Blog posts of the category Three questions for ...

“International experiences often sharpen people’s sense of injustice and responsibility”

Maia Chankseliani is Professor of Comparative and International Education at the University of Oxford, specialising in the role of higher education in social, economic, and political development. Last year, she finished a three-year research project entitled ‘International mobility and world development’, for which she and her colleagues conducted over 700 interviews in 70 countries and examined various systemic effects of international academic mobility. In our interview with her, she explains what mechanisms explain how international academic mobility can reduce poverty and promote democracy and what practical conclusions for politics and science can be drawn from this, especially in times of mounting global isolationism against immigration.

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“Immigrants who are seemingly well integrated do not always feel emotionally connected to their destination country”

Andreas Genoni is a sociologist working at the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) in Germany. Together with his colleague Didier Ruedin, he recently published an analysis entitled ‘When expectations backfire: Unmet migration expectations and changes in the destination attachment of recent immigrants to Switzerland’. In their paper, the two authors examine the relationship between immigrants' expectations of Switzerland as a country of residence and their emotional attachment to Switzerland over time. In an interview with us, Genoni explains what the important ‘integration paradox’ is all about, what he considers to be the key findings of the analysis, and what conclusions can be drawn from this for political practice.

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“Donald Trump’s presidency is a disaster for American universities and research”

Exactly one year ago, Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States of America. What impact have his administration's policies had on the US higher education and science system since then? Are the accusations that universities such as Harvard University are not doing enough to combat antisemitic activities on their campuses justified? And how exactly is Donald Trump's second term in office affecting the work of international researchers at universities in the US? We discussed these questions with German Harvard researcher Mathias Risse, Professor in Human Rights, Global Affairs and Philosophy and Director of the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard University.

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“Countries and universities with a broader international network seem to be more resilient”

One of the spotlight articles of this year's main edition of ‘Wissenschaft weltoffen’ deals with the effects of exogenous shocks on international researcher mobility. In an interview with us, author Dr Andrey Lovakov, postdoctoral researcher at the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW), explains what data he used for this analysis, what he considers to be the most important and surprising findings, and what practical conclusions can be drawn from them for the future.

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„International students want to stay, which is a huge opportunity for the German labour market“

International students in Germany are largely optimistic about their professional future. The DAAD surveyed more than 20,000 international students at over 130 German universities about their perspectives on their career prospects. Two thirds plan to stay in Germany after their studies. The intention to stay…

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What do student visas cost – and why?

Emanuel Deutschmann is an assistant professor of sociological theory at the University of Flensburg and an associate at the Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. In this interview, he reports on the findings of an analysis of the costs of student visas worldwide, which he published as part of the DAAD publication series ‘DAAD Research Brief’. He discusses the reasons for conducting the analysis, its key findings and the recommendations that he believes should be followed based on the findings.

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“DAAD-funded publications are based on a high proportion of international collaborations”

Dr Torger Möller and Philippe Dittmann are research associates at the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW). Together, they conducted a study examining the impact of DAAD graduate funding based on the publications of (former) DAAD grantees. In this interview, they explain their methodological approach, what they consider to be the key findings of the study, and what practical recommendations can be derived from these findings for the DAAD and other funding organisations.

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“We analysed to what extent international students strengthen the skilled labour workforce in the country, especially after completing their studies”

A new study by the German Economic Institute (IW), commissioned by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), is the first to comprehensively analyse the economic impact of international students from the start of their studies up to their retirement. The study indicates that the approximately…

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“The biggest crisis since Harvard was founded”

Michael Gritzbach is an MPA student at Harvard and an elected member of the Kennedy School Student Government. In this interview, he explains why the student government at Harvard is so important right now, what the current situation is for international students there and what he thinks of the current US government's accusation that Harvard's university management has not taken sufficient action against anti-semitic protests on campus.

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“We find a correlation between the role of anti-pluralist parties and declining academic freedom”

Dr Angelo Vito Panaro is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Political Science at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg. He is involved in the “Academic Freedom Index” (AFI) research project which measures and compares academic freedom worldwide once a year. In this interview, he explains how the negative trend in Germany’s AFI values is to be understood, why there are so much more countries with declining than increasing AFI values and what can be learned from the developments in Argentina, Poland and the United States.

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