Why and how is outbound international student mobility practiced in the times of high/hyperinflation? The Case of Argentina and Venezuela

• In Event: Education

Proposal

Introduction
In the study of international student mobility (ISM), while some may be supported by grants and/or selective scholarships on academic merit, they are regarded as inherently wealthy and capable of undertaking studies abroad at will (Yao et al., 2019), Nevertheless, save for the ludicrously affluent ones, why do they persist when their local currencies are encroached by persistent high, or hyperinflation at home, rendering them incapable of accurately estimating the costs of studying abroad? And how do they come up with such decisions and navigate the process?
Research Questions
According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2023), in the five years between 2016 and 2020, the number of Argentinian tertiary students studying abroad increased by 31.7% from 7,593 to 9,998. At the same time, in Venezuela, we saw a 68.9% increase from 18,779 to 31,707. However, during this period, the accumulated domestic inflation rate in Argentina was 198.4% (The World Bank Group, 2023), meaning that Argentinian students almost needed to pay doubled tuition and living expenses should they want to study abroad. The situation in Venezuela is even bleaker, as the purchasing power of the local currency has almost vanished after the country experienced an astonishing 88,200% inflation within these five years (IMF, 2021).
This scenario is inconceivable in the “academic north”, such as the USA, Britain and Canada which enjoy stable exchange rates. While we may continue to assume the outgoing Argentinian or Venezuelan students are either “inherently wealthy” or well-supported by scholarships, it remains bewildering to understand why more students manage, or choose to study overseas despite the domestic financial crisis. It is thus important to understand why they persist, how do they make themselves financially prepared for overseas study, and the rationales behind despite experiencing high inflation, popular protests and political instability.
Unfortunately, the significance of financial factors in international higher education is often underplayed. This study thus hopes to fill this research gap and shed light on (a) why ISM accelerates in Argentina and Venezuela despite pressing inflation concerns, and (b) how do these international students make their decisions and navigate the obstacles brought by domestic inflation.
Literature review of the motivations behind ISM and financing international higher education
The classical “push-pull model” was developed by Gambetta (1984) to address educational choices, and later adapted to make sense of ISM by Mazzarol and Soutar (2002). It argues that ISM is facilitated by both the presence of unfavourable factors at home (e.g., political instability) and attractive factors abroad (e.g., higher income). Indeed, brain drain in South America has been a long-standing and recurrent issue (Pellegrino, 2001) because of economic instability and public security in the region. This model can thus be used to analyze why Argentinian and Venezuelan students yearn for studying abroad amid domestic financial turmoil brought by high inflation.
According to Choudaha (2017), the availability of scholarships and financial aid was one of the driving factors of ISM from 1999 to 2006. Jones (2017) and Zhang, O’Shea, and Mou (2021) argued that financial factors can also be understood at individual level (personal/family financial preparedness) and institutional level (financial aid and support) when considering students’ academic experience and motivation for ISM. The study by Salisbury, Umbach, Paulsen and Pascarella (2009) and Salisbury, Paulsen and Pascarella (2011) concluded that in the context of liberal arts education in the USA, lower income students who lack financial capital are less likely to study abroad. A later study based in Georgia, USA by Whatley (2017) suggested otherwise, highlighting those who have access to grants/scholarships are actually more likely to study abroad, but those who need to rely on loans to finance their studies remain less likely. Also, those who rely on family contributions to fund their studies are less likely to study abroad. In the context of Argentina and Venezuela, the availability and significance of scholarships and loans available at home and abroad is thus crucial in understanding the increasing ISM.
Preliminary discussion themes
With reference to Becker (2009)’s human capital theory, I argue that Argentinian and Venezuelan students are “pulled” by the fact that they are able to develop better skill sets for their future career and life by studying abroad. At the same time, the poor economic outlook, security concerns (particularly for Venezuela) and precarious position of local currencies imply a fruitless and risky future career in their home countries, thereby “pushing” them abroad. Derived from Börjesson (2017)’s three logics of international student recruitment, while decisions of outbound ISM in Argentina and Venezuela can be interpreted using market, colonial and proximity logics, market logic is the most salient in the times of high inflation, and both colonial and proximity logics may subjugate to and supplement the market logic.
I will also refer to the present literature on how the financial destitute impacts and transforms the lives of local Argentinian and Venezuelan citizens, and apply them to the context of seeking higher education abroad. Given that the access to higher education is highly inequitable in the whole South America (Maldonado-Maldonado & Reyes, 2020) and those enrolling in free public HEIs are predominantly social elites, I argue that Whatley (2017)’s findings are partially applicable to the two countries, meaning that those with lower socioeconomic statuses (but not with sufficient academic merit to warrant grants and scholarships) are less responsive to local high inflation, have fewer tools to sustain and overcome the challenges of high inflation, and thus less likely to engage in ISM. On the contrary, the elite families are more prepared for the shock brought by hyperinflation, and therefore more supportive of their children’s overseas studies as a means to extend their families’ fortune.
Conclusion and significance
Rather than taking ISM as granted, this study seeks to contribute to comparative and international research on higher education in terms of understanding the politics of higher education in Latin American contexts, fill the void of how ISM is financed, and provide higher education practitioners and policymakers with insights to address these challenges in order to maintain the momentum of increasing ISM.

Author

• Sze Ling Hung, OISE/University of Toronto