Designing the (Most) Mobile University: The Centrality of International Student Mobility in Luxembourg’s Higher Educatio

1. Designing the (Most) Mobile University: TheCentrality of International Student Mobilityin Luxembourg’s Higher Education PolicyDiscourse SRHE conference, 6 December 2018 Newport Emilia Kmiotek-Meier Ute Karl Justin Powell University of Luxembourg

2. Overview • International student mobility • Higher education in Luxembourg • Analysis • Results • Future vision / Labour market • Elites / sovereignty • Geographic embeddedness • Discussion

3. I International student mobility

4. Student mobility • Degree / the EU rather credit mobility (ERASMUS) • ‘Analysed as part of individual decision-making’ (Raghuram 2013: 143) • Main lenses: factors influencing ISM (migration theories), students’ experiences, students’ employability (social inequalities, knowledge flows, social capital, mobility capital) • Role of broader frames? Family? Institutions? State?

5. Student mobility & the role of state • Filling in the gaps in financing higher education (Findlay, 2011 ) • Neo-liberal rationale in competing for the best and brightest to satisfy labour market needs • Host country’s soft power -> Economically driven interests in hosting international students (Bolsmann and Miller, 2009)

6. II Higher Education in Luxembourg

7. Luxembourg Luxembourg’s labour market (Graf and Gardin, 2018): • highly paid jobs that have (among the most attractive in Europe) • extraordinarily internationalised • 160,000 cross-border workers per day commuting from France, Belgium, and Germany Luxemburgish society: • hyperdiverse and multilingual society

8. Student mobility from Luxembourg 2003 foundation of the University of Luxembourg Degree mobility from Luxembourg • 75-80 % of all enrolled in tertiary education study abroad • mainly DE, FR, BE (language and geographical proximity) Credit mobility from Luxembourg • an obligatory semester abroad for undergraduates • mainly other EU-countries Almost 100% student mobility from Luxembourg

9. Students UL – degree ISM towards Luxembourg N=6,153 Source: UL (2016)

10. ISM in Luxembourg UL – the most international university in the world • number one in the Times World University Ranking 2018: ‘international outlook’ Emphasis on • the importance of student degree outgoing mobility • especially for Luxembourgish industry • returning students bring not only knowledge and knowhow but also their networks from abroad (Rohstock and Schreiber, 2012 )

11. III Most international? Yes.…but why?

12. Data • No systematically integrated policy at the national level relating to outgoing or incoming student mobility in Luxembourg BUT… • Debates prior to the establishment of the UL in 2002/2003 in written form • 14 pieces of writing, i.a. • Bill on Foundation of the University of Luxembourg • Opinion of Chamber for civil servants and public employees, • Report of Commission of the higher education, research and culture …

13. Methods • Leaned on grounded theory methodology (Charmaz 2014) • Thematic coding searching for all sequences dealing with student mobility (credit/degree and outgoing/incoming). • In-depth analysis of selected extracts of the documents • Development of more theoretical concepts, i.e. the three lines of argumentation

14. IV Results

15. The future (vision) of theLuxembourgish society (I) • Key concepts: • knowledge society • future development of the country • innovation • international competition and labour force • Development of Luxembourgish society and economy within European and global contexts • Investment in higher education: a step towards diversification of the economy • ‘[i]nvestment in higher education is commonly considered a means to achieve innovation, increased productivity and enhanced national competitiveness’ (Urbanovic and Wilkins, 2013, 374)

16. The the current state of the Luxembourgish society (I) • Key concepts: • elites • sovereignty • The initiative of the UL’s foundation questioned the strategy to build up the country’s elites AND development of young adults • « Additionally, and it has always been the argument put forward first, that the young were forced to leave their ‘village’ to organise themselves in an unknown and much broader milieu, and to measure themselves with colleagues from all horizons » (Opinion of Chamber of private employees)

17. The the current state of the Luxembourgish society (II) •  Outgoing mobility as a tool to foster the internationally competitive knowledge society: Study abroad -> new insights and international networks Return to Luxembourg -> contribution to the economic and social development • ‘Soft power’ receiving countries may have on Luxembourgish elites (Haugen, 2013)

