Aspiring by Degree: Outbound Student Migration from India to Germany

For Germany, India is the second most important source of foreign postgraduate students, after China. Student flows from India are contributing significantly to Germany's efforts to internationalise higher education in the country and address labour market skills shortages. Understanding what is driving postgraduate student migration from India to Germany is crucial for further increasing these flows. In India, awareness about Germany as a study destination has been growing in recent years but remains low compared to awareness regarding more traditional study destinations for Indian students, such as the USA, the UK, and Australia. Indian students heading to Germany are attracted by the low cost of education, courses taught in English, the perceived high quality of education, the availability of paid part-time work opportunities during study, an 18-month post-study visa, and the EU Blue Card scheme, together with the perceived availability of good jobs. Overall, the cost advantage German universities offer over universities in the USA, the UK, and Australia is the main draw for most students heading to Germany. Engineering and information technology (IT) courses are the most popular among Indian students in Germany, with the vast majority of these students enrolled on such courses. Students first encounter the possibility of study in Germany through their social networks or private education consultancies, both of which - along with social media sites - serve as important conduits of information and support to aspirant student migrants to Germany. Policy Implications: To benefit from rising Indian student flows to Europe, the cost advantage of German universities must be preserved. Also, students should be given more opportunities to directly interact with representatives of German universities, as education consultancies have limited incentives to recommend study in Germany. The value of embarking on courses other than engineering should be demonstrated

'Below English Line': an ethnographic exploration of class and the English language in post-liberalization India

Anthropological studies of India's post-liberalization middle classes have tended to focus mainly on the role of consumption behaviour in the constitution of this class group. Building on these studies, and taking class as an object of ethnographic enquiry, I argue that, over the last 20 years, class dynamics in the country have been significantly altered by the unprecedentedly important and complex role that the English language has come to play in the production and reproduction of class. Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork - conducted at commercial spoken-English training centres, schools, and corporate organizations in Bangalore - I analyse the processes by which this change in class dynamics has occurred, and how it is experienced on the ground. I demonstrate how, apart from being a valuable type of class cultural capital in its own right, proficiency in English has come to play a key role in the acquisition and performance of other important forms of capital associated with middle-class identity. As a result, being able to demonstrate proficiency in English has come to be experienced as a critical element in claiming and maintaining a space in the middle class, regardless of the other types of class cultural capital a person possesses

Keep calm and apply to Germany: how online communities mediate transnational student mobility from India to Germany

This paper draws attention to the increasingly central yet understudied role of social media in facilitating student mobility from India. More specifically, it explores the emergence of online mutual-help communities of aspirant student migrants on Facebook and WhatsApp, which are aimed at helping members navigate the process of going abroad for study. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork focused on postgraduate-level student migration from India to Germany, the paper explores how these communities are meeting aspirant student migrants' information and support needs in novel ways. Not only are they a key space in which information on study in Germany is discussed, dissected, and interpreted, they have also resulted in the production of a whole new body of information, tools, and resources on how to navigate the process of going to Germany for a Master's degree. The paper argues that these communities can be seen as democratising access to study abroad, to some extent, by dramatically expanding applicants' social networks and the social capital to which they have access

Bildungshunger: Indische Studierende in Deutschland

Indien ist nach China das zweitwichtigste Herkunftsland graduierter Migranten, die in Deutschland studieren. Die Zuwanderung von Studierenden aus Indien trägt signifikant dazu bei, die Hochschulausbildung in Deutschland wie beabsichtigt zu internationalisieren und dem Fachkräftemangel entgegenzuwirken. Dieser Zustrom indischer Absolventen lässt sich nur verstärken, wenn wir seine Triebkräfte verstehen. Der Bekanntheitsgrad Deutschlands als Studienland nimmt in Indien seit einigen Jahren zu, ist aber im Vergleich zu den angestammten Zielländern indischer Studierender, z.B. den USA, Großbritannien und Australien, nach wie vor gering. Für Deutschland entscheiden sich indische Studierende wegen niedriger Studiengebühren und englischsprachiger Studiengänge, weil sie die Bildungsqualität als hoch einschätzen, während des Studiums in Teilzeit arbeiten und nach ihrem Studienabschluss ein 18-monatiges Visum erhalten können, sowie dank der Blauen Karte EU und der bekanntermaßen günstigen Arbeitsmarktlage. Die Hauptmotivation der meisten Studierenden, nach Deutschland zu kommen, ist jedoch der Kostenvorteil deutscher Universitäten gegenüber den USA, Großbritannien und Australien. Die bei indischen Studierenden in Deutschland beliebtesten Fachrichtungen sind Ingenieurwesen und Informationstechnologie (IT); die überwiegende Mehrheit von ihnen ist in diesen Studiengängen eingeschrieben. Auf die Idee, in Deutschland zu studieren, werden junge Inder durch ihre sozialen Netzwerke oder private Studienberatungsagenturen gebracht. Letztere sind - neben den sozialen Online-Medien - wichtige Multiplikatoren und unterstützen Studierende, die ein Studium in Deutschland anstreben. Fazit: Um von der wachsenden Zuwanderung indischer Studierender nach Europa zu profitieren, muss der Kostenvorteil deutscher Universitäten erhalten bleiben. Da es für Studienberatungsagenturen nur begrenzt attraktiv ist, ein Studium in Deutschland zu empfehlen, sollten Studierenden mehr Möglichkeiten angeboten werden, direkt mit Vertretern deutscher Universitäten Kontakt aufzunehmen. Es sollte zudem deutlich gemacht werden, dass auch nichttechnische Studiengänge aussichtsreich sind

Higher education students' aspirations for their post-university lives: evidence from six European nations.

