Global Student Mobility in the Asia Pacific

Book excerpt: Over 2.7m students study in a country other than their own. Most of those students come from the Asia-Pacific region and undertake study in universities in the developed world. This trend is predicted to grow exponentially but features many dilemmas. In the post-9/11 global environment, international students experience hostility and harassment as well as ambivalence about their value to the academy. Some live an uncertain life of poverty and alienation. Many also struggle to come to terms with living and studying in a foreign land where there are concerns about international students eroding academic standards, having poor English language proficiency and being unable to â oeintegrateâ and contribute to their new communities. But some also seek to make new homes in their host countries. The contributions in this book explore the complex and diverse aspects of transnational education and propose some pragmatic approaches to these dilemmas. These contributions explore new ways of looking at the phenomena of international students, their social and cultural needs, as well as the challenges for teaching and learning, research supervision and English language in the academy. The book presents case studies and documents initiatives that are positive responses to the dilemmas of global student mobility.