Connections to Home: A Multi-University Retrospective Tracer Study on International African Alumni Relationships with Country of Origin

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

Objectives and main questions to be addressed:

This panel will present the methods and early preliminary findings of an on-going multi-university research project: "Career and Life Trajectories of African Alumni of International Universities", led by the University of California, Berkeley. Partner universities include Michigan State University from the United States, McGill University, University of Toronto and Simon Fraser University from Canada, EARTH University from Costa Rica, and the American University of Beirut. Six of these seven universities are also partners with the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program that provides comprehensive scholarships to high-achieving sub-Saharan African youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to attend selected North American and African universities. The mixed methods retrospective tracer study is in part motivated by the intention to derive findings that will improve the programming of the Scholars Program (2012-2020) in our respective universities, in particular, to further understanding on "give back" and "go back" behaviors by African alumni and how personal, educational, and socio-economic context variables have shaped their decisions and relationships with their “countries of origin” over time. As we study the career and life paths of our institutions’ graduates from sub­Saharan Africa, our central question is: What are the experiences of African alumni of international higher education institutions after graduation?

Conceptual framework:

The limited extent of prior scholarship on this topic necessitates, as a first step in addressing the central question or any related questions, the systematic collection of primary data through tracing, surveys, and qualitative interviews. There are two additional outcomes of interest around which we have structured our research. The first outcome is the decision (or multiple decisions) of graduates regarding return to their country of origin. Our second outcome is the civic and social engagement of African alumni with their country of origin over time.
The primary data collected in this project will be particularly relevant to the large body of literature in area studies and development economics on the socio-economic benefits and costs of out-migration by highly educated nationals from developing countries. This is commonly known as “brain drain”, with clear benefits for host countries and more mixed and lesser-known consequences for sending countries. Research on the global migration of talent by Kapur and McHale (October 2005) of the Center for Global Development highlights the potential negative consequences of “brain drain” for institutional development in sending states, especially small, developing countries. On the positive side, “brain circulation” refers to the growing investments by diaspora communities in science, technology, education and business in their countries of origin, as well as evidence of a growing number of “return” emigrants. As our sample of graduates of international universities includes substantial numbers of students who returned, and others who stayed, the survey and narrative interviews offer an excellent opportunity to begin to identify causal factors explaining these decisions.
Importance to comparative/international education: As noted above, this study lends a new perspective to issues of student mobility and “brain drain”, specifically in African countries. The panelists will share preliminary observations from the first round of data collection and discuss the relationship of these initial findings to current understandings of this phenomenon. Additionally, the panelists will provide insight into the methods, challenges, and opportunities for large multi-institutional collaborative studies. The presenters will address strategies used in planning the study, networking with partners, and lessons learned from the process so far.

Session Structure:

Four or five of the study’s research partners will participate in the panel: Dr. Robin Marsh (University of California, Berkeley, Lead Researcher), Dr. Amy Jamison (Michigan State University, Principal Investigator), Dr. Meggan Madden (Middlebury/Monterey Institute for International Studies, Associate Researcher), and Dr. Lina di Genova (McGill, Principal Investigator); and, if funding is secured, Sidee Dlamini (UC Berkeley, Graduate Student Researcher, MasterCard Foundation Scholar). Each of the panelists will address a relevant aspect of the study as described below.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Africa

Chair

• Sidee Dlamini, University of California, Berkeley

Individual Presentations

• International African alumni multi-university retrospective tracer study - Robin Ruth Marsh, University of California, Berkeley

• Global student mobility of students from sub-Saharan Africa - Meggan Madden, Middlebury/Monterey Institute of International Studies

• Lessons from a mixed methods research approach with six universities on three continents - Lina di Genova, McGill University

• African Alumni Project: Some initial findings - Amy Jamison, Michigan State University