Umesha Weerakkody1
1 The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
This paper introduces a new multilevel perspective to look at factors that drive international student mobility by a). looking at how social, cultural, economic and political drivers simultaneously impact student mobility; b) combining individual autonomy and structure; and c) using a multilevel analysis by means of migration systems theory. Extant research suggests that there is a strong relationship between international student mobility and skilled migration. However, there has yet to be a multidisciplinary approach that simultaneously situates international students in the realms of higher education as well as skilled migration. This paper is presented with the objective of introducing a new means to study and understand international student mobility from a skilled migration perspective. The paper will present an analysis of the current topography of international student mobility, limitations of extant research and how international student mobility can be understood from a multilevel perspective, based on the model presented.
Biography:
Umesha Weerakkody is a current doctoral scholar at the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia. A Fulbright Scholar and a former lecturer in the Sri Lankan university system, her research interests include international student mobility, critical globalization studies, higher education in developing countries, and social stratification of education in the globalized third world.