Learning the Lesson – A Comparative Analysis of Swedish and Chinese Strategies in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Impact on International Student Flow

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020 has brought many teaching and learning challenges into higher education, such as innovative learning technology issues, the quality of sudden remote studying, a significant drop in international student mobility, and the overall flow of international students, that made the learning environment uncertain. The pandemic outbreak has also brought an understanding that it is a collectively shared challenge. International students, while feeling homesick during the pandemic times, were largely involved in a new social and academic reality and had become a vulnerable population, whose adaptation and adjustment processes in any country were disrupted. This study is focused on international students in Sweden and China during a period of unique experiences in higher education. Under the influence of the pandemic, it is of great interest and importance to investigate and compare the different practices of COVID-19 response strategies and their outcomes at the academic level. Some countries imposed suppressive public health approaches to arrest transmission, while others chose mitigation approaches to slow virus spread and protect vulnerable population. Regarding contrasting political, cultural, and socio-academic contexts in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, this study took Sweden and China as examples to investigate and compare their approaches in a fight against such a global issue with further consequences on international students’ mobility. Thus, this research aims to investigate and compare COVID-19 strategies in Sweden and China and their impact on international students. This thesis intents to answer the following question: what challenges for international students arose as a result of socio-educational policies in Sweden and China during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in what ways did restricting mobility impact their academic studies?