On 15 of June 2023, 16:00 – 17:00 we kindly inviting you to open lecture "Inequalities in International Student Mobility" by Dr. Sylvie Lomer.
Synopsis of the keynote address
We are all here because we are deeply committed to the importance of understanding inequalities in international student mobility. Research on this topic, as we all know, is sadly limited. While our sociological, anthropological and economic understandings of broader concepts of inequalities have developed in wider fields of education research, the field of international student mobilities has remained constrained by conceptualizations of mobility as an exercise of elite privilege, or as an escape from underdeveloped domestic higher education scenario. These colonialist paradigms fail to represent the agency, intersectionality and structured nature of global inequalities that shape mobility. Systematic literature reviews on topics related to other aspects of international students experiences in the context of mobility such as pedagogies, practises, and policies of internationalisation show that while the research itself is burgeoning, it remains siloed, isolated and underdeveloped as a result.
In this talk I will revisit the stories that underpin our shared commitment to unravelling the complexities of inequalities in international student mobility. These are stories that we all know but find rarely examined in the context of international student mobility and therefore under represented in the scientific literature. I aim to bring together interdisciplinary conceptualizations as developed through core group conversations, and a wider range of evidence than we will consider as part of our joint effort in our systematic review, to highlight the importance of the task of this working group.
Dr Sylvie Lomer is Senior Lecturer in Policy and Practice at the University of Manchester, where her research expertise focuses on international higher education. Her first book, Recruiting International Students in Higher Education, critically examined UK policy on international students. Follow-up work on blended learning pedagogies led to an interest in how deficit narratives of international students shape pedagogic practices. Recent research funded by the Society for Research in Higher Education and the British Academy/Leverhulme has explored the perceptions of teachers and staff involved with institutional internationalisation/global engagement policy enactment. She is currently building on her expertise in documentary and secondary data analysis to develop creative methodologies in relation to international students as knowledge collaborators. As Programme Director for the MA International Education and the PostGraduate Research Departmental Co-ordinator for the Manchester Institute of Education at the University of Manchester, Sylvie has also had first-hand insight into the dynamics of both professional practices in relation to admissions, teaching and assessment, and to the valuable but often invisible research conducted by postgraduate international students on their own experiences. Sylvie contributes as reviewer to several leading journals in higher education and is Associate Editor for the Higher Education in Research and Development Journal. She founded and co-convenes the Higher Education Research and Scholarship Group HERE@Manchester.
* Open Lecture is organized as part of COST 20115 Action “European Network on International Student Mobility: Connecting Research and Practice” (ENIS) meeting at Vilnius University, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Sociology and Social Work, Department of Sociology. For more information about the lecture and COST ENIS network event contact Assoc. Prof. Dr. Irma Budginaitė-Mačkinė: .