ACA is glad to announce it will take part – along experts from member organisations CMEPIUS, DAAD, and EDUFI, as well as many other experienced practitioners and established researchers – in a network for interdisciplinary research on international student mobility (ISM). Led by Assistant Professor Christof Van Mol, of Tilburg University, the network has recently been selected for funding under EU’s COST Action (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

The network will offer comparative and practical insights into ISM dynamics by bringing fragmented knowledge together, with the main aim of generating new interdisciplinary and innovative empirical perspectives on the phenomenon and translating these into tangible recommendations for stakeholders. It will systematically bring players from science and practice together and involve them in the most important themes related to ISM.

Activities are structured along five project groups, each dealing with various aspects and developments within ISM:

1. General mobility patterns (global, at the macro level)
2. Social inequality
3. Social and cultural integration of international students
4. Impact of ISM on labor market opportunities
5. Connecting science and practice

At present, the management team is being put together and the working groups are being formed. Activities will start in September-October 2021.