Virtual student mobility on Zoom: digital platforms and differentiated experiences of international education and (im)mobilities in a time of pandemic

Abstract

Against the backdrop of growing prevalence of digital platforms in higher education, strong considerations are being made for the potential of virtual student mobility in the aftermath of the pandemic. While extant literature on digital education platforms has shed light on the relationships between platform interfaces and wider political economies, less is known about students’ experiences of virtually mediated mobility and immobility. This article draws upon research that examines how students and universities are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent impact on border control and international travel. First, it discusses how the socio-technical platform of Zoom extends and stabilises students’ imagined, communicative, and aspirational mobilities in a context of stalled physical mobility. Second, it underlines the crevices and moorings of digital platforms in the mediation of students’ experiences of mobility and immobility. Third, it examines how students refashion their (im)mobile subjectivities in and through digital spaces vis-à-vis a negotiation of co-presences in a renewed context of virtual interaction. In doing so, we argue the role of corporeal mobility, social interaction, and inhabiting tangible places remain a core aspect of student mobility experiences and aspirations.

Keywords:

• Virtual student mobility
• digitalisation
• higher education
• pandemic
• (im)mobilities

Acknowledgements

This research is funded by the National University of Singapore Humanities and Social Sciences Seed Fund for project International Student Mobility in the Time of COVID-19: Regimes, Experiences and Aspirations, 2021-2022 [PI: Brenda Yeoh], and supported by Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 2 [MOE-T2EP402A20-0004, PI: Ho Kong Chong].

Ethical approval

The research has received ethical clearance from the National University of Singapore Institutional Review Board (NUS-IRB-2020-532) and (NUS-IRB-2020-92).

Notes

1 In contrast to other countries such as Australia, the US and the UK, public universities in Singapore prioritise enrolment of domestic students rather than the adoption of a market-oriented approach to the recruitment of international students. In 2011, the Singaporean government announced a cap on international students to bring down the proportion of foreign students to about 15 percent across the local public universities.

2 Information provided is accurate as of 22 September 2021. Given the contingent nature of the pandemic border and travel measures, categories of travel health control measures are periodically reviewed and updated at https://safetravel.ica.gov.sg/shn-and-swab-summary.

3 Universities were only able to resume overseas programmes at a small scale and to selected countries from October 2021 (The Straits Times 2021).

5 The Senior-Middle (SM) 2 scholarship scheme is a bilateral education collaboration between Singapore and the People’s Republic of China that channels second-year Chinese senior middle school students to continue their studies at Singapore’s local schools and subsequently at universities. See Yang (2016) for further information on the experiences of SM2 scholars in Singapore.