About the Conference
This international two-day conference focuses on Academic Mobility and Migration (AMM). It follows two previous successful international conferences held in Finland (Turku, 2006) and in Estonia (Tallinn, 2009). Renamed ICAMM3 on the occasion of this new event, the conference will take place near Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. This marks the first move to shifting the focus from Europe and exploring Academic Mobility and Migration in Asian perspectives—and beyond! Malaysian higher education is no stranger to mobility. As such clear internationalization strategies concerning incoming and outgoing mobility have been delineated for some time now. In a chapter published in 2008 Prof. Anthony Welch, who specializes in national and international educational policy and practice, warned us against thinking that Academic Mobility only concerns and takes place in the “West”. The conference in Malaysia will be an occasion to take stock of the many and varied activities related to internationalization in other parts of the world. The conference tradition has it that speakers can present their work in English and French—needless to say that this also adds to the originality of the event and the richness of exchanges.

From Academic Mobility to Academic Mobility and Migration?
Academic Mobility is now often presented as “systematic, dense, multiple and trans-national” (Kim, 2010). There is also a widespread consensus that most countries and world regions are now witnessing it. AMM has clearly become part of the “complex interdependencies between, and social consequences of, such diverse mobilities” that characterise our era (Urry, 2010) and contributed to the transformation of the ‘social as society’ into ‘the social as mobility’ (ibid.).

The figures seem to talk for themselves to describe the “success” and “generalisation” of contemporary Academic Mobility: according to the latest statistics provided by UNESCO the number of international students rose by more than 75% between 2000 and 2009. The number is expected to rise by 3.7 million by 2015 (Bhandari& Blumenthal, 2011). New markets are also emerging. For example, China is said to want to attract 500,000 international students in the near future, while according to BBC News (March 2011) “the entire overseas student population in China could once have travelled in a minibus. In the early 50s it consisted of 20 East Europeans”. In 2010, Malaysia itself had more than 87,000 international students, more than one third originating from only three countries: Iran (12,000), China and Indonesia (10,000 each). At the same time, some 80,000 Malaysians were registered in higher institutions around the world, mainly in Australia (20,000), UK & Ireland (14,000) and USA (6,000) as well as Egypt (8,500) and Indonesia (5,500) and Taiwan (5,100).

Even though the increase in research on Academic Mobility gives the impression that a whole new field of study has emerged and blossomed over the past 10 years (Byram&Dervin (eds.), 2008; Dervin (ed.), 2011), there remain a lot of questions to be asked about the ‘essence’ of Academic Mobility.
To begin with, it is important to bear in mind that many mobile academics work/study in another country/other countries and have never actually worked or studied in their own country. Academic Migration (long-term eventually definitive) should thus not be confused with Academic Mobility (short-term) but become a ‘research companion’—which can serve for example comparative purposes. The conference organisers have taken this into account by adding the word Migration to Academic Mobility. The speakers are advised to take note of this as well.

Another important aspect to be revised is the dichotomization of international academic mobility and intranational academic mobility. In our times of gloCality, where the local cannot escape being transformed by the global and vice versa, is this still “valid”? For J. Urry (2010): “Both are bound together through a dynamic relationship, as huge flows of resources move backwards and forwards between the global and the local. Neither the global nor the local can exist without the other”. The conference organizers thus suggest considering the glocal impacts and implications of AMM.

ICAMM 3 will bring together international researchers and practitioners from a range of backgrounds and institutions to discuss Academic Mobility and Migration. This conference seeks to address the following topic strands (amongst others):

•Language learning and teaching
•Educational aspects
•Diachronic perspectives on AMM
•The myths of AMM
•Forms of AMM
◦Short-term/long-term/multiple mobilities (‘multimovers’)
◦Virtual Academic Mobility
◦‘Local’ Academic Mobility (e.g. Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, Middlesex University-Dubai Campus, Monash University Malaysia, The University of Nottingham-Malaysia Campus or Curtin University Sarawak)
◦Mobility ofobjects, images, information and “wastes” (Urry, 2010) across global academic networks and flows
•Categories of mobile individuals
◦Gender
◦Minorities
◦Academic Migrants (il/legal)
◦Returnees (migrants/exchange students)
•Long-term impact / consequences of AMM
◦Employability
◦Language policies
◦The “intercultural”
◦Identity
◦Impact on the ‘local’
◦Impact on the environment
•Official strategies vs. reality
•Sociality (long-term/short-term)
◦Families, intimate relations
◦‘Friendship’
◦Sense of community
◦Reunion
•Research methods: how to study AMM?
•…