Dr Benjamin Mulvey

  • Lecturer in Equitable Education Systems and Policy (School of Education)

Biography

I am a Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, and Programme Leader for the MSc in Education, Public Policy and Equity, as well as currently being the Deputy Director of Postgraduate Research study within the School. I was previously a Research Grants Council Post-doctoral Fellow at the Education University of Hong Kong, and a Visiting Researcher at the University of Sydney and University College London. 

I am an editorial board member for the journals Global Networks, British Journal of Sociology of Education, and International Studies in Sociology of Education, and regional editor for the Journal of International and Comparative Higher Education. My work is interdisciplinary, and has been published in journals across the fields of education studies, sociology, and geography. These include Higher Education, Sociology, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and British Journal of Sociology of Education, among others. I am regularly invited to contribute to and am frequently quoted in media outlets such as The Economist, Times Higher Education, University World News, and South China Morning Post. You can learn more about my research by listening to the Borders and Belonging podcast or through this webinar for the Centre for Global Higher Education.

My research is broadly related to the sociology of international higher education, with a particular focus on China. I have published extensively on international student mobility between Africa and China. I am also interested in social inequalities (rural/urban) in transitions to the labour market from higher education, and issues of academic freedom in the Chinese context.

Research interests

Please click here for a full list of publications

  • International student mobility
  • The internationalisation of higher education
  • Rural/urban inequalities in higher education access/participation/outcomes
  • Social class inequalities in higher education access/participation/outcomes
  • Transitions into the graduate labour market
  • Chinese higher education
  • International schooling

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020
Number of items: 27.

2025

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Li, Boya (2025) The negotiation of socio‐spatial background among elite Chinese university graduates. Population, Space and Place, 31(5), e70055. (doi: 10.1002/psp.70055)

2024

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Lee, Bok-Nga (2024) The intellectual-state relationship and academic freedom in China: a reappraisal. Studies in Higher Education, (doi: 10.1080/03075079.2024.2332407) (Early Online Publication)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Lee, Jihyun (2024) Using Bourdieu in international student mobility research: past, present, and future directions. In: Stahl, Garth, Mu, Guanglun Michael, Ayling, Pere and Weininger, Elliot B. (eds.) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Bourdieu and Educational Research. Series: Bloomsbury handbooks. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 329-340. ISBN 9781350349162 (doi: 10.5040/9781350349193.ch-24)

Van Mol, Christof, Cleven, Joep and Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2024) Where, when and why are students internationally mobile? In: Recchi, Ettore and Safi, Mirna (eds.) Handbook of Human Mobility and Migration. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 128-147. ISBN 9781839105777 (doi: 10.4337/9781839105784.00015)

2023

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Concluding thoughts: The future of Africa-China student mobility. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 115-126. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_7)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) The dawn of an era?: Globally mobile African students and China. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 1-21. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_1)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Experiences in China: Getting on, getting out? In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 81-98. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_5)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) International student mobility in a changing world. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 23-41. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_2)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Post-graduation plans: Navigating global regimes of mobility. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 99-114. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_6)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Pre-mobility life-worlds: Who is on the move? In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 43-57. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_3)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Strategising and spontaneity in mobility decision-making. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 59-79. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_4)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604, Morris, Alan and Ashton, Luke (2023) Differentiated experiences of financial precarity and lived precariousness among international students in Australia. Higher Education, (doi: 10.1007/s10734-023-01033-9) (Early Online Publication)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Li, Boya (2023) Social inequality in a ‘hyper-mobile’ society: intra-national mobilities and formal education in China. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, (doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2023.2193673) (Early Online Publication)

2022

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2022) Participatory parity as a way forward for critical internationalisation studies. Studies in Higher Education, 47(12), pp. 2417-2429. (doi: 10.1080/03075079.2022.2072481)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Wright, Ewan (2022) Global and local possible selves: differentiated strategies for positional competition among Chinese university students. British Educational Research Journal, 48(5), pp. 841-858. (doi: 10.1002/berj.3797)

