In the future, the higher education sector of the world will undergo “fundamental transformation in terms of its role in society, mode of operation, economic structure and value” (Ernst and Young, 2012, p.4). One of the potential drivers that may transform the higher education sector could be global mobility.

The competition between world universities’ global mobility will probably intensify the demand for talented scholars and students. However, this phenomenon might not only bring strong competition, but could also provide opportunities to move towards much deeper bilateral partnerships amongst higher educational organisations and to wider access to international students and scholars (Ernst and Young,2012).

The number of students who are studying overseas has increased. The preference of most students is for the universities of English speaking countries such as United Kingdome, United States, Australia and Canada. However, in the last few years, universities in developing countries have also joined the higher education market to attract global talents thus making the competition within the market even stronger (Bhandar, 2011).  

Therefore, the main intention of project is to attempt to identify the extent of the negative and positive impacts of this phenomenon on one research university in the United Kingdome and a research university located in Kazakhstan (the names of the universities will not be revealed in this project) and to define their response to the challenges brought by the global mobility and  the recruitment strategies of these universities to attract students and scholars   in a global market.

The leading research questions of this project are:

1. What will be the positive and negative impacts of global mobility on the higher education sectors of the United Kingdome and Kazakhstan in the future?

2. How will these universities attract talented academics and students in a globally competitive market?

3. How will these universities cope with challenges brought about global mobility?

Academic research projects in an area of international migration considered students’ mobility as a part of international migration until recent time. From beginning of the 2001, researchers started to investigate International Student Mobility as a separate trend since the number international students who study overseas significantly increased.  One chapter in the OECD report 2001 about International Migration focuses on students’ mobility into and between OCED countries (OECD 200, p.93-117). Similarly, The World Migration report has also a chapter in “a context of the internalisation of higher education” (IOM 2008, p.105-125).

The experts of the United Kingdom higher education sector made a meticulous examination of policy standards and recruitment methods of universities in Anglophone countries which have been utilised over forty-five years. These experts identified three discourses such as “academic internationalism, economic competition and development” (Bollsmann and Miller, 2008, p.80) that are pertinent to the recruitment of international students and teachers. One of the effective recruitment standards vindicated by the English universities is “Academic internationalism or Republic of Letter” (Bollsmann and Miller, 2008, p.80). Academic internationalism represents an ingrained ideology indicating that universities are centres of learning and research. Therefore, universities attract talented students and prominent scholars with the global context to undertake research by providing scholarships.

The Initial idea for this project was driven from the case studies evaluating the future impact of global mobility to the world higher education sectors and examination of recruitment strategies of world universities to attract talented students conducted by Ernst and Young team (2012) and Bolsmann and Miller (2008) respectively. Through the investigation of the outcomes of these case studies, it was possible to draw a general picture of the influence of global mobility on world higher education institutions and recruitment policies of universities in a global scale.

Multiple or comparative case studies will be applied for this particular research project. As mentioned in Rowley’s (2002) work most of the novice scientists who are willing to conduct a small size project at their working place or compare a restricted number of establishments select case study as a conventional research methodology. Therefore, only a one department of one research-based university of UK and an equivalent research university from Kazakhstan is selected for this project as a focus area to investigate the case of the influence of the global mobility on the universities and their implication. Case study gives an opportunity to the researcher to closely collaborate with participants. By telling their point of view to the researcher, individuals can articulate their framework of reality enabling the researcher to acquire comprehensive understanding about actions taken by them (Lather, 1992; Robottom and Hart, 1993). Due to these facts semi-structured interview will be conducted with the head of the educational departments and academics in order to collect in-depth qualitative data and gain insights into the impact of global mobility. In addition to this, documents are being analysed as a source of evidence collection technique. However, Newby (2010) mentioned the limitation of this particular methodology the fact that sampled research participators’ point of view might be interpreted in the wrong way as the researcher’s own idea might be predominant in the reflective part. In case study it is often complicated to achieve the authentic answer for the research question which reveals another limitation to generalize the outcome of the project (Thomas, 2016). Nevertheless, to endeavour to avoid these circumstances and to ensure the validity of the data, the written transcription of interview will be sent to the interviewees to clarify the appropriateness of interpretation of their answers. Also there will be a request to add or amend the information if the case needs. After finishing the interviews, all the information was transposed into the transcript containing the raw data which will be used to extract answers for each research questions. As it was suggested by Drever (2003, p.60) the process was implemented through “data preparation” where raw data was edited and executed into one format. Thematic content analysis was applied and three additional themes that are “Diversification of Culture”, “Changing Traditional Standards of Education” and “Social Media” were identified to the previously identified areas.

