
Mobile Educational Spaces and Imaginative Student Experiences
The Case of Transnational Higher Education
Jingran Yu(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 30. September 2025
Book
Hardback
216 pages
978-1-032-59670-9 (ISBN)
Description
Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from sociology, education, and human geography to investigate the space, community, and culture at an International Branch Campus, this fascinating book provides empirical evidence to understand the implications for students' future socio-spatial mobilities.
Drawing on ethnographic data from a British International Branch Campus in China this book offers a timely discussion about transnational higher education. It illustrates the mobility of the educational space, where mobilities and materiality converge and are mediated by transnational imaginations. Students are portrayed as 'imaginative travellers', who may not have been physically abroad but are imaginatively mobilised by transnational material, social and cultural flows on campus. This book demonstrates how imaginative mobility cultivates students' cosmopolitan orientations and competence, while acknowledging how structural constraints weave unevenness into the imaginative flows that arise and respond to the socio-spatial inequalities in global education landscapes. This study also offers empirical insights into China's approach to transnational education that informs both research and policy.
This book is valuable reading for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners in higher education, particularly for those with an interest in educational studies, sociology, and human geography.
Drawing on ethnographic data from a British International Branch Campus in China this book offers a timely discussion about transnational higher education. It illustrates the mobility of the educational space, where mobilities and materiality converge and are mediated by transnational imaginations. Students are portrayed as 'imaginative travellers', who may not have been physically abroad but are imaginatively mobilised by transnational material, social and cultural flows on campus. This book demonstrates how imaginative mobility cultivates students' cosmopolitan orientations and competence, while acknowledging how structural constraints weave unevenness into the imaginative flows that arise and respond to the socio-spatial inequalities in global education landscapes. This study also offers empirical insights into China's approach to transnational education that informs both research and policy.
This book is valuable reading for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners in higher education, particularly for those with an interest in educational studies, sociology, and human geography.
Reviews / Votes
'Jingran Yu's Mobile Educational Spaces and Imaginative Student Experiences takes us inside the emergent spatiality of Sino-foreign universities, which are key intersections of educational and governance cultures with a transformative impact much larger than their size suggests. Lively reading, seriously insightful, highly recommended.'Simon Marginson, Professor of Higher Education, University of Oxford and Joint Editor in Chief of Higher Education.
'This is a fascinating account of a transnational higher education institution in China, based on detailed ethnographic research. It shows, in a compelling manner, how the students attending such an institution, while not physically internationally mobile, can be considered 'imaginative travellers', profoundly affected by the transnational flows that characterise their campus.'
Rachel Brooks, Professor of Higher Education, University of Oxford and the President of British Sociological Association.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate
Illustrations
1 s/w Tabelle, 11 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder, 11 s/w Abbildungen
1 Tables, black and white; 11 Halftones, black and white; 11 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
467 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-59670-9 (9781032596709)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Jingran Yu
Mobile Educational Spaces and Imaginative Student Experiences
The Case of Transnational Higher Education
E-Book
09/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download

Jingran Yu
Mobile Educational Spaces and Imaginative Student Experiences
The Case of Transnational Higher Education
E-Book
09/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download

Jingran Yu
Mobile Educational Spaces and Imaginative Student Experiences
The Case of Transnational Higher Education
Book
09/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€63.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Jingran Yu is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education, Xiamen University, China and an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, UK.
Content
1. Introduction 2. A mobilities perspective on transnational education 3. Policy context 4. Space in Imagining 5. Community in Travelling 6. Cosmopolitans in the Making 7. Conclusion