Wright, Ewan and Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2022) The promised capitals of international high school programmes and the global field of higher education: the case of Shenzhen, China. Journal of Research in International Education, 21(2), pp. 87-104. (doi: 10.1177/14752409221122070)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2022) Pluralist internationalism, global justice and international student recruitment in the UK. Higher Education, 84(1), pp. 1-16. (doi: 10.1007/s10734-021-00750-3)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Mason, Mark (2022) ‘It’s kind of becoming a culture’: how habitus influences the migration trajectories of African students in China. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(13), pp. 3005-3021. (doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2021.1929108)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2022) Global inequality, mobility regimes and transnational capital: the post-graduation plans of African student migrants. Sociology, 56(3), pp. 413-429. (doi: 10.1177/00380385211037574)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Wright, Ewan (2022) National and Global Positional Competitions: Social Class and ‘Future Selves’ in China. BSA Virtual Annual Conference 2022: Building Equality and Justice Now, Online, 20-22 Apr 2022.

2021

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Lo, William Yat Wai (2021) Learning to ‘tell China's story well’: the constructions of international students in Chinese higher education policy. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 19(5), pp. 545-557. (doi: 10.1080/14767724.2020.1835465)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2021) “Decentring” international student mobility: The case of African student migrants in China. Population, Space and Place, 27(3), e2393. (doi: 10.1002/psp.2393)

Wright, Ewan and Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2021) Internships and the graduate labour market: how upper-middle-class students ‘get ahead’. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(3), pp. 339-356. (doi: 10.1080/01425692.2021.1886051)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2021) Conceptualizing the discourse of student mobility between “periphery” and “semi-periphery”: the case of Africa and China. Higher Education, 81(3), pp. 437-451. (doi: 10.1007/s10734-020-00549-8)

2020

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2020) International higher education and public diplomacy: a case study of Ugandan graduates from Chinese universities. Higher Education Policy, 33(3), pp. 459-477. (doi: 10.1057/s41307-019-00174-w)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Lo, Will (2020) Telling China’s Story Well: the Construction of International Students in Chinese Higher Education Policy. 64th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society: Education Beyond the Human, Miami, USA, 22-26 Mar 2020.

This list was generated on Sat Jun 14 08:57:17 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Conference or Workshop Item
Number of items: 27.

Articles

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Li, Boya (2025) The negotiation of socio‐spatial background among elite Chinese university graduates. Population, Space and Place, 31(5), e70055. (doi: 10.1002/psp.70055)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Lee, Bok-Nga (2024) The intellectual-state relationship and academic freedom in China: a reappraisal. Studies in Higher Education, (doi: 10.1080/03075079.2024.2332407) (Early Online Publication)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604, Morris, Alan and Ashton, Luke (2023) Differentiated experiences of financial precarity and lived precariousness among international students in Australia. Higher Education, (doi: 10.1007/s10734-023-01033-9) (Early Online Publication)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Li, Boya (2023) Social inequality in a ‘hyper-mobile’ society: intra-national mobilities and formal education in China. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, (doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2023.2193673) (Early Online Publication)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2022) Participatory parity as a way forward for critical internationalisation studies. Studies in Higher Education, 47(12), pp. 2417-2429. (doi: 10.1080/03075079.2022.2072481)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Wright, Ewan (2022) Global and local possible selves: differentiated strategies for positional competition among Chinese university students. British Educational Research Journal, 48(5), pp. 841-858. (doi: 10.1002/berj.3797)

Wright, Ewan and Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2022) The promised capitals of international high school programmes and the global field of higher education: the case of Shenzhen, China. Journal of Research in International Education, 21(2), pp. 87-104. (doi: 10.1177/14752409221122070)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2022) Pluralist internationalism, global justice and international student recruitment in the UK. Higher Education, 84(1), pp. 1-16. (doi: 10.1007/s10734-021-00750-3)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Mason, Mark (2022) ‘It’s kind of becoming a culture’: how habitus influences the migration trajectories of African students in China. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(13), pp. 3005-3021. (doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2021.1929108)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2022) Global inequality, mobility regimes and transnational capital: the post-graduation plans of African student migrants. Sociology, 56(3), pp. 413-429. (doi: 10.1177/00380385211037574)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Lo, William Yat Wai (2021) Learning to ‘tell China's story well’: the constructions of international students in Chinese higher education policy. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 19(5), pp. 545-557. (doi: 10.1080/14767724.2020.1835465)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2021) “Decentring” international student mobility: The case of African student migrants in China. Population, Space and Place, 27(3), e2393. (doi: 10.1002/psp.2393)