18. The territorial areas ofinternationalisation of the UL • Greater Region • Existing links: the biggest group in the labour force in Luxembourg is that of cross-border employees and workers from the Greater Region (Brosius et al. 2014) • Competition for degree students • Implementation level occurs rather regionally • The EU and Europe • Country at the heart of the EU, « model university »

19. V Discussion

20. Only Luxembourg? • Small and wealthy Luxembourg, but lacking the opportunities of a fully-developed and differentiated tertiary education system • Taking advantage of the higher education infrastructure of other countries • ISM from less wealthy or less developed countries to more developed countries (Woldegiorgis and Doevenspeck 2015; Baláž and Williams 2004)

21. Economicimperative? • The UL’s foundation - a strategic step for improving Luxembourg’s position within the global competition for the best and brightest • ‘international students are (..) prospective skilled workers in the globalising competition for talent’ (Mosneaga and Winther 2013: 181) • Long-term perspective: Different than in many other countries • We want it all! • Degree outgoing & incoming / credit outgoing • Credit incoming ? •  To secure innovation, Luxembourg needs both incoming and  outgoing mobility of talented students

22. References (I) Balaz, V. and Williams, A.M. (2004) ‘’Been There, Done That’: International Student Migration and Human Capital Transfersfrom the UK to Slovakia’, Population, Space and Place 10(3): 217–237. Bolsmann, C. and Miller, H. (2009) ‘International StudentRecruitment to Universities in England: Discourse, Rationales and Globalisation’, Globalisation, Societies and Education 6(1): 75–88. Brosius, J., Ray, J.-C., Verheyden, B. and Williams, D.R. (2014) WageDifferentialsBetween Natives and Cross-Border WorkersWithin and Across Establishments. Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg: Luxemburg Institute of Socio-EconomicResearch (LISER). Working Paper Series no. 2014-04. Charmaz, K.C. (2014) ConstructingGrounded Theory, London: SAGE. Findlay, A.M. (2011) ‘An Assessment of Supply and Demand-SideTheorizations of International Student Mobility’, International Migration 49(2): 162–189. Graf, L. and Gardin, M. (2018) ‘Transnational SkillsDevelopment in Post-industrialKnowledge Economies: The Case of Luxembourg and the GreaterRegion’, Journal of Education and Work 31(1): 1–15. Haugen, H.Ø. (2013) ‘China’sRecruitment of AfricanUniversityStudents: Policy Efficacy and UnintendedOutcomes’, Globalisation, Societies and Education 11(3): 315–334.

23. References (II) Kmiotek-Meier, E.A., Karl, U. and Powell, J.J.W (2018) ‘Designing the (Most) Mobile University: The Centrality of International Student Mobility in Luxembourg’s Higher Education Policy Discourse’, Higher Education Policy (2018), 31(online first), 1-24. Mosneaga, A. and Winther, L. (2013). ‘Emerging Talents? International StudentsBefore and AfterTheir Career Start in Denmark’, Population, Space and Place 19(2): 181–195. Raghuram, P. (2013) ‘Theorising the Spaces of Student Migration’, Population, Space and Place 19(2): 138–154. Rohstock, A. and Schreiber, C. (2012) ‘The Grand Duchy on the Grand Tour: A HistoricalStudy of Student Migration in Luxembourg’, PaedagogicaHistorica 49(2): 174–193. UL (2016) Key Performance Indicators, https://wwwen.uni.lu/university/official_documents, accessed 13 February 2018. Urbanovicˇ, J. and Wilkins, S. (2013) ‘Internationalisation as a Strategy to Improve the Quality of Higher Education in Small States: Stakeholder Perspectives in Lithuania’, Higher Education Policy 26(3): 373–396. Woldegiorgis, E.T. and Doevenspeck, M. (2015) ‘Current Trends, Challenges and Prospects of Student Mobility in the AfricanHigher Education Landscape’, International Journal of Higher Education 4(2): 105–115.

24. Thank you for your attention! Contact: Emilia Kmiotek-Meier emilia.kmiotek@uni.lu University of Luxembourg Faculté des Lettres, des Sciences Humaines, des Arts et des Sciences de l'Education Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning http://www.move-project.eu The research from the MOVE project leading to these results has received funding from Horizon 2020 under Grant Agreement N° 649263.