non-EU international students who were enrolled in or had recently completed postgraduate degrees from three UK universities, this paper aims to expose how international student mobility in and through UK higher education is underpinned by relations of power or domination. Specifically, with a focus on the institutional contexts which influence international students’ experiences during and after their studies, my research underlines the significance of a place of study (in this case, individual higher education institutions) and brings into question the homogenised construction of international students and their experiences in the UK. This study has wider implications for policy and practice in terms of highlighting the political and social responsibility of universities for their international students, as well as facilitating discussions of inclusivity and social differences amongst internationally mobile students within and beyond the UK