Observing the Unobservable: Migrant Selectivity and Agentic Individuality Among Higher Education Students in China and Europe

The research in migrant selectivity largely overlooks the broader institutional processes that shape the extent to which migrants from different backgrounds are indeed positively selected. This is particularly true in the case of highly skilled migrants, whose selection may not be conditioned by migration but by education. This paper deals with this limitation by studying individual characteristics, which are often treated as unobserved selectivity, among a specific flow of educational migrants in Europe, namely, Chinese higher education students. To do so, we use a unique representative multi-country dataset of about 8,000 Chinese international students and their native-born counterparts in China, the UK, and Germany. Our evidence rules out positive selection of migrants on individuality traits such as ambition, creativity, or being a risk-taker or independently minded. This supports our argument that the prevalence of agentic models of individuality is embedded in tertiary education on a global level

University as the producer of knowledge, and economic and societal value: the 20th and twenty-first century transformations of the UK higher education system

Throughout the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first century, the UK higher education went through significant changes. We identify three epochs, through which the institutional logic and purpose of university were redefined: an elite reconfiguration before the 1950s; a democratic reconfiguration from the 1960s on; and an economic and societal reconfiguration in the context of globalization since the late 1990s. Each epoch carried certain tensions in them, which have shaped the current contours of the UK higher education field. Particularly since the 1990s however UK higher education is exposed to increasingly elaborate, and at times contradictory, rules and expectations which are shaped not only nationally and transnationally. In order to analyse how these pressures play themselves out in the purpose and mandate of universities, we apply topic modelling analysis and textual interpretation to the university webpages. Our analysis shows that the UK higher education embeds three institutional logics, knowledge production, economic value, and global actorhood, which are linked with the broader transformations of the university toward proactive and societally engaged rational organization

Educational optimism in China: migrant selectivity or migration experience?

This paper addresses the so-called paradox of immigrant optimism, which accounts for the higher educational expectations of immigrant–origin children, compared to non-immigrants in destination countries, conditional on social background and school attainment. We are interested in clarifying whether the mechanisms behind this optimism are related to migrant selectivity or family migration experience. To do this we use data from the China Education Panel Study, a representative survey of junior high school students in China. We use a two-pronged analytical strategy. Firstly, we look at whether having experienced family migration (within China) is associated with higher educational expectations. Secondly, we take a step back and explore whether adolescents who wish to migrate themselves when they grow up report higher educational expectations. Our findings confirm that adolescents who wish to migrate themselves when adults are already more optimistic even before any intentions of moving come to fruition. This we take as an indirect proof of selectivity. In contrast, we find no effect of family migration on expectations

It is all about “Hope”: evidence on the immigrant optimism paradox

This paper investigates the immigrant educational optimism hypothesis using data from Spain. Specifically, we examine the nature of higher educational expectations among migrant-origin families in comparison to non-migrant families, conditional upon students’ prior school performance and social background. Our dataset includes more than two thousand students in secondary schools in Madrid and, as an innovation in the literature, allows identical analyses for dyads of parents and children. Our results suggest that immigrant optimism is more likely the result of positive selection of parents as first movers than lack of understanding among migrant families of how to process information regarding their children’s educational prospects in the host country. Interestingly, students from migrant-origin families themselves do not share the same optimism as their parents. We argue that migration is linked with “hopeful” aspirations and identities, which is in line with research showing selection among labour migrants on the basis of unobservable characteristics

Administrators in higher education: organizational expansion in a transforming institution

Recent European research has revealed growth in the number of administrators and professionals across different sections of universities—a long established trend in US universities. We build on this research by investigating the factors associated with variation in the proportion of administrators across 761 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in 11 European countries. We argue that the enactment of expanded and diversified missions of HE is one of the main factors nurturing universities’ profesional and administrative bodies. Our findings support such an assertion; regardless of geographical and institutional differences, HEIs with high levels of “entrepreneurialism” (e.g. in service provision and external engagement) are characterized by a larger proportion of administrative staff. However, we find no empirical support for arguments citing structural pressures and demands on HEIs due to higher student enrolments, budget cuts or deregulation as engines driving such change. Instead, our results point towards, as argued by neo-institutionalists, the diffusion of formal organization as a model of institutional identity and purpose, which is especially prevalent at high levels of external connectedness

Meritocracy or reputation? The role of rankings in the sorting of international students across universities

University rankings have gained prominence in tandem with the global race towards excellence and as part of the growing expectation of rational, scientific evaluation of performance across a range of institutional sectors and human activity. While their omnipresence is acknowledged, empirically we know less about whether and how rankings matter in higher education outcomes. Do university rankings, predicated on universalistic standards and shared metrics of quality, function meritocratically to level the impact of long-established reputations? We address this question by analysing the extent to which changes in the position of UK universities in ranking tables, beyond existing reputations, impact on their strategic goal of international student recruitment. We draw upon an ad hoc dataset merging aggregate (university) level indicators of ranking performance and reputation with indicators of other institutional characteristics and international student numbers. Our findings show that recruitment of international students is primarily determined by university reputation, socially mediated and sedimented over the long term, rather than universities’ yearly updated ranking positions. We conclude that while there is insufficient evidence that improving rankings changes universities’ international recruitment outcomes, they are nevertheless consequential for universities and students as strategic actors investing in rankings as purpose and identity