Globalization and Transnational Academic Mobility: A Case Study of Chinese Academic Returnees

Cross-border academic mobility is not a new phenomenon in the history of higher education. What appears new, however, is that the “previously sporadic, exceptional and limited international academic links have become increasingly systematic, dense, multiple and transnational” (Kim, 2010: 400). This is not only driven by the rapid global flows of goods, people, images, technologies, and monies (Appadurai, 1996), but also shaped by both national and super-national policy discourses and practices. Moreover, the interactions of open global dealings (e.g. WTO) on higher education and the increasingly interconnected institutional networks of universities and knowledge have contributed to create the new patterns of academic mobility. This is not only changing the way in which academics mobilize and operate but is also transforming the landscapes of higher education on a global scale.