International Student Mobility And Employability

International Student Mobility and Employability An Employer Perspective on the Impact of Study Abroad Experiences Yuzhen Zhu, Xin Zhao

In this book, we explore the socio-political environment that impacts international students’ employability and discuss student experiences of employability development during and after their studies. The book also aims to provide a holistic understanding of international student employability on a global scale, incorporating various higher education contexts, including the US, UK, Netherlands, Vietnam, and Japan. This book includes both conceptualizations of international students who participate in “internationalization abroad” through physically crossing the border and those who participate in “internationalization at home’’. The COVID-19 pandemic has potentially transformed international education as many international students were forced to stay in their home countries and resort to online education. The book looks into the bigger questions: How do the institutions of higher education expand programs and resources for international students and their employability? Is the internationalization at home model going to be increasingly popular in the post-pandemic world? Will employers be receptive to international graduates globally? Editors Xin Zhao (Skye) is a university teacher in the Information School at the University of Sheffield (UK) and a senior fellow of HEA. E-mail: [email protected] Michael Kung is the Director of Global Education and the Program Director for the Sustainable Design Master’s program in the College of Design, Construction, and Planning at the University of Florida (USA). E-mail: [email protected] Krishna Bista is Vice President of the STAR Scholars Network and a Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Advanced Studies, Leadership and Policy at Morgan State University, Maryland (USA). E-mail: [email protected] Yingyi Ma is a Professor of Sociology, Provost Faculty Fellow, and the Director of Asian/Asian American Studies at Syracuse University, New York (USA). E-mail: [email protected]

Providing an analysis of the relationship between Internationalization and Employability in Higher Education, this book considers the perspectives of both students and employers to illustrate how to reach positive employment outcomes for all stakeholders. Through a wide range of international case studies, this book delivers some key messages, including: The articulation of the link between internationalization and employability; The need for higher education institutions to communicate the benefits of an internationalized higher education beyond the academy; The need to ensure equity of graduate outcomes through enhanced internationalization at home; The impact of immigration policy on national benefits of internationalization of higher education; International study as a route to employability for migration purposes and building knowledge-based economies. Considering the skills developed by students through mobility experiences, while exploring the need for enhanced internationalization of the curriculum at home, Internationalization and Employability in Higher Education will be a key resource for any higher education policy makers or university staff associated with careers, employment, and integrated learning. It contains important messages for employers and recruiters.

This volume documents the experiences of international students and recent international initiatives at US community colleges to better understand how to support and nurture students’ potential. Offering a range of case studies, empirical and conceptual chapters, the collection showcases the unique curricula and diverse opportunities for career development that colleges can offer international students. International Students at US Community Colleges addresses issues of student access, enrolment barriers, college choice, and challenges relating to integration in academic and professional networks. Ultimately, the book unpacks institutional factors which inhibit or promote the success of international students at US community colleges to inform faculty, student affairs, administration, and institutional policy. With international students’ declining enrollment, this book considers the measures being taken by community college officials to bring continued access and equity to international students. Offering insights from a range of international scholars as well as on-the-ground case studies, this text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in multicultural education, international and comparative education, and higher education management. Those specifically interested in educational policy and the sociology of education will also benefit from this book.

Academic mobility in higher education is an old phenomenon, but it has become a high profile issue as the numbers of students and staff engaged, and the number of countries involved, has increased hugely in the last few decades. For this reason and many others – political, cultural and educational – this book reports research on the many facets of the experience and people involved, both now and in the past. The emphasis in research has so far tended to focus on contemporary student mobility but this collection deliberately includes articles on mobile staff, because 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. Despite the fact that universities are and have been international institutions in their composition from the beginning, universities became in the 19th and 20th century de facto national institutions. This has changed and continues to change in the 21st century, for many reasons, but often financial, as universities seek to enhance their budgets in a globalised economy, and students seek to enhance their employment chances by acquiring qualifications with a difference. However, even if the starting point is financial, nonetheless 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, 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 which 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.

International Student Experiences and Graduate Employability Perspectives and Issues Xin Zhao, Michael Kung, Krishna Bista, Yingyi Ma

This book examines current trends in global student mobility patterns in several key host and destination countries, including the United States, China, India, South Africa, Mexico, Australia, and Germany, among others, and will explore the national and global-level factors that contribute to these trends.