Repositioning in International Student Flow - A Network Analysis Approach
Abstract
International student flows, which study the cross-border movement of students for educational purposes, is a dynamically developing field of research. The aim of our research is to identify the central actors among the receiving and sending countries participating in student mobility based on various central indicators, and our aim is to identify the groups or clusters and their composition between the countries that appear in the network. The research is looking for an answer to the question of which of the receiving and sending states participating in international student mobility have a central role in the network. Our further research question: What structure and composition of clusters can be identified in the network? During our investigation, we use the methods of network analysis and graph theory. The results of our study confirmed the central role of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, which had already been highlighted in previous literature. However, this study provides two novel insights into the topic of international student mobility, which previous studies have not yet addressed. Our first result is that we have identified the composition of clusters between states participating in student mobility. Our second result is that we conducted an investigation and identified the central countries based on the weighted indegree and weighted outdegree indicators. In the course of subsequent research, it is worthwhile to examine the dynamics of the changing role of regional hubs. Therefore, it is advisable to compare the data of several periods and create a dynamic network using graph theory. In connection with this, we can perform analyzes not only on the change in the role of regional nodes, the so-called "hubs", but also on the development of emerging regional hubs (emergent regional hubs/ERG).
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