Class dismissed: international mobility, doctoral researchers, and (Roma) ethnicity as a proxy for social class?

ABSTRACT

The interaction between doctoral education and social class is under-researched, yet is perceived to play an important part in securing social mobility. Research that does exist tends to focus on issues of access or transition, rather than considering experiences during the doctorate. This article focuses on doctoral students’ experiences of short-term international placements, which have been strongly encouraged within the EU. The article draws on qualitative interviews conducted in 2018 with seven Roma and three non-Roma doctoral researchers on international placements from 2015 to 2017. I question the visibility/invisibility of social class when international placements are undertaken and explore why in the case of Roma doctoral researchers, there appears to be an elision of class and ethnicity. The article can be seen as contributing to a small but growing critical – as opposed to a descriptive – approach to academic mobilities research.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnicity
• internationalisation
• doctoral researchers
• placements
• Roma
• class

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to the 10 doctoral researchers who kindly agreed to participate in this study and gave up their valuable time to be interviewed. The interviews were conducted by the Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER) Research Fellow, Yasser Kosbar, whose support and encouragement is greatly appreciated. Furthermore, I wish to thank my doctoral supervisor, Professor Louise Morley, for her coaching, guidance, and patience as I worked on this first journal paper as a sole author. This research was funded by the European Commission under a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) action (EU project 643739) entitled Higher Education Internationalisation and Mobility (HEIM).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The POLAR measure classifies areas across the UK based on the proportion of the young population that participates in higher education. POLAR classifies local areas into five groups – or quintiles – based on the proportion of 18-year-old who enter higher education at the age 18 or 19 years.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the European Commission under a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) action (EU project 643739) entitled Higher Education Internationalisation and Mobility (HEIM).