University rankings have gained prominence in tandem with the global race towards excellence and as part of the growing expectation of rational, scientific evaluation of performance across a range of institutional sectors and human activity. While their omnipresence is acknowledged, empirically we know less about whether and how rankings matter in…

Purpose: This study aims to explore how student recruitment practitioners at regional Australian universities strategise student recruitment efforts in Thailand. There is scarce research addressing regional universities, with prior studies focusing on metropolitan universities. Similarly, most prior studies have focused on high-volume markets,…

This study discusses the relationships between resource dependence, and reputation management (RM) through interviews with university managers regarding the use of social media by Chinese and UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This research enriches existing literature by providing a new and comprehensive understanding of the factors…

Referring to rational choice theory, this paper aims to better understand the factors that drive exchange students to a particular destination. A conjoint experiment conducted among students at a Spanish public university allows estimating in an unbiased way the isolated effect of different destination attributes on the destination choice, as well…

Joining the tide of global internationalisation of higher education, Chinese universities have embraced English-medium instruction (EMI) as a strategic response. The adoption of EMI is to comply with government mandates and for institutional survival, as it will increase the international ranking and bring in more income from international…

University reputation and destination image are key factors shaping the choice to study in developed Western countries. While East Asia is emerging as a new contender in the international higher education market, little is known about how international students perceive and are attracted to the higher education institutions in this region.…

This study explores how Chinese international students at a state university navigate the U.S. college choice process. Through semi-structured interviews with 10 Chinese international college students at a large public research university located in the northeastern U.S., this study explains how these economically privileged students regard…

China has become a main host country for international students, but its international programmes for higher education still need improvement. This study aimed to examine the academic challenges that international postgraduates in China face based on Luc Boltanski's idea of ordinary critique. A qualitative research approach was adopted, and data…

Black African students are increasingly choosing the United States as their preferred destination, and many choose to study at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate reasons that may influence their identification and commitment to those PWIs. We interviewed 20 sub-Saharan Africans at two…

In this article, we take a global perspective and analyse how state institutions constitute a countries' place in the global network of transnational student mobility. We use longitudinal social network analysis to investigate transnational student mobility patterns and find that fragile institutions act as a push factor by increasing outbound…

Based on a survey of Swedish participants in the Erasmus+ exchange programme from the 2014 and 2015 application years, our study uses specific Multiple Correspondence Analysis to explore students' valuations of their study destinations across different scales -- country, city, and institution. Our findings indicate that places were valued based on…

This paper explores the decision-making process of international non-EU postgraduates when choosing a qualification from a UK business school and proposes a new model which reflects the iterative, cyclical and continuous nature of the process. The degree of rigour and rationality employed in decision-making was often limited and influenced by…

University brand marketing leaders are reimagining their brand response to the global crisis, as COVID-19 pandemic continues to raise fears, especially due to the recent spike of the 'delta variant' outbreaks. Addressing this serious and immediate concern, the present study made the initial attempt to investigate the effects of forced-shift to…

Universities in the USA must navigate a complex set of organizational goals when communicating about international students. On one hand, international students signal that the university has a global reach and diverse student body; on the other hand, international students have been viewed as edging out domestic students for access to scarce…

Background/purpose: While the existing literature explores the internalization of higher education, a significant gap remains in comprehending the motivations behind international students choosing Portuguese higher education. This study aims to address this gap by examining the motivations of a specific group within Portuguese universities:…