Call for Applications: Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies MOVE Postdoctoral Grant in Mobility Studies

I was alerted to the following opportunity from the June 29-July 3, 2009 issue of IIE.Interactive Newsletter. The Swill Forum for Migration and Population Studies has announced a call for applications for the MOVE Postdoctoral Grant in Mobility Studies. I have copied and pasted information below directly from IIE.Interactive about the MOVE Postdoctoral Grant in Mobility Studies it provides an excellent summary about this unique opportunity:

Call for applications: Post-Doctoral Grant (70%) in Mobility Studies
Deadline: August 30, 2009

MOVE is the Swiss interdisciplinary network for mobility studies, linking the universities of Neuchâtel (leading house), Berne, Lausanne, and Zürich. In addition to having created the Swiss Chair for Mobility Studies (a visiting professorship), MOVE offers four grants for post-doctoral studies on topics related to the mobility of persons, ideas, goods and institutions. Three post-doc research fellows have already been appointed and are working on issues related to the mobility of migrants (Bern), health practices (Zürich), and urban forms (Neuchâtel). The candidate who will be awarded the grant offered in the present call will be based at the University of Lausanne to conduct research on the mobility of higher education programmes and institutions, also called transnational or cross-border education.

The position starts in autumn/winter 2009-2010 (no later than January 2010).

Research area

While the mobility of students crossing national boundaries is not a new phenomenon, the globalising education industry relies today upon additional forms of cross-border education such as "programme mobility" and "institutional mobility." The mobility of educational models and institutions has indeed been fast increasing since the turn of the millennium, most notably with the opening of branch campuses of international universities in the Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern regions. This trend, alongside the intensifying movement of students, academic staff and curricula across borders, is both a response to, and a constitutive dimension of, globalisation. Given the mounting significance that an educated human workforce has for economic development in the current knowledge economy, such tendencies are expected to continue, especially in response to the needs for enhanced educational standards in the fast-growing developing economies of Asia and the Middle East.

Candidates with an interest and experience in this or a closely related field are invited to apply. In addition to carrying out his/her own research, the successful applicant will supervise and monitor two doctoral students working on the transnationalization of academic institutions. Given the current prominence of this phenomenon in Gulf countries, some knowledge of that region would constitute an advantage.

For more information, including duties and application procedures, please contact Dr. Peter Voll at peter.voll@unine.ch or visit: www.migration-population.ch/page27832.html.