While there is now a relatively large literature on young people's aspirations with respect to their transitions from compulsory schooling, the body of work on the aspirations of those within higher education is rather less well-developed. This article draws on data from undergraduate students in six European countries to explore their hopes for their post-university lives. It demonstrates that although aspirations for employment were discussed most frequently, non-economic plans and desires were also important. Moreover, despite significant commonalities across the six nations, aspirations were also differentiated, to some extent at least, by national context, institutional setting and subject of study

Students’ views about the purpose of higher education:a comparative analysis of six European countries

Across Europe, assumptions are often made within the academic literature and by some social commentators that students have come to understand the purpose of higher education (HE) in increasingly instrumental terms. This is often linked to processes of marketisation and neo-liberalisation across the Global North, in which the value of HE has come to be associated with economic reward and labour market participation and measured through a relatively narrow range of metrics. It is also associated with the establishment, in 2010, of the European Higher Education Area, which is argued to have brought about the refiguration of European universities around an Anglo-American model. Scholars have contended that students have become consumer-like in their behaviour and preoccupied by labour market outcomes rather than processes of learning and knowledge generation. Often, however, such claims are made on the basis of limited empirical evidence, or a focus on policies and structures rather than the perspectives of students themselves. In contrast, this paper draws on a series of 54 focus groups with 295 students conducted in six European countries (Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain). It shows how understandings of the purpose of HE are more nuanced than much of the extant literature suggests and vary, at least to some extent, by both nation-state and higher education institution. Alongside viewing the purpose of HE as preparing them for the labour market, students emphasised the importance of tertiary-level study for personal growth and enrichment, and societal development and progress. These findings have implications for policy and practice. In particular, the broader purposes of HE, as articulated by the students in this study, should be given greater recognition by policymakers, those teaching in HE, and the wider public instead of, as is often the case, positioning students as consumers, interested in only economic gain

Students as political actors? Similarities and differences across six European nations

Drawing on data from students, higher education staff and policymakers from six European countries, this article argues that it remains a relatively common assumption that students should be politically engaged. However, while students articulated a strong interest in a wide range of political issues, those working in higher education and influencing higher education policy tended to believe that students were considerably less politically active than their predecessors. Moreover, while staff and policy influencers typically conceived of political engagement in terms of collective action, articulated through common reference to the absence of a ‘student movement’ or unified student voice, students’ narratives tended not to valorise ‘student movements’ in the same way and many categorised as ‘political’ action they had taken alone and/or with a small number of other students. Alongside these broad commonalities across Europe, the article also evidences some key differences between nation-states, institutions and disciplines. In this way, it contributes to the comparative literature on young people’s political engagement specifically, as well as wider debates about the ways in which higher education students are understood

Higher Education Timescapes: Temporal Understandings of Students and Learning

This article draws on data from six European countries (Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain) to explore the higher education timescapes inhabited by students. Despite arguments that degree-level study has become increasingly similar across Europe – because of global pressures and also specific initiatives such as the Bologna Process and the creation of a European Higher Education Area – it shows how such timescapes differed in important ways, largely by nation. These differences are then explained in terms of: the distinctive traditions of higher education still evident across the continent; the particular mechanisms through which degrees are funded; and the nature of recent national-level policy activity. The analysis thus speaks to debates about Europeanisation, as well as how we theorise the relationship between time and place. </jats:p

'Study-abroad influencers' and insider knowledge: how new forms of study-abroad expertise on social media mediate student mobility from India to Germany

This paper examines new forms of study-abroad expertise on social media and their role in mediating Indian student mobility to Germany. Firstly, it explores how mutual-support Facebook and WhatsApp groups – used by prospective international students in India to support each other through the process of applying to German universities – have contributed to the emergence of new forms of education consultancy, offered by Indian students or graduates of German universities, whom I call ‘Student Guides’. In addition, it shows how some Indians studying in Germany have started ‘Study in Germany’ YouTube channels, aimed at aspirant student migrants, and have become important ‘study-abroad influencers’. The paper analyses how these new forms of study-abroad expertise offer prospective international students social and cultural capital important for successful student migration, apart from shaping their imaginative geographies of Germany, and embedding them in cultures of mobility. Furthermore, the paper highlights how these new forms of study-abroad expertise intersect with, and critique, a more ‘traditional’ study-abroad expert: the professional education consultant. The paper draws on a digital ethnography of ‘Study in Germany’ Facebook and WhatsApp groups and YouTube channels, as well as interviews with the YouTubers, Student Guides, and Indian students in Germany