Globalising higher education in and through urban spaces: Higher education projects, international student mobilities and trans-local connections in Seoul Francis Collins School of Environment, University of Auckland, 10 Symonds Street, 1010, Auckland, New Zealand. Email: f.collins@auckland.ac.nz Abstract: This paper explores the connections between universities and cities in a moment of heightened emphasis on international student mobilities and globalising processes in Asian higher education. In particular, I seek to draw attention to the contingent assembly of the urban and its role in globalising higher education by highlighting the ways in which urban spaces draw together different sorts of trans-local connections and flows. To explore this approach, I discuss the globalisation of higher education in South Korea, and the significance of Seoul in these processes through a focus on two leading universities – Korea University and Seoul National University. To highlight the importance of trans-local connections in the urban dimensions of higher education, I discuss the generation of desires to be mobile in imaginations of Seoul as a destination for higher education, student experiences of situated learning in place and the articulation of student mobilities into career pathways with Korean transnational firms. From this perspective urban spaces need to be understood as much more than just the geographical backdrop to the globalisation of higher education. Rather, cities like Seoul are the spaces through which connections are being forged around knowledge production, international migration and trans-local economic practices. Keywords: Asia, assemblage, higher education, international students, South Korea, urban geography Introduction In February 2012, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) announced the publication of its first Best Student Cities ranking. Drawing on QS’ annual university rankings and other extant city com- parisons, the assessment sought to identify ‘what makes a great student city’ in terms of student mix, quality of living, employer activity and affordability.The results, a veritable roll-call of urban educational prestige (Paris, London, Boston, Melbourne), are indicative of the ongoing commodification of educational land- scapes promoted by QS. They are based on the assumption that ‘city image’ and attributes ‘will influence the decision process’ of international students (Cubillo et al., 2006: 109) and generate value for universities, cities, nations and organi- sations like QS. The model also assumes that students are looking for a type of urban envi- ronment that can be measured objectively in advance rather than in the enactment of student mobilities. In other words, these approaches tend to view urban space as pre-existent, char- acterised by certain features that are assessed and then consumed by independent student actors (Raghuram, 2013). This paper extends the focus on the urban in globalising higher education by more explicitly examining the emergence of a particular city, Seoul, in the mobilities of international stu- dents. The paper brings together theoretical insights from assemblage approaches to the city (DeLanda, 2006; Edensor, 2011; McFarlane, Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 55, No. 2, August 2014 ISSN 1360-7456, pp242–257 © 2014 Victoria University of Wellington and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd doi: 10.1111/apv.12055