Over the past decades, international student mobility (ISM) in higher education has expanded rapidly. This growth has sparked a considerable interest in ISM within different disciplines, research communities, as well as circles of practitioners and policy makers. Still, there is surprisingly little exchange among researchers across these spheres. Additionally, despite the relevance of scientific knowledge on ISM for policy and daily practice, ISM scholarship remains strongly restricted to academic circles.
Therefore, ENIS addresses the pressing need for a systematic interdisciplinary and international exchange of knowledge on theoretical frameworks, research methods, results, and examples of good practice. Moreover, it responds to the need to translate scientific knowledge into recommendations for ISM practice.
The network is centered around five working groups. Four of these groups focus on topics in need of scientific development, while the fifth one brings together recommendations for practice:
- (1) Global ISM flows and trends at the macro-level
- (2) Social inequalities in access to and during ISM
- (3) The social and cultural integration of international students in their host countries
- (4) The impact of ISM on graduates’ careers
- (5) Connecting research and practice
At present, ENIS unites about 300 established researchers, early-career investigators (ECIs), and PhD students from various scientific disciplines and countries. It also brings together stakeholders from international offices, international student associations, study abroad organizations, and different policy levels.
