Aspiration for cosmopolitan capital and ambiguous loss: Chinese exchange students’ experiences in U.S. higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

This study adopts a critical phenomenological approach to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on the transnational educational experiences of Chinese college students in short-term academic exchange programmeshosted by universities in the United States. This study uses concepts of cosmopolitan capital and ambiguous loss to interpret the pandemic experiences of Chinese students. Accordingly, the current study promotes scholarly conversation about the meanings of global student mobility in the time of COVID-19, especially international exchange students who have missed learning opportunities in their academic, social, and cultural lives and have lacked social and emotional supports. Overall, this study expands the growing body of evidence on the impacts of COVID-19 on global student mobility and provides critical insights into the nexus between cosmopolitan elite positions and structural problems of the cosmopolitan social hierarchy within the specific cross-national context of higher education between the U.S. and China.

KEYWORDS:

• Global student mobility
• online teaching and learning
• global partnership
• exchange programme
• international higher education
• globalization of education

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. This information is from the Memorandum of Understanding provided by the Vice Dean of the SOE at S-University. The institution’s official website also provides this information. This information can be provided upon reasonable request and is constrained by anonymity issues.

2. Participants’ institution’s national ranking is in top 40 overall and top 15 in arts and humanities. Notably, languages and translation majors are in top 3 among higher education institutions in Asia. As aforementioned, the institution’s official website provides this information. This information can be provided upon reasonable request and is constrained by anonymity issues.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Education and Scientific Research Project of Shanghai [B2021005].

Notes on contributors

Benjamin Nam

Benjamin Nam is a Ph.D. and Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Shanghai International Studies University. His primary research areas and interests centre on international and comparative higher education, East Asia and cultural studies in education, sports, and the arts, and adult learning and vocational education.

Xiaohua Jiang

Xiaohua Jiang is a Ph.D and Assistant Professor in the School of Education. Dr. Jiang graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a PhD in Higher Education. Her research interests include comparative higher education, educational policy and research evaluation.