What does globalisation mean for academic mobility?
Professor Peter Scott spoke on the topic of academic mobility, migration and identity at last month’s Academia Europaea Annual Conference 2016 in Cardiff.
Professor Scott examined academic mobility in context, highlighting different modes of migration (such as migration arising from geopolitical conflicts or from stages of globalisation).
He spoke about historical phases of academic mobility, such as the impacts of empire leading to ‘settler’ universities (e.g. Harvard), and the effects of persecution and migration on academic mobility. More recently, there has been the influence of the ‘entrepreneurial’ university.
He underlined the huge increase in students studying abroad since the 1990s. Demand from Asia (particularly China) is the major driver, although new patterns are emerging. The dominance of Anglophone countries is also being challenged.
New patterns of academic mobility are reflected in increasing flows of staff and students, and changing geographical trends. Transnational education and virtual learning also represent more complex mobility patterns.
Professor Scott concluded by examining the many faces of globalisation, and what these mean for academic mobility.
Share this blog post
