International student population in Serbia across time and space

The international mobility of students in tertiary education has increased significantly over the last few decades globally. A highly educated workforce with international educational experience is an important element of societal progress. Students are specific migrant group that are migrating in order to improve their human capital at certain stage of the life course. General patterns of social transformation linked with international education call up for more research and a better understanding of the internationalisation of education. Until the 1990s, Serbia had a long tradition of educating scholarship holders abroad, as well as international students at domestic universities that renewed in the 2000s. However, despite the growing importance of international students for societies of origin and destination and the aforementioned tradition, this is an underexplored topic in Serbia. This article uses additionally processed 2011 and 2022 Census data in Serbia on international students studying in our country, who according to the definition of the censuses are included in the total population. Students from the former Yugoslav republics who are studying in Serbia were analysed independently. Descriptive statistical analysis was used for data processing in order to present and highlight selected characteristics of international students in Serbia from a time-space perspective. The new 2022 Census international student population data show how this migrant population subgroup has changed over the last decade. Besides the ambition that our findings shed light on new insights regarding this migrant population, the intention is to contribute to this under-researched topic within the demographic and sociological literature in Serbia. Quantitative empirical research aimed at mapping this population in Serbia is conducted as starting part of the scientific project IS-MIGaIN, where mixed method research will be applied aiming to broaden the scientific understanding of international student migration and identity nexus in the context of traditionally emigration countries, such as Serbia.