Regional student mobility as a sustainable development strategy in Africa: Examining the lived experiences of regionally mobile scholarship recipients

• In Event: International higher education scholarships and sustainable development: exploring sustainability across theory and practice

Proposal

African governments and philanthropic organizations have long supported African students to pursue higher education abroad through scholarships in an effort to develop human capital in designated priority fields. In response to higher education education policies that led to inadequate financing and subsequently lower quality education at many African universities, scholarships provided by African countries typically send students to pursue degrees off the continent (Assie-Lumumba, 2006). However, the renewal of support for African higher education over the past two decades has contributed to the emergence of new patterns of intra-continental mobility with growing numbers of African students now pursuing degrees on the African continent. The proliferation of programs and initiatives to support the regional mobility of African students has contributed to increasing efforts to create a conducive policy environment--including funding opportunities and immigration regulations--to support these activities (Chien & Kot, 2012).

Despite this recent expansion of African student mobility and its continued role in national and international development strategies, there is little research examining the lived experiences of regionally mobile African scholarship recipients. Given the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the global commitment to substantially expand the number of higher education scholarships available in developing countries by 2020, further research is needed to inform the design of related policies and programs. The purpose of this paper is to inform such efforts by presenting findings from a study of regionally mobile students from across the African continent who have received funding to pursue undergraduate degrees in Ghana and Uganda through a comprehensive scholarship program. In addition to understanding their overall experiences, we focus on how regionally mobile students develop social capital through their international education.

Theories of social and institutional capital highlight the significant role that social connections and institutional affiliation play in the process of converting academic credentials into economic capital and reproducing relative levels of social privilege (Bourdieu, 1986; Granovetter, 1995; Lee & Brinton, 1996). Few studies, however, attend to the location of where social capital is developed and converted and its implications for social mobility. In this study, we draw on spatially informed notions of social capital to analyze the lived experiences of regionally mobile African scholarship recipients. As Waters & Leung (2013) argue, it is important to attend to “the spatialities of social capital and its conversion” in order to understand how educational opportunities produce social advantage (p. 165).

We draw on findings from a larger qualitative study examining the social networks of African students who received comprehensive scholarships to pursue degrees on and off the African continent. To examine the experiences of regionally mobile African students, we conducted focus groups and semi-structured interviews with a sample of international scholarship recipients pursuing undergraduate degrees in Ghana and Uganda. Data was then transcribed and analyzed by using a combination of theoretical and substantive coding (Maxwell, 2005).

We conclude with a discussion of implications for policy makers and practitioners involved in designing and implementing international scholarship programs that advance social mobility and sustainable development in a world of staggering inequalities (Walker, 2012).

Authors

• Aryn Raye Baxter, Arizona State University

• Yeukai Mlambo, Arizona State University

• Atota Halkiyo, Arizona State University