As the uncertainty and disruption of geo-political shift have become hallmarks of our age, the ancient urge to pursue one’s higher education in distant lands is shaped by a raft of new pressures that often have little to do with education. Growing numbers of mobile students are taking advantage of new choices, but also encounter changing immigration and recruitment policies in host countries -as well as trends and restrictions at home– that are part of the larger context of national trade strategies and the exercise of soft power.
This research from our colleagues at the Institute of International Education (IIE), a long-time partner with WISE and Qatar Foundation, is a full portrait of the current state of global higher education for mobile students.
Authors
Rajika Bhandari
Senior Consultant, Institute of International Education
Rajika Bhandari, Ph.D., is an international higher education expert with extensive executive and management experience in research and program evaluation in the nonprofit, private and higher education sectors. For over a decade Dr. Bhandari shaped and guided the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) research, evaluation and thought leadership activities and directed the IIE Center for Academic Mobility Research and Impact, including the flagship Open Doors and Project Atlas projects on global student mobility. Dr. Bhandari also served as a senior spokesperson for IIE on global higher education issues, is a frequent speaker and widely published author, including of six books, and has written for the Guardian, Times Higher Ed, the Huff Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and University World News, with her work covered by NPR, PRI International, the BBC, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Quartz, and Time. In addition to her academic and scholarly writing, Dr. Bhandari is a published nonfiction writer whose work focuses on travel writing, memoir and the immigrant experience.
Research Organization
