Project Aims and Objectives

This project examines the motivations and experiences of UK students and graduates who have pursued, or intend to pursue, education overseas for the whole of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. The research is informed by a number of current debates around the internationalisation of education, an emergent ‘choice’ agenda, and the consequences of credential inflation, resulting in a growing need to secure ‘positional advantage’ within graduate labour markets in the UK and elsewhere.

International students are an increasingly visible presence within higher education (HE) in many countries, including the UK, and the recent trend in overseas study is widely predicted to continue (British Council 2004).  Research has begun to acknowledge this, addressing the international mobility of students as part of a wider interest in the transnational migration of highly skilled workers in a global knowledge economy. Most of this work, however, describes a limited pattern of student mobility – from non-English speaking to English-speaking countries, from East to West, and from developing to advanced economies. Very little attention has been paid to students who move from advanced English-speaking countries to pursue their studies overseas. This research seeks to address this significant gap in extant knowledge through an examination of the motivations and experiences of the increasing numbers of UK students and graduates choosing a foreign education.

The notion of ‘choice’ provides one way of conceptualising this trend in overseas study. The 1988 Education Reform Act and the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act introduced a raft of measures aimed at increasing choice within compulsory schooling and the post-compulsory sector, respectively. Since then, although changes in government have resulted in some modifications to the way in which parental/student preferences are expressed and taken account of, ‘choice’ has remained a central plank of education policy under both Conservative and Labour administrations. Debates have ensued regarding the potentially exclusionary nature of choice; research has suggested, for example, that middle-class families are far more likely to exercise choice (through the acquisition and consumption of information on the relative merits of different schools/universities as well as the complex mechanisms of school selection), than are their working-class counterparts (Ball 2003). They are far more likely to approach education strategically, reflecting the desire for valuable cultural capital (Brown 1990). This project examines the pursuit of international education in light of these debates; asking, to what extent is student choice increasingly made in the context of an international education market and exercised by travel overseas? Is overseas study a largely middle-class (and relatively exclusive) pursuit?

It is now well documented that the expansion of HE has led to credential inflation and increasing levels of competition for high status, graduate jobs.  In this climate, distinction from other graduates is sought through postgraduate education, work experience and/or a range of relevant extra-curricular activities – and, possibly, through overseas study. An overseas education suggests more than simply a different form of academic qualification, however – it provides overseas experience/exposure that is highly valued by employers, as well as by graduates themselves. Whilst most recent graduates continue to be employed within their own national context, research has highlighted the global market for skills, particularly amongst the highly educated). This project examines international education set against this background of credential inflation and a global knowledge economy, asking, to what extent does going overseas for education provide students and graduates with a greater competitive edge in a UK (and potentially global) labour market?

Research objectives

(i) To understand how and why UK students make the decision to study at overseas institutions.
In particular we have explored: the factors/considerations that inform this decision; the social/familial context to the decision-making process; and the relationship between social class, gender and ethnicity and overseas study.

(ii) To generate new knowledge about the experiences of overseas-educated graduates on completion of their studies.
In particular we have considered: how graduates assess the value of their overseas education; whether they experience any obvious advantages/disadvantages in the labour market; and whether mobility for education is indicative of mobility after education.

Research Methods

The research is based on 85 in-depth, qualitative individual interviews. This method allowed us to explore respondents’ own understandings and interpretations of events and processes.  The interviews were guided by broad ‘topic areas’, but remained flexible, allowing respondents to raise any pertinent issues of their own.

(i) Exploring student choice
Individual interviews were held with 40 students who were seriously considering going overseas for HE study.  We anticipated that choices may be configured differently for participants intending to study at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and thus included roughly equal numbers of both in the sample.  In-depth interviews were conducted with students in their educational establishment or another public place and asked about: the reasons why they were interested in studying overseas; the extent to which other people had been involved in their decision-making process; and their educational background.  Data were also collected about social class, ethnicity and other salient characteristics. 

(ii) Exploring experiences of studying overseas and within the graduate labour market
This stage of data collection comprised individual interviews with 45 young graduates who had studied abroad, conducted several years after the completion of their studies.  Interviews focused on respondents’ experiences of studying overseas and securing employment.

Staffing

The project is led by Dr Rachel Brooks in the Department of Politics at the University of Surrey and Dr Johanna Waters in the Department of Geography at Liverpool University.

Dr Helena Pimlott-Wilson was the Research Fellow on the project and conducted most of the interviews.

Dissemination

BROOKS, R. and WATERS, J. (forthcoming) Student Mobilities and Higher Education in a Globalising World Basingstoke, Palgrave.

WATERS, J. and BROOKS, R. (under review) Accidental Achievers: international higher education, class reproduction and privilege in the experiences of UK students overseas.

WATERS, J. and BROOKS, R. (under review) ‘Vive la différence’? The ‘international’ experiences of UK students overseas.

BROOKS, R. and WATERS, J. (forthcoming, 2010) Social Networks and Educational Mobility: the experiences of UK students, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 8, 2.

BROOKS, R. and WATERS, J. (2009) A Second Chance at ‘Success’: UK students and global circuits of higher education, Sociology, 43, 6, 1-18.

BROOKS, R. and WATERS, J. (2009) International Higher Education and the Mobility of UK Students, Journal of Research in International Education, 8, 2, 191-209.

BROOKS, R. and WATERS, J. (forthcoming, 2009) Young Europeans and Educational Mobility, in: LEAMAN, J. and WORSCHING, M. (eds) Youth in Contemporary Europe London, Routledge.