Conference Agenda

This paper is a critical reflection on a chapter from my EdD thesis, entitled Developing a sense of self-in-the-world: staff and student narratives from a post-1992 university in the North of England, completed in 2018. The chapter in question, Reflective Narrative, provides a reflection on my personal and professional development gained throughout the research process and particularly through the co-construction of the narratives with my student participants, which were framed around a Freirean-inspired dialogical approach (Freire, 2000). Meanwhile this paper looks at my ongoing personal and professional learning in the context of internationalisation of higher education, and specifically at how this has been influenced by societal change at local and global level. Change which has impacted my thinking include the global protests in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM) which followed the killing of George Floyd in the USA in 2020 which has brought questions of race to the fore and energised the calls for decolonisation requiring many of us question our ‘white privilege’, the covid 19 pandemic which disrupted mobility, which – rightly or wrongly- was so central to internationalisation, and the effects of Brexit and the ‘levelling up’ agenda which is important to a post 1992 university where many students are from underrepresented backgrounds, and which is committed to regional development.

My study was framed by internationalisation at home (Beelen and Jones, 2015). Here, the focus on ‘domestic environments’, ‘all students’ overlaps with the wider issues of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The emphasis is on the curriculum rather than mobility as a more equitable way of achieving desired outcomes. The synergy was recognised by Caruana and Ploner (2010) yet it has been cast into the spotlight in recent years, not least by the BLM protests which have exposed racial inequalities in UK society including higher education (Advance HE, 2021). The intersections between internationalisation and EDI are being explored in the literature, notably within Critical Internationalisation Studies (Stein, 2021) and Inclusive Internationalisation (De Mol and Perez-Encinas, 2022). Within Internationalisation at Home, Kim (2021) looks at the identities of ‘home’ students through an intersectional lens to identify invisible social inequalities which might create barriers between them. However, this is a new area of research, and many questions remain at both a theoretical level, and in practice where conversations between university teams leading on policy in these areas remain in silos (Jones and Stein, 2022).

Wimpenny et al (2022) point to the tensions between internationalisation and decolonisation from the perspectives of three individual academics across three universities in Europe. Drawing on Sanderson’s (2004) process model of ‘internationalisation of the self’ they assert that changes to the curriculum start with changes in the individual. In line with Wimpenny et al (2002), this paper takes the individual as the starting point for curriculum change. It critically analyses my Reflective Narrative chapter, written six years ago and extends it to include my personal and professional learning since, as influenced by the societal challenges outlined above. It seeks to trace a journey fraught with tensions from internationalisation of the self (Sanderson, 2004) towards decolonisation of the self (Fakunle, Kalinga and Lewis, 2019) in the light of the challenges outlined above. The aim is to start a conversation among network 22 about how as HE professionals, we learn and unlearn to embrace the challenges we face on what may be an uncomfortable journey to create a curriculum which tackles existing inequalities enables equality of outcomes.

The freedom of learning and the possibility for students to access a much wider educational offer are key elements for reshaping the European higher education landscape. Students are more mobile than ever, and new formats for teaching and learning readdress the need to rethink how academic curriculum is designed and developed. New tendencies and innovative approaches to education, such as micro-credentials, embedded mobility, digital credentialing, and flexible learning pathways open the way for true ‘universities without walls’ (EUA, 2021) across Europe. The global academic community is constantly changing; cooperation among universities grew in the past 20 years, facing a significant increase in student mobility, in Europe mainly due to Erasmus+ funding and mobility schemes and other Bologna Process tools (de Wit & Hunter, 2015, p. 1). Moreover, European universities intensified cooperation not only with partners from other European countries, but at an international level also, with partner from other continents (Claeys-Kulik, 2020, p. 10).

In such a global educational context, universities and policy makers can ask whether the increase in mobility can represent a tool for designing new curricular models, creating new educational programmes in which mobility and cultural exchanges become functional components and in which all graduates become international students. Such an approach could be done through academic degrees and programmes where mobility is embedded in the curriculum, in the shape of small mobility windows (up to one semester), taking advantage of new mobility schemes such as the Blended Intensive Programmes (European Commission, 2022, p. 49) or modular approaches, such as the ones proposed by some European Universities Alliances (Iucu et al., 2022, p. 26), based on a `micro-credentials philosophy`.

While setting up such a process can require significant changes in legislation, funding, pedagogical design, and administrative practices, the real impact of these changes need to be addressed to the potential beneficiaries, the students. In fact, the importance and relevance of physical mobility has been several times mentioned by students, stating the “physical mobility should be accessible to all students, and should not exclude certain groups” (ESU, 2020, p. 2), emphasising that reaching the 50% mobile students need to remain a constant desiderate of higher education policies across Europe.

In this regard, our research aims at understanding what is the students’ perception on embedded mobility in higher education programmes. The research proposes an exploratory analysis on how students view mobility as part of their educational pathway and possible downsides of transforming mobility as an opportunity to mobility as a necessary experience. Motivations for studying abroad by European exchange students have been addressed in a range of studies (Bryntesson et al., 2018; European Commission, 2017; Hovdhaugen & Wiers-Jenssen, 2021; Krzaklewska, 2008; Lesjak et al., 2015; Maiworm & Teichler, 2002; Murphy-Lejeune, 2002), the present research aiming to see, on top of motivational aspects, if differences appear when changing the scope of mobility and its relation with the degree. Different types of students will be included in the research, both junior students prior any mobility experience during their academic studies, as well as students who already participated in different mobility opportunities during their studies. Also, the research will focus on understanding what students value most in a mobility experience, to understand what aspects need to be intensified further in developing new mobility models and opportunities for higher education students.

