International student mobility and the politics of distance education

Internationalization at a distance (IaD) has been loosely defined as distance education across borders or the international mobility of knowledge without human mobility. It is largely celebrated, for example, for its potential to improve global education access and mitigate environmental harm. However, this depoliticized positioning risks overlooking IaD's relationship to uneven human mobility flows structured by global inequities. In response, this paper calls for a critical IaD research agenda, starting by drawing attention to the mobility politics of IaD at the postsecondary level. First, it proposes a more nuanced conceptualization of IaD rooted in insights from critical border studies, described here as bordered distance education. Second, it suggests the use of two theorizations of capital—citizenship and motility—as avenues to deepen future analysis of not only IaD but also international student mobility more generally. Third, to demonstrate the application of these suggestions, it presents a critical policy discourse analysis of international student mobility policies during the COVID-19 pandemic era and its aftermath (2000–2024) in Canada. This case study shows how (1) distance education can be used as a bordering tool, and (2) governments can manipulate international student mobility policy to ensure IaD primarily serves immigration, as opposed to educational, needs.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• The growth of internationalization at a distance (IaD) has the potential to shift how international student mobility is structured, experienced and understood.
• IaD is loosely described as distance education across borders.
• There are limited critical studies of IaD.

What this paper adds

• IaD is embedded in mobility politics and bordering practices.
• In addition to its educational purpose, IaD can allow international students to accumulate citizenship capital and motility in new ways.
• However, IaD can also be used as a governance tool to (1) recruit/distinguish between potential citizens, (2) manage migration flows and (3) ensure the uninterrupted mobility of capital.
• IaD raises key questions about the meaning of ‘international’ in the study of internationalization.
• A more nuanced and critical definition of IaD as bordered distance education stresses what is unique about IaD: Distance education characterized by encounters with bordering practices.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• IaD can benefit from a more critical research agenda, as well as returning to distance education's intellectual roots focused on the politics of access.
• Immigration policies which attempt to govern international students' geographic mobility differently from domestic students' (eg, disincentivizing international student distance education) should ensure such policies do not negatively impact (1) international students' access to education or (2) education institutions' academic programme design.