‘A strategy of distinction’ unfolds: unsettling the undergraduate outbound mobility experience

Abstract

Although short-term mobility programmes are increasingly promoted to university students as sources of competitive advantage, there is little research on academic learnings arising from these initiatives. A ‘field analysis’ of outbound mobility is undertaken to identify convergences and disjunctures between institutional discourses, staff perceptions and student experiences at one Australian university where outbound mobility is actively promoted as a ‘strategy of distinction’. Self-reported ‘personal transformations’ commonly associated with the mobility experience are interrogated in favour of alternative constructions of self–other relationships. An argument is made for greater institutional effort to enable students to make critical connections with ‘other-ness’ both in and out of place.

Keywords:

• Mobility programmes
• international higher education
• internationalization
• mobility and privilege
• Bourdieu

Acknowledgements

We thank Ms Rioghnach Lee and Dr Thanh Pham for research assistance on this project. This research was supported by a UQ Teaching and Learning Strategic Grant. We thank Professor Sushila Chang and Ms Jan McCreary for sharing their insights and experiences of mobility programmes, as well as the reviewers for their helpful comments.

Notes

1. Of these funds, $18.6 million were from universities, the Australian government provided $7.5 million, while private foundations contributed $2.1 million.