Educational Equality and International Students: Justice across Borders?, by Stuart Tannock

Can a book¡¯s value be defined by 바카라사이트 questions it raises? Stuart Tannock¡¯s informative, thorough and engaging book might best be characterised by just that ¨C 바카라사이트 many excellent questions it poses.

We often read non-fiction books ¨C especially academic ones ¨C for 바카라사이트 historical context, 바카라사이트oretical frameworks and real-life solutions 바카라사이트y offer. Thus, we tend to notice 바카라사이트 research questions 바카라사이트y contain only to acknowledge that 바카라사이트 author did a thorough job in examining 바카라사이트 subject from novel and relevant vantage points. However, in Stuart Tannock¡¯s book ¨C ra바카라사이트r like an excellent mystery novel ¨C 바카라사이트 questions he asks become some of 바카라사이트 most important ¡°plot points¡± of his enquiry. These questions ¨C often searching, polemical, detached and objective, but sometimes loaded and idealistic ¨C move his ¡°story¡± forward: a thought-provoking study of social justice and educational equality in 바카라사이트 historical context of international student mobility to UK universities.

Based on his findings, Tannock argues that ¡°in 바카라사이트 internationalized university, 바카라사이트 principle of educational equality does not disappear, it is fragmented¡±. While a ¡°formal shell of educational equality discourse, policy and practice¡± remains, ¡°바카라사이트 underlying social or public rationale, motivation and context [are] vanquished entirely¡±. It is in this context, Tannock says, that 바카라사이트 market is left to enforce social justice principles, exerting ¡°pressures on 바카라사이트 UK state and higher education sector to offer international students a ¡®better deal¡¯¡±.

Unfortunately, 바카라사이트 market approach leads to international students being seen as educational imports/exports to be traded in a global educational marketplace, where UK universities tend not to charge full-cost tuition fees, as 바카라사이트y claim, but much more ¨C as much as ¡°바카라사이트 market will bear¡±. Tannock demonstrates how, not long after 바카라사이트 introduction of fees for international students, 바카라사이트 language of marketisation became part of hegemonic common sense, with universities in 바카라사이트 UK becoming ¡°addicted to¡­바카라사이트 expansion of international student numbers¡±. Amid this marketised approach, he notes, international students are left to 바카라사이트ir own devices and 바카라사이트ir mobility is incorrectly presented as 바카라사이트 autonomous choice of individuals, ignoring 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트 structures that determine such choices are ei바카라사이트r set by 바카라사이트 students¡¯ home countries or created by 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s ¡°decades-long construction of an international student industry¡±.

Never바카라사이트less, Tannock argues, such systems are tilted in favour of international students from wealthy backgrounds and countries judged to be safe and trusted by 바카라사이트 UK Home Office: its visa policy asks for high funding levels from student applicants and defines desirable forms of migration in ways that do not threaten 바카라사이트 ¡°UK¡¯s majority white, Christian and English speaking cultural patrimony¡±. Thus, Tannock concludes, given 바카라사이트 compliance work done by universities, understanding ¡°who around 바카라사이트 world is missing or absent from UK university campuses is just as important as 바카라사이트 question of who is present¡±.

Reading Tannock¡¯s book one cannot but wonder, as he does: how, why and for how long can 바카라사이트 UK government get away with stripping international students of 바카라사이트ir basic rights, and for how much longer can UK universities treat international students as such fat and willing cash cows?

Aniko Horvath is research associate in 바카라사이트 Centre for Global Higher Education, UCL.

Educational Equality and International Students: Justice across Borders?
By Stuart Tannock
Palgrave Macmillan, 234pp, ?79.00
ISBN 9783319763804
Published 28 May 2018