Media Mediation on Academic Advancement for Youths' International Mobility Pursuing Higher Education

Introduction

At present, screen-mediated communications bring the characteristics of globalization to the public. Globalization is identified as full of paradox, disordered, unpredictable, irreversible, and incomplete. Thus, globalization provides the conditions that unhook individuals from their traditional social and cultural structures (Sheller et al., 2014; Sheller & Urry, 2003; Urry, 2003, 2005). These mobility processes of globalization and their intersections change people’s lives, aspirations, and imaginations about their international mobilities. In the twenty-first century, ‘global media’ presents freedom of mobility as an evocative keyword that creates the context and effects of mobilities (Hannam et al., 2006; Urry, 2016). Further, Urry (2016, p. 4) identifies five interdependent mobilities “that are producing social life organized across multiple distances and which form (and reform) its contemporary contours”. These mobilities refer to the physical travel of people, the physical movement of objects, the imaginative travel of places and people through media images, the virtual travel of people and objects, and the communicative travel of people.

In the competitive global education market, students’ mobility in pursuing higher education is considered one of the critical issues related to universities’ policies and practices (Islam, 2021). Analyzing the literature on international students’ mobility, Islam (2019) identifies 3Cs – i.e., culture, course and career as the broad categories that cover most of the identified motivations behind mobility in international higher education. According to him, course or educational factors refer to the position of the university in the international ranking, English-speaking environment, institutional and program characteristics, learning environment, and educational and living expenses during the study period. In the last couple of decades, Australian universities have had their position confirmed as a crucial emerging destination for international students, especially among young Bangladeshi people. Young Bangladeshi students’ mobility motivators comprise the influence of cultural practices in the local and international job markets (Islam, 2022b), their families (Islam, 2022a) and so on. In this chapter, a picture of those young students’ decisions about overseas higher education is illustrated through outlining the linkage among academic and other advancement issues and media where the culture of the neoliberal consumerist world played a vital role. For this purpose, the role of media is showed to create the effect of Bangladeshi and Australian educational institutions on developing consumer desire in young students. These two different perspectives combine to form one goal: young students’ international mobility. The two research questions that investigated through this chapter are:

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  How do the educational factors motivated young Bangladeshi students to seek a qualification from Australian universities?

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  How do the global media influence these young people to be motivated towards the educational factors?

Finally, the findings in this paper aim to inform researchers and policymakers in both host and sending countries about the politics and power related to mobilities by articulating a critical analysis on present practices in global media and academic institutions.

Education, Mobility And Media

Globalization influence education policies, structures, practices and the experiences that students bring with them to their education (Rizvi & Lingard, 2000). In the discussion of ‘globalization and education’ two major issues can be found. Firstly, the influence of global economic competitiveness on educational policy and decision making. Secondly, the role of education systems to prepare students to live well in the globalized world. In the twenty-first century, participation in higher education is essential for young people in many developed and developing nations. This means securing a place in a higher educational institution, and if possible, gaining admission to a top university. As a result, the number of international students is dramatically increasing worldwide.