Academic mobility
Academic mobility refers to students and teachers in higher education moving to another institution inside or outside of their own country to study or teach for a limited time.
The
Mobile students are usually divided into two groups: Free-movers are students who travel entirely on their own initiative, while programme students use exchange programmes at a department, faculty, institution, or national level (such as
Students
Background
According to data from the
Barrier
Most mobile students suffer from many barriers both in their lives and
For the credit mobile students, they will meet some specific academic difficulties. A survey by Klahr and Ratti emphasizes the importance of the lack of recognition of periods abroad and credit transfer.[9] Besides, insufficient knowledge of academic prerequisites and qualifications of various countries, differences in the structure of the academic term, disparities in the times at which examinations are taken, these are all common problem of credit mobile students when they engage in academic activities.[9] Moreover, the lack of foreign language skills is considered as another big barrier to most of the mobile students, not only the credit mobile students.[9]
Researchers
Researchers are employed on casualised temporary contracts in some universities, which force them to relocate around every three years when funding streams change, typically to another country. Historically this was done just one for a "postdoc" research project, but modern funding now devotes far more money to contract research than teaching posts, and so most researchers now face a whole career of living in this way. This often leads to the breakup of their families and friends and sometimes to mental health problems.
With 57% of its researchers coming from other countries, Switzerland is the country with the world highest proportion of foreign researchers.[1] Canada, Australia, the United States, Sweden and the United Kingdom have between 30 and 50% of their researchers coming from foreign countries.[1]
The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Belgium and France have between 10 and 30% of their researchers coming from foreign countries.[1] Brazil, Spain, Japan, Italy and India have less than 10% of their researchers coming from foreign countries.[1]
Switzerland and India are among the countries with the highest proportion of their researchers going to work in other countries.[1]
Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e f (in French) Olivier Dessibourg, "La Suisse, carrefour de la circulation des cerveaux", Le Temps, Thursday 15 November 2012, p. 14.
- ^ OECD (2011). Education at a Glance 2011. Paris: OECD. p. 320.
- ^ UNESCO (2006). Global Education Digest 2006. Paris: UNESCO. p. 34.
- S2CID 153918714.
- ^ UNESCO (2005). Global Education Digest 2005. Paris: UNESCO.
- ^ OECD (2006). Education at a Glance. Paris: OECD.
- ^ S2CID 144606160.
- S2CID 33430051.
- ^ S2CID 145231533.
- ^ .
- ^ a b Ackers, L (2008). Moving people and knowledge: Scientific mobility in an enlarging European Union. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
See also
- Student exchange program
- Erasmus programme
- University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific
- Virtual mobility
- UNESCO
- Academic Mobility Network