Policy mobilities in the race for talent: competitive state strategies in international student mobility

In the first decade of the 21st century, several countries introduced a series of strikingly similar international student mobility policies and initiatives. Driven by a desire to expand their international student market share and to benefit from the potential contributions that international students can make to national innovation agendas, comparable policy tools were introduced in multiple states across the fields of international trade, higher education and immigration. This paper challenges depictions of these changes as a natural evolution of economic globalisation and draws on the policy mobility literature to interrogate the why and the how of the policymaking process. Drawing on research with policymakers, the paper comparatively examines the introduction of international student policies and initiatives in Canada and the UK from 2000 to 2010, and illustrates that the policy development path is the result of a competitive process wherein certain policy ideas become popular and travel, or become mobile. In so doing, I draw attention to the relationship between international student mobility, changing geographies of higher education and global knowledge economy discourses, highlighting the interconnected nature of the policy sphere as competitor jurisdictions seek to outdo each other in their attempt to attract and retain international students.