Where choosing South-South mobility is a compromise

Increasingly, non-Western geographies like the Southeast Asian region are challenging, if not nullifying, a Western-centric international higher education system. As a result of their transformative entanglements of economic, technological, geopolitical and cultural forces, their peripherality seems increasingly invalidated.

The potential of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region in terms of study destinations is growing. As an emerging regional hub, Malaysia is a good example when it comes to hosting international students. In particular, Malaysia saw a doubling of international PhD applications in 2021, while many other countries saw declines because of COVID-19.

However, there’s an interesting paradox to Malaysia’s increased popularity as a study destination.

In one sense, Malaysia has benefited from more international students, while other countries have suffered because of COVID-19. Its affordable and multicultural environment and an offering of English-medium programmes is believed to have helped to boost the number of Chinese students in its universities.

Yet, challenges for Chinese students enrolled in Malaysian progammes, especially at the doctoral level, along with some other universities in Southeast Asia, have been highlighted in some widespread Chinese media reports.

Student experiences

In our recent study, we interviewed 10 Chinese doctoral students studying in two Malaysian universities that have gained international renown to better understand international student experiences.

In all, the study shows that, despite taking advantage of an educational offering in the South and reaping commensurate benefits, Chinese doctoral students inadvertently reinforce ideas of Western supremacy.

On the one hand, Malaysia has grown to be a popular Southern destination that has taken advantage of its unique pull factors. Malaysia’s unique economic, geographical and cultural pull factors have shifted the power dynamics in international education that could destabilise the centre-periphery power hegemony.

Planned and emerging hubs such as Malaysia provide a counterbalance to the long-standing asymmetry dominating the landscape of international student mobility where the West is centred, and the Rest seem to be marginalised.

Participants in our research described the study journey as an accumulative process of academic socialisation and personal growth. Chinese students’ mobility to Malaysia or South-South mobility generally is infused with positive experiences. The students reported optimistic outlooks, and a transformation in their academic capabilities, future employability and cultural diversity.

A realistic compromise

However, the students frequently said they preferred to study in Anglophone countries but could not realise this due to financial issues, failure to meet admission requirements or family or personal circumstances.

Even though Malaysia was chosen by the students, it was a realistic compromise since their most desirable choices were unattainable. This make-do mentality reinforces the ingrained legacy of colonialism that attaches more symbolic power to credentials obtained from former colonial countries. This shows the desirability and superiority of certain destinations over others with regard to student mobility.

Furthermore, although the students rejected a discriminatory discourse that they believed was improperly associated with Southeast Asian doctorates, their resistance was shaped by and subjected to forms of ‘othered’ self-approval. This was shown in their pursuit of world-class prestige that perpetuates the hegemony of the Global North and targeted publication efforts that reinforce academic injustice.

By targeting international high-quality journals that observe gatekeeping mechanisms stipulated mostly by the Anglo-West, they may inadvertently be reinforcing the Western hegemony in an already unequal publishing sphere where Western gatekeepers control the publishing companies, the editorial boards and the refereeing system. Asserting that Global North values and interests should be aspired to and invested in reinforces colonial assumptions.

Western dominance

Overall, our research reveals two opposing forces that are intertwined and impact Chinese doctoral students’ pre-departure decision-making processes and their in-the-moment navigation of a doctoral trajectory.

While Global South institutions yielded commensurate benefits, the students’ self-subjugation and make-do mentality frames Malaysia as a compromise but at the same time normalises the Anglo-West as a standard that others need to live up to and perpetuates Western dominance.

Our research urges future efforts to address these inequalities in international higher education to establish and sustain a more equitable post-pandemic world that benefits all actors involved in international student mobility.

Here are some recommendations:

• The adoption of a pluralistic lens into international student mobility research that attends more to non-traditional geographies other than those South-North patterns that have been widely investigated for decades.

• Tackling inequalities involved in teaching, learning and research partnerships with a decolonial approach by recognising, activating and capitalising on the knowledges, values and traditions of Southern theories and practices brought by international students and academics.

• Striving for a multipolar world built on scientific globalism which aims for the global public good rather than scientific nationalism which embraces one country’s gain as another’s loss. This can be partially boosted by creating an auditing culture that pluralises rankings and metrics of scientific production and impacts, helping non-English publications to secure a foothold in international journal publishing.

Xing Xu is a visiting scholar in the School of Education, Deakin University, Australia. Xing has published on international students such as their self-formation and agentic identity construction as well as emerging narratives around international higher education in the Global South context. Xing’s research and publications can be found on this page. Ly Tran is a professor in the School of Education and Research for Educational Impact (REDI), Deakin University, Australia. Ly has published extensively on internationalisation of education, international students, international graduate employability, Indo-Pacific student mobility and comparative and Vietnamese higher education. Ly’s research and publications can be found in this profile.

This article is a commentary. Commentary articles are the opinion of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of University World News.