International system of student migration: institutional and historical foundations
This paper discusses factors which account for origins and directions of international student flows. It aims at mapping student mobility systematically with social network analysis tools. By looking at UNESCO and Russian Bureau of Statistics data it explores the effects of sending country size, indicators of economic development (GDP per capita) and institutional closeness. As a result, the author argues that belonging of the two countries to one political structure in the past (e. g. colonial empire) and institutional export from one of these countries (colonial power) to another (dependent territory) is highly significant for the emergence of a return student flow to former center of political structure.