Doctoral Colloquium – How do international student recruiters navigate their work to recruit Chinese international students? An Institutional Ethnographic Study about international student recruiters’ work

Date and Location

October 8th, 2024
12:30 pm – 2 pm, at PCN 2012
6445 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2

Presenter

Yu (Jade) Guo

Abstract

The recruitment of international students has become an essential element of internationalization for Canadian post-secondary institutions, as bringing international students to Canada not only helps respond to budget shortfalls and generate revenue but also acts as a national-building project to attract future immigrants for economic prosperity (Bozhewa, 2018; Buckner et al., 2020). Despite the extensive research on international education, there is a gap in understanding the daily activities and challenges faced by international student recruiters (ISRs), the frontline workers with international students. Using Dorothy Smith’s (2005) Institutional Ethnography as both a theoretical and methodological framework, this study examines the standpoints of ISRs,  and explicates how the work of international student recruiters is socially organized in Canadian post-secondary institutions. The research also aims to elucidate the links between ISRs’ experience in their local organizational settings and the extralocal ruling relations through text-based discourse, including international education policies, Canadian immigration policies, and media discourse, making the invisible discourse and power visible in the activities of recruitment of international students.

 

RSVP