Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Yi’En Cheng, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

PROGRAM

ABSTRACTS

How will Africa-China Educational Migration be Affected by COVID-19?
The number of students from Africa in China has increased exponentially in recent years, and this student flow is of geopolitical importance to China. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted international student mobility globally. In China, degree programs moved online, and international students are not permitted to enter China until further notice. Moreover, during the pandemic, discrimination against African students in Guangzhou and elsewhere was widely reported by international media outlets. While media reports highlighted broadly the challenges faced by Africans in China, and the diplomatic crisis that ensued, there is less understanding of exactly how global power asymmetries manifested during the crisis, and how future student flows may be affected as a result. Based on interviews with students from five cities across China, and with Africa-focused education agents, conducted during the pandemic, in this webinar Benjamin Mulvey explores how global power asymmetries and structural inequalities manifested in the acute disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, and filtered down to shape the experiences of students during this time, causing instances of “involuntary (im)mobility” as governments of African countries were sometimes unable or unwilling to evacuate students, and later on, students were unable to return to China. In addition, Ben reflects on the future of African educational (im)mobilities to China in light of the disruptions caused by the pandemic, raising some issues around what the changes wrought by the pandemic might mean for African students.

“I Will Continue My Studies Here Even After COVID” : Visiblising International Students in the Fringes – Korean Case
The impact of COVID-19 on international higher education is continuously being documented, drawing enough, if not too much, attention towards international students. However, in ongoing conversations surrounding the pandemic’s present impact and future implications, the focus has been on those who are directly affecting international education export industries of top destination countries, invisiblising international students ‘elsewhere’. This presentation is based on a wider study foregrounded on the need to ‘decenter’ research on international student mobility by advancing a broader and more inclusive view of study abroad that is differentiated socially and spatially as illustrated by the presence of international students in what I introduce (and develop) as the ‘fringes’. Drawing on follow-up conversations with 26 Korean international students in India, Philippines and Fiji, the presentation highlights the impact of COVID-19 on these students not only in terms of how their studies and educational plans are affected but also of how they re-imagine and re-position themselves in a world made more complex (and uneven) by the pandemic.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Benjamin Mulvey is a PhD candidate at the Department of International Education of the Education University of Hong Kong. His research is focused on educational migration between Africa and China, and how global structural forces drive student mobility, and shape migration experiences. He has previously published in Higher Education and Higher Education Policy on topics related to China-Africa educational migration.

Sarah Domingo Lipura is a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland, researching on international student mobility across peripheral spaces with a particular focus on Korean international students in atypical study destinations in the Asia-Pacific. Derived from her strong interest in migrant communities and close engagement with Korean migrants in the Philippines, her research introduces and develops the concept of ‘fringe mobility as capacity to aspire’, using the Korean context. In New Zealand, she likewise engages with the Filipino community both as a researcher and a volunteer. She has previously published in Kritika Kultura and Globalisation, Societies and Education.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.