ABSTRACT
The dimension of international student mobility has evolved with regard to its direction, flow, and magnitude. The rise in internationally mobile students across the world point to how scholar mobility remains at the heart of international higher education. Historically speaking, the movement has largely been from the global south to the global north. The countries in the north have time and again launched initiatives to make their higher education institutions attractive to international students. International students, especially from China and India, have preferred the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and some parts of Europe like Germany.
Europe, which along with the US, has been broadly construed as the “west”, especially in the eyes of the developing world, has also made several organized efforts to develop as a higher education destination. Erasmus Programmes, the Bologna Process, and other policy instruments and architecture have provided Europe with an edge over others in making a place for themselves in the higher education landscape.
The very conventional movement from the developing world to developed nations has invited deliberations on the hierarchies that exist in international student mobility. This chapter sheds light on the changing student preferences with regard to higher education, followed by an exploration of student mobility trends in Europe, and focuses on how central and eastern European countries (CEEC), with Latvia being a case in point, have come to be an attractive destination for international students, especially students from India. The chapter analyses these trends in students’ mobility toward CEEC by unearthing the reasons for this trend and estimating the changes in this in times of war and political changes.