Multiple or comparative case studies will be applied for this particular research project. As mentioned in Rowley’s (2002) work most of the novice scientists who are willing to conduct a small size project at their working place or compare a restricted number of establishments select case study as a conventional research methodology. Therefore, only a one department of one research-based university of UK and an equivalent research university from Kazakhstan is selected for this project as a focus area to investigate the case of the influence of the global mobility on the universities and their implication. The semi-structured interview was conducted with the head of the educational departments and academics in order to collect in-depth qualitative data and gain insights into the impact of global mobility. In addition to this, documents are being analysed as a source of evidence collection technique. However, Newby (2010) mentioned the limitation of this particular methodology the fact that sampled research participators’ point of view might be interpreted in the wrong way as the researcher’s own idea might be predominant in the reflective part. In case study it is often complicated to achieve the authentic answer for the research question which reveals another limitation to generalize the outcome of the project (Thomas, 2016). Nevertheless, to endeavour to avoid these circumstances and to ensure the validity of the data, the written transcription of interview will be sent to the interviewees to clarify the appropriateness of interpretation of their answers. Also there will be a request to add or amend the information if the case needs. After finishing the interviews, all the information was transposed into the transcript containing the raw data which will be used to extract answers for each research questions.

Barragán Codina, J.N. and Leal López, R.H. (2013) The importance of student mobility, academic exchange and internationalization of higher education for college students in a globalized world: The Mexican and Latin American case. Daena: International Journal of Good Conscience, 8(2), 48-63. Bhandari, R. and Laughlin, S. (eds) (2009) Higher Education on the Move: New Developments in Global Mobility. New York: Institute of International Education. Bolsmann, C. and Miller, H. (2008) International student recruitment to universities in England: discourse, rationales and globalisation. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 6:1, 75-88. Carson, D., Gilmore, A., Perry, C. and Gronhaug, K. (2001) Qualitative marketing research. Sage. Coe, R. J. (2012) Conducting your research. Research methods and methodologies in education, 41. Cohen, L., Manion, L., and Morrison, K. (2011) Research methods in education. Milton Park. Abingdon, Oxon, (England): Routledge. Council, U.K. (2010) International student mobility literature review. Crabtree, B.F. and Miller, W.L. (1999) Researching practice settings: a case study approach. Doing Qualitative Research. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp.293-312.Yin, R.K., 1994. Case study research: design and methods. 1994. Thousand Oaks, CA. Dash, N.K. (1993). Research Paradigms in Education: Towards a Resolution. Journal of Indian Education 19(2), 1-6. Dash K.N. (2005) Selection of the research paradigm and methodology. http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/researchmethods/Mo dules/Selection_of_methodology/index.php (21/02/16) Dervin, F. and Byram, M. (eds) (2008) Échanges et Mobilités Académiques: Quel Bilan? Paris: L’Harmattan. (English version) Drever, E. (2003) Using Semi-Structured Interviews in Small-Scale Research (revised edition). Using Research Series. Glasgow, UK: Scottish Council for Research in Education Flick, U. (2009) An introduction to qualitative research. SAGE Publications. IOM (2008) World Migration 2008. Managing Labour Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy. Geneva: IOM Khatanmarte.aaahost.co, 2016. http://khatanmarte.aaahost.co/ontology-research-methods589458.html?ckattempt=1 (21/02/16) Kuhn, T.S. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Murphy-Lejeune, E. (2002) Student Mobility and Narrative in Europe: The New Strangers. London: Routledge. Newby, P., 2010. Research methods for education. Pearson Education. OECD (2001) Trends in International Migration. Paris: OECD/SOPEMI. Rowley, J. (2002) Using case studies in research. Management research news, 25(1),16-27. Simons, H. (1989) "Ethics of case study in educational research and evaluation." The ethics of educational research, 114-140. Yin, R.K. (2003) Applications of case study research. Sage. Yin, R.K. (2011) Applications of case study research. Sage. Yin, R.K. (2013) Case study research: Design and methods. Sage publications.