Wright, Ewan and Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2021) Internships and the graduate labour market: how upper-middle-class students ‘get ahead’. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(3), pp. 339-356. (doi: 10.1080/01425692.2021.1886051)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2021) Conceptualizing the discourse of student mobility between “periphery” and “semi-periphery”: the case of Africa and China. Higher Education, 81(3), pp. 437-451. (doi: 10.1007/s10734-020-00549-8)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2020) International higher education and public diplomacy: a case study of Ugandan graduates from Chinese universities. Higher Education Policy, 33(3), pp. 459-477. (doi: 10.1057/s41307-019-00174-w)

Books

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8)

Book Sections

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Lee, Jihyun (2024) Using Bourdieu in international student mobility research: past, present, and future directions. In: Stahl, Garth, Mu, Guanglun Michael, Ayling, Pere and Weininger, Elliot B. (eds.) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Bourdieu and Educational Research. Series: Bloomsbury handbooks. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 329-340. ISBN 9781350349162 (doi: 10.5040/9781350349193.ch-24)

Van Mol, Christof, Cleven, Joep and Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2024) Where, when and why are students internationally mobile? In: Recchi, Ettore and Safi, Mirna (eds.) Handbook of Human Mobility and Migration. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 128-147. ISBN 9781839105777 (doi: 10.4337/9781839105784.00015)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Concluding thoughts: The future of Africa-China student mobility. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 115-126. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_7)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) The dawn of an era?: Globally mobile African students and China. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 1-21. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_1)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Experiences in China: Getting on, getting out? In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 81-98. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_5)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) International student mobility in a changing world. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 23-41. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_2)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Post-graduation plans: Navigating global regimes of mobility. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 99-114. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_6)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Pre-mobility life-worlds: Who is on the move? In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 43-57. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_3)

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 (2023) Strategising and spontaneity in mobility decision-making. In: Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China. Springer: Singapore, pp. 59-79. ISBN 9789819985081 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-8509-8_4)

Conference or Workshop Item

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Wright, Ewan (2022) National and Global Positional Competitions: Social Class and ‘Future Selves’ in China. BSA Virtual Annual Conference 2022: Building Equality and Justice Now, Online, 20-22 Apr 2022.

Mulvey, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2847-6604 and Lo, Will (2020) Telling China’s Story Well: the Construction of International Students in Chinese Higher Education Policy. 64th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society: Education Beyond the Human, Miami, USA, 22-26 Mar 2020.

This list was generated on Sun Jun 15 11:16:30 2025 BST.

Grants

"A Higher Education Hub for Doctoral Education: The Case of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme"

(389,950; approx. £40,000) (Co-I)

Funder: Public Policy Research Funding Scheme 2024-25 (Hong Kong) (Project Number: 2024.A5.127.24A)

Project duration: September 2024 - September 2025

 

"Housing precarity in the social transitions of international students in Scotland" (£10,000) (PI)

Funder: British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant (SRG23/231008)

Project Duration: October 2023 - June 2025

 

 

Supervision

  • Gong, Jingting
    Home-School Cooperation in Public Urban and Rural Schools in China: A Comparative Study of Remote Education Opportunities and Challenges during the COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Yao, Chengzhe
    Anxious Youth in Elite Universities of China
  • Zhang, Yinuo
    Exploring the Experience of Rural Students in Chinese Higher Education

Teaching

Programme leader, MSc. Education, Public Policy and Equity

Course leader:

  • EDUC5910, Equity, Social Justice, and Change
  • EDUC5912 Higher Education as a Field of Research, Policy & Practice

Dr Benjamin Mulvey on Twitter