Journal of Studies in International Education

International Student Mobility (ISM) is the most popular activity in the internationalization of higher education, and it has grown over the years in terms of numbers and study destinations. This study examines intra-African student mobility using evidence from East Africa and theoretical orientations of critical internationalization, which holds that internationalization thrives on and propagates inequalities between individuals and social systems. The study investigated the extent to which intra-African ISM reproduces social inequalities using data collected through mixed methods and analyzed using SPSS and thematic analysis. The study shows that international students in Uganda are mainly from the East African region and are from the wealthiest families. The findings further indicate that these students and their households seek to reproduce their social status by participating in ISM. However, expanding mobility opportunities in favor of students from lower social classes would make internationalization more equitable and inclusive.

Research on international students’ information behaviour has significantly developed, mainly in the Global North and leaving the Global South underexplored. This review analyses 60 publications in five languages (English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, and Indonesian) from four databases (Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar). This study identifies nine sub-topics within the research, with a predominant focus on the Global North. Several topics for further investigation include online information behaviour, cultural diversity, the role of institutions, health information, digital journeys, and information sharing. The findings also highlight differences between the Global North and the Global South due to factors like IT infrastructure and sociocultural situations. This review emphasises the need for further exploration in the context of the Global South. This work contributes to a nuanced understanding of international students’ information behaviour and its broader implications.

In today's interconnected world, intercultural competence (IC) is essential for navigating diverse cultural contexts across education, professional practice, and society. Yet this field still lacks a systematic, data-driven synthesis that maps its intellectual evolution. This study addresses that gap by applying bibliometric techniques to 2,178 WoS-indexed articles published up to December 31, 2024, providing comprehensive quantitative mapping of IC research to date and illuminating both its historical foundations and future frontiers. Co-citation analysis revealed four thematic clusters representing the intellectual foundations of the field: (a) theoretical frameworks and assessment models; (b) multicultural counseling competence and cultural responsiveness in psychology; (c) pedagogical integration in language education; and (d) developmental and experiential pathways of competence acquisition. Co-word analysis, in turn, identified four conceptual clusters: competence development and adaptation, cultural responsiveness in professional practice, intercultural communication in language learning, and multicultural pedagogies in teacher education. Conceptually, co-citation maps the intellectual base by showing how foundational works are connected through shared citations. In contrast, co-word captures the field's evolving discourse by revealing how key concepts co-occur and converge across studies. The two analyses link the structural foundations and semantic dynamics of intercultural competence research, illustrating how established theoretical traditions inform emerging directions in this field. While scholarship remains grounded in seminal models such as Byram's framework, Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, and Deardorff's process model, it is moving toward more dynamic, context-contingent, and digitally mediated understandings. This study provides a systematic knowledge map that strengthens the theoretical understanding of intercultural competence and informs practical applications in education, counseling, and organizational development.

This paper explores intercultural training needs of university staff through the analysis of intercultural critical incidents that were shared by participants in a survey conducted in four universities in Switzerland. In the survey, participants were prompted to describe intercultural critical incidents, to self-assess their intercultural sensitivity and competence, and to indicate their interest in further development. Using qualitative content analysis, categories of incidents were developed based on the Critical Incident Technique. The findings suggest that participants whose scores indicate a higher level of readiness to engage in intercultural training are better able to perceive nuanced details of intercultural critical incidents and to analyse them from an ethno-relative perspective. The findings further suggest that workshops on relationship-building and empathy in intercultural contexts may offer relevant entry points for training of participants with lower scores.

In light of the paradigm shift in the scholarship of international students that increasingly emphasizes students’ agentic participation, the topic of international student agency has attracted increasing attention. This scientometric paper outlines the research intellectual map, including an overview of publications, major contributors, and research foci, using a combination of CiteSpace and Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling between 2007 and 2024. The findings reveal a growing research interest in international student agency, especially since 2017. However, despite the efforts of leading and emerging contributors, collaboration remains relatively weak, signaling the need to strengthen collaboration so that scholarly conversations keep pushing scholarly boundaries and facilitate informed policymaking. Moreover, it identifies four research foci: experiential transformation, intercultural communication, community of practice, support and strategy. This study complements the existing qualitative literature review and provides valuable implications for further research.

This study examines international student mobility (ISM) through the Chordal Triad of Agency framework, highlighting how past experiences, present evaluations, and future aspirations shape students’ decisions to study abroad. Using Chinese master's students in Australia as a case study, it examines how agency is exercised to navigate structural constraints and pursue educational goals. Existing theories - push-pull theory, human capital theory, cultural capital theory, and the consumer decision-making model - often frame ISM as a rational, economically motivated, and structurally determined choice. However, this study reveals that ISM as a multi-layered, temporally embedded process shaped by social class habitus, career trajectories, and perceived structural constraints. Findings show that past experiences (iterational agency) inform students’ belief in education as a pathway for mobility, while present evaluations (practical-evaluative agency) involve financial feasibility, language readiness, and migration policies. Future aspirations (projective agency) diverge: graduates seek prestigious credentials to enhance employability, whereas professionals aim to escape career stagnation. By demonstrating how agency operates pre-departure and varies across life stages, this study challenges linear decision-making models, offering a more nuanced, context-sensitive understanding of ISM that integrates both individual agency and structural factors.

This systematic review explores the experiences of first-generation international graduate students in the United States. Drawing on the theoretical foundations of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of capital, Tara Yosso's concept of community cultural wealth, and Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectionality theory, our analysis of 41 peer-reviewed articles revealed four major themes capturing their experiences: (1) sense of belonging, (2) navigating the academic system, (3) mental health and emotional wellbeing, and (4) institutional and structural support. We further analyze the findings using Crenshaw's three dimensions of intersectionality—structural, political, and representational. We interpret these findings as reflections of the layered and intersecting challenges faced by first-generation international graduate students in U.S. higher education while also highlighting the valuable assets and agency that this unique student population brings. Our study offers recommendations for changes in institutional policies, program design, and future research to promote equity and belonging for first-generation international graduate students.