The flow of international students from a macro perspective: a network analysis

George Barnett, Moo Sung LEE, Ke Jiang, Han Park

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    81 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This paper provides a network analysis of the international flow of students among 210 countries and the factors determining the structure of this flow. Among these factors, bilateral hyperlink connections between countries and the number of telephone minutes (communication variables) are the most important predictors of the flow’s structure, followed by trade, the physical distance between countries, a common border between countries and a common language between two countries. The USA is by far the most central country in the flow of international students, followed by China, the UK, France, Germany, Australia and India. These results are discussed in light of World-System Theory. Future research should examine how the network of international student flows changes over time and consider additional factors to provide a better understanding of the network as an international system.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)533-559
    Number of pages27
    JournalCompare
    Volume46
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2016

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