Write for the EAIE

Building back better?

Deadline to submit: 09 August 2024

In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Winter 2020 edition of Forum focused on ‘Resilience in uncertain times’. At that point, it seemed hard to believe that international education would ever be the same again. Cross-border mobility of staff and students had ceded place – quickly and often uncomfortably – to new forms of virtual exchange and collaboration, and we had all become used to working and/or studying remotely. In higher education circles, we were talking keenly about “building back better”. How would we ensure that post-pandemic approaches to international education were more balanced and did not simply repeat the patterns of the past?

Some four years later, although COVID-19 still lingers in our communities, it is no longer shaping the reality of higher education in the same way as it did previously. So, where does international education find itself today? How have we recovered and what changes have we witnessed?

On the one hand, it appears that international education has quickly reverted to its pre-pandemic state – physical student and staff mobility have returned with speed; governments and accrediting bodies have quickly rescinded their temporary recognition of online studies, and institutions appear to be in a “growth is good” mentality.

On the other hand, however, much has changed, not least for our students who now show different levels of engagement with the campus experience and new understandings about what their studies will entail. Similarly, many staff have different expectations about the balance between working on-campus and working remotely. While cross-border travel has gradually become more accessible, concerns about the effects of travel on the environment are heightened and budgets for mobility grants are more and more stretched.

Furthermore, governments in a range of countries (UK, Netherlands, Australia, Canada…) have now acted to reduce burgeoning flows of inwardly mobile students. Many of these moves are responses to concerns about migration in relation to housing availability and jobs, thereby calling into question broader societal acceptance of the presence of international students within our communities.

Possible article topics for this issue could include, but are not limited to:

• What examples exist of building back better after the pandemic? Where have we retained the best of the pandemic era innovations to international education practices/activities? How have these been incorporated into new ways of thinking and doing?
• Analyses of practices and strategies developed during the pandemic. What are the mid-pandemic innovations that are necessary to retain in a post-pandemic landscape, and which ones can be let go?
• In what ways have institutions strengthened and/or institutionalised their crisis management strategies and protocols?
• How have institutions maximised their learnings from the pandemic to mainstream environmental sustainability practices into their international education offerings?
• In what ways have virtual modes of study and exchange evolved and matured since the pandemic? Do examples exist of virtual programming (or other internationalisation at home initiatives) being given priority over physical mobility? 
• How are institutions dealing with the contradictory pressures of post-pandemic social anxiety amongst students and a desire for “revenge travel”?
• How have understandings of student and staff mobility evolved since the pandemic and what changes in practice are now in evidence as a result? What does work-life balance mean for international educators in the post-pandemic era?
• How are institutions working to secure a greater social licence for their international education activities, within local communities and/or with local, regional and national governments?