International student mobility has increased worldwide in the past ten years. Among OECD countries, Germany is the non-English speaking country with the highest number of incoming international students. In 2021/22, eleven percent of all students studying at German universities were international students (DZHW & DAAD, 2022). Due to refugee flows the numbers will further increase and underline the need to explore the success of international students in non-English speaking countries in Europe.

International students tend to rely on university rankings when choosing a course of study (Koenings, Di Meo, & Uebelmesser, 2020). Individual satisfaction with different study aspects is often the basis of universities’ reputations or rankings in Germany (e.g., CHE-Ranking). Moreover, satisfaction with studies is an important indicator of study success from an individual and institutional point of view. For international students in Germany, results show that a higher satisfaction with studies or the content of studies relates to a higher socio-cultural adaptation and a lower dropout intention (Zimmermann et al., 2021) and better study grades and faster study progress (Thies, 2022). The estimated dropout rates among international bachelor’s and master’s students are substantially higher than among German students (DZHW & DAAD, 2022). Consequently, the question arises about the factors influencing international students’ satisfaction with their studies.

Many theoretical student success models have seen the course characteristics, academic performance, social integration and environmental conditions as important predictors of satisfaction (e.g., Astin, 1999; Bean & Metzner, 1985). Astin (1999) asks how policies and programs (e.g., class attendance) and non-academic issues (e.g., financial situations) relate to student success. He sees student involvement (e.g., academic study, interaction with faculty) as a mechanism leading to satisfaction, achievement, and development. Bean and Metzner (1985) see background characteristics (e.g., ethnicity) and academic and environmental variables (e.g., course availability, finances) as predictors of psychological outcomes, such as satisfaction. The psychological outcomes subsequently affect academic outcomes, such as the grade point average or student dropout.

Previous studies have explored the determinants of study satisfaction for international students. In the international context, the results show that learning experience (e.g., quality of lectures, lectures expertise) affects overall satisfaction (Alemu & Cordier, 2017). Other predictors for satisfaction are cultural distance, language skills, the universities’ communication before arrival, living arrangement and the financial situation (Alemu & Cordier, 2017). Moreover, studies highlight that academic and social integration affect study satisfaction (Merola, Coelen, & Hofman, 2019). In the German context, studies showed that feeling a sense of belonging (Yildirim, Zimmermann, & Jonkmann, 2021), specific learning strategies (Yildirim, Zimmermann, & Jonkmann, 2020) and better language skills (Yildirim et al., 2020) relate to higher levels of student satisfaction.

We build on previous research and ask how and whether perceived characteristics of the study program (e.g., the internationality of the student body, overcrowded courses, frequency of exams, performance standards, teaching quality) affect the study satisfaction of international bachelor’s and master’s students in Germany.

In doing so, our study differs from previous studies as follows: We can look at the influence of course characteristics for international students over two years using panel regression analyses. We analyse both bachelor’s and master’s students. Moreover, we are the first to investigate how the perceived internationality of the student body in the chosen study program affects student satisfaction. Consequently, implications for the design of study programs can be derived from our research findings.

The traditional system of elite education in France, which could be considered as a “French exception” (Lazuech 1999), is challenged by processes of internationalisation and globalisation of the field of higher education. The grandes écoles – the French elite colleges – with their two-year preparatory classes (classes préparatoires) at some prestigious lycées can be considered as unique in the severity of the selection processes (the concours), on which is grounded the great symbolic weight of these institutions of elite education, even more than the universities in France.

The ongoing reorganisation of the French field of higher education, which Musselin (2017: 226) designates “fusion mania”, has led to the formation of greater research units such as the “Communautés d’universités et d’établissements” (COMUES) [Engl. Communities of universities and institutions]. These have recently been transformed into "universities”, which are new higher education formations that include the former universities, but also the grandes écoles and other research institutions.

Against the backdrop of these transformations of the former power relations in the academic field in France, our paper focuses on the processes of reconfiguration of the traditional identities of the very nationally anchored institutions in elite education: the grandes écoles. Our research question is how discourses of self-construction and -positioning of the grandes écoles – in our study the Écoles normales supérieures – as well as their social constructions of an ideal student have evolved in the context of the reconfiguration of the higher education field in France. These constructions and positionings are understood as constituting elements of institutional habitus (Schippling 2018), a concept that develops the fruitful potential of the Bourdieusian theory of habitus for an organisational sociological perspective.

From the theoretical perspective, our paper is situated within critical research on the education of elites (e.g., Bourdieu 1989; Hartmann 2002; Maxwell et al. 2018) and can be understood as a contribution to continuing research on the field of French elite education in line with the work of Pierre Bourdieu and his colleagues on La noblesse d’État (Bourdieu 1989). Our work refers mainly to the triad of the concepts, ‘habitus’, ‘field’ and ‘capital’. These concepts function as heuristic elements which are developed and, if necessary, modified within the research process.

Our study includes two Écoles normales supérieures: the ENS de la rue d’Ulm and the ENS de Cachan (since 2016 École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay): two prestigious grandes écoles in France, which regard themselves as institutions forming the future research elite (ENS / PSL 2023). Bourdieu (1988: 19) designates these colleges “the apex of the whole academic hierarchy” in France. Our aim is to ascertain how these traditionally small and internationally less visible institutions, strongly founded in a national culture, react to the transformation of the field of French higher education in the construction of their institutional habitus.

On the whole, our focus is on contributing to an update of the theory of social reproduction of the field of power – in this case the academic power field – which was developed in La noblesse d’État, taking into account processes of internationalisation and globalisation in the field of the grandes écoles: this perspective was not considered in Bourdieu’s work. In parallel, we open up comparative perspectives with other international contexts of elite education in the higher education system that are also affected by global transformations, but react in different ways (e.g., Verhoeven et al. 2022).