The Corona-pandemic has not only forced universities to develop virtual teaching tools for their students, it has also put international student mobility and exchange into crisis: Some students got stuck at their host locations, others were forced to abandon their exchange stays. Many students who applied for mobility in the coming semester(s) have no guarantee that they will actually be allowed to go, some universities still only offer participation in online-courses. Also international teaching mobility has practically come to a halt.
At the same time, this crisis of mobility, in combination with the new experiences of virtual teaching and digital collaboration, offers a chance for raising international academic collaboration to new levels.
Through funding by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), a joint EuMIGS course on “international student migration” will be offered in the first quarter of 2021. In this course, students and researchers from 6 EuMIGS partner institutes (Neuchatel, Osnabrück, A Coruña, Salzburg, Linköping, Lyon) will work together.
The participating students will be introduced to the research field of “international student migration” (ISM) through a series of lectures by international experts on the topic and a joint discussion of key literature. Students will further conduct small research projects in collaboration with their international peers. The best projects will be selected for a presentation at the annual IMISCOE conference in July 2021 in Luxembourg.