EAIE Podcast

It’s time to light the candles on the cake for NAFSA: Association of International Educators, as they celebrate their 75th anniversary this year! Founded in 1948, the main aim of the originally named ‘National Association of Foreign Student Advisers’ was to promote the professional development of U.S. college and university officials responsible for assisting and advising the 25,000 foreign studen...

With a nod to the recent observance of Earth Day on 22 April, this episode of the EAIE Podcast takes a look at the complicated relationship between the internationalisation of higher education and climate change. One way to understand the dilemmas baked into this relationship is to consider the notion of cognitive dissonance , a concept that takes centre stage in an article published recently in t...

The European higher education sector is a diverse, inspiring and collaborative field where we can learn and discover new things every day. In this EAIE podcast episode, we invite the listener into the wondrous world of Circus Arts education, where students train to become (international) professional circus artists. Although these performing arts programmes are often considered unique, there are v...

Since 1990, 08 April has been designated as International Romani Day, a significant day for Roma people across the world. An estimated 10 to 12 million Roma live in Europe, comprising the continent’s largest ethnic minority, yet rough estimates indicate that just 1 to 4% of the Roma population have a higher education degree, making it one of the most underrepresented groups at this level of educat...

What’s new these days in (international) higher education in Brazil, home to the largest higher education system in Latin America? For starters, in 2022, the country elected a new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who returns to the role after having served as president from 2003 to 2010. In the face of many challenges, he’s also making a promise: to deliver 'more books in place of guns.&...

In our previous podcast episode, we talked to a representative from the Teiresias Centre (part of Masaryk University) in Czechia about the opportunities and challenges of providing maximum accessibility for all (international) students with a disability. There are still quite a number of challenges to overcome when looking at this particular part of the student and staff population, and one of the...

Issues of inclusion, diversity and equity continue to be top of mind for many higher education institutions across Europe and elsewhere. There are still quite a number of challenges to overcome when looking at this particular part of the student and staff population, for example linked to reaching international students with disabilities, providing them with the correct services, and collecting va...

Saturday 11 February 2023 is International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This day promotes the full and equal access and participation of females in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine and Mathematics. This year, the day is focused on the theme 'Bringing everyone forward for sustainable and equitable development', looking at the role of women and girls in scienc...

Perhaps the world’s most widely accepted definition of the concept of internationalisation in higher education is attributed to Jane Knight, in work she published between 1994 and 2004. Since then, many attempts have been made to come up with new definitions, but this has been challenging, especially when looking at staying power and uptake. But how do we begin to shape a new and better definition...

On 16 September 2022, Mahsa Amini died after having been arrested in Tehran for not wearing her hijab in accordance with government rules. Months of ongoing protests followed, with the situation now reaching new heights, including Iran’s removal from the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the use of death penalty charges by Iranian courts to try and crush the protests. While Iranian students...

In the current age of social media, we see influencers popping up everywhere, including in the field of (international) student marketing and recruitment. Influencer marketing is evolving rapidly, and the Covid pandemic has sped up this process considerably. Higher education institutions are using micro- and nano-influencers to raise awareness of their educational programmes, activities, initiativ...

Who doesn’t like the movies, and don’t we all spend time every day pouring over media of different sorts? The world of film and media studies plays a key role in producing the professionals who make these resources and cultural artifacts possible – and it turns out there’s a European University alliance focused specifically on these fields: FILMEU. So, what’s driving film and media studies in Euro...

A lot has been happening in Europe within the field of research and innovation policy. Horizon Europe, European Universities alliances and science diplomacy are just a few of the programmes and topics that continue to grab the attention of the higher education sector. But how can we best describe the current state of the European research and innovation field? Which important developments should w...

Students are often encouraged these days to think more seriously about entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship advances innovation, results in job creation for others and helps students engage creatively beyond their specific fields of study to meet new needs and solve persistent problems. Higher education generally – and international education, specifically – has a role to play in fostering entrepren...

 The ‘COVID era’ has had a significant and challenging impact, particularly on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The 2022 International Student Barometer (ISB) found that more than one-third of international students responding to that survey were feeling stressed, yet only 1 in 6 students reported turning to the counselling services at their institution. With wellbeing now an issue of c...

Europe's student population consists of a broad and diverse group of people. This is a group that many are interested in learning more about, but also a group that cannot be so easily defined, despite often simplified messages in the media about who exactly 'the European student' is and what they are interested in. So, how did this idea of a shared identity among European students c...

After a successful EAIE conference in Barcelona last week, we’re now looking forward to the 33rd Annual EAIE Conference and Exhibition, taking place 26-29 September 2023 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The conference theme, ‘Connecting currents’, celebrates the maritime history of Rotterdam and embodies the importance of water to the city, providing economic opportunities as well as existential thr...

The factors influencing international students’ choice of their destination country are various and complex. Affordability, quality of education, future opportunities, and quality of life go hand in hand with personal preferences such as interest in a specific culture, or existing personal ties. So, what role does language play in the many pieces of this mosaic? This was the question guiding the r...

In February of this year, the African Union and the European Union launched their joint AU-EU Innovation Agenda to strengthen collaboration in scientific and technological research and innovation. Africa’s R&I sector is growing fast, with start-ups and technology hubs growing in numbers across the continent. A strong driver of economic development, innovation has tremendous transformative pote...

Commissioner Mariya Gabriel has said that, with the new Erasmus+ programme 2022-2027, “Paper officially belongs to the past”. Indeed, higher education administrators across Europe are actively working to achieve this goal, coming together to establish the infrastructure and processes that can enable the flawless exchange of student data.  So what exactly is going on right now to provide students a...

It's that time of the year again when recent graduates begin to make the transition from education to the world of work. For some of them, a fulfilling, successful career in international education is about to take off. All international education professionals have a story to recount about how it all started for them: perhaps an experience abroad, a meaningful encounter, or the recommendatio...

  Amidst the devastating loss of life and physical destruction of Ukraine brought about by the Russian invasion, it’s easy to lose sight of the country’s less tangible assets, ie its multifaceted cultural heritage and deep literary tradition. Indeed, most Europeans, to whom the media coverage of the recent events has made Ukraine’s geography a familiar subject, know very little of its history and...

44. Francesc Pedró: Insights from UNESCO  The United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development has set a clear target for education: “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” ( SDG Goal 4 ). To achieve this objective, work at UNESCO – the UN agency responsible for education – is going on tirelessly.  On 18-20 May, higher education...

Over the last two years, the extent to which our students rely on digital tools for almost every single aspect of their studies, life and activities, has become all too apparent to us. To two people down under, it didn’t come as a surprise.  Based in Melbourne, Australia, Professors Shanton Chang and Catherine Gomes investigate the digital experiences of international students, and what universiti...

Will the start of a new academic year in Europe in autumn 2022 witness a post-pandemic bounce-back? Recent research and analysis by the EAIE, The Class Foundation and StudyPortals may give some indications.  This episode of the EAIE Podcast brings together The Class Foundation’s Programme Curator, Arunima Dey, and StudyPortals’ Deputy Director Analytics & Consulting Team, Carmen Neghina, to co...