In contemporary, globalized societies, international academic migration is not just an educational phenomenon, but also an instrument of social development, a form of “soft power,” as well as an important factor in the circulation of knowledge, talents and experts, highlighted Dr. Nena Vasojević, Senior Research Associate and Head of the Center for Sociological and Anthropological Research of the Institute for Social Sciences and author of the book International academic mobility in Serbia: From the idea of the driver of modern society to the globalisation of education.
Presenting the results of this monograph, in which she investigated state and foreign programs for the education of students from Serbia abroad, as well as for foreign students in Serbia, from 1830 to 2023, Vasojević identified periods of lesser and greater state involvement in academic mobility processes and the corresponding positive and negative consequences that can be observed in Serbia. An additional topic of research in this book is the brain circulation, which connects the phenomena of brain drain and brain gain, showing that students’ departure for foreign countries is potentially multidirectional and that it affects both the countries of origin and the host countries in the short and long term.
Although academic mobility undoubtedly has a whole range of positive impacts on an individual’s development, some negative consequences should not be overlooked, especially when the mobility occurs from less developed to developed countries, which is most often the case, was pointed out by Jovan Filipović, full professor at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences at the University if Belgrade. These negative consequences include the fact that longer stays during formative years of young people affect the (re)shaping of their identity, but also that what begins as academic mobility often ends up being a form of talent drain and, consequently, a drain of resources, and a deepening of the already existing gap between developed and less developed countries. Filipović also pointed out that the dominant use of English as a global language reduces complex social processes to a technical level, thereby marginalizing the diversity that is lost, while simultaneously imposing an asymmetry of power between speakers/scholars who are native English speakers and those who are not, as well as a hierarchy between their cultures, languages, and identities.
The second speaker, Ana Pešikan, a full professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University if Belgrade, addressed the aspect of establishing, defining, and verifying quality criteria in the process of diploma nostrification and in the work of reviewers, as a necessary prerequisite for monitoring and ensuring the continuity of quality in higher education. She also drew the attention to the difficulties in integrating returnees into the academic community in Serbia, noting that, among other things, the lack of clearly defined criteria influences their decision to return, and consequently, influences how Serbia utilizes the potential of its citizens educated abroad. After all, sespite the fact that state scholarships are meant to enhance individual development, they should also follow the objective that the results of that individual development contribute to the development of the community and society that makes these scholarships possible, concluded Pešikan.
The series “Conversations about books of the Institute of Social Sciences – Let’s talk about…” is dedicated to ISS publications. Through discussions with the authors, we examine the results of their research, consider the broader scientific and social context of the book’s topic, and assess its relevance to society and public policies. The editor of the series is Dr. Irena Ristić (ISS).