The strange times of international studentship: A comparative study of the United Kingdom , Denmark and Germany

Abstract Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork across the United Kingdom, Denmark and Germany, this article explores how internationally mobile students navigate intersecting temporal structures of university life, everyday routines and broader lifecourse trajectories. We examine two interrelated dimensions: first, ‘university time’, encompassing academic rhythms and institutional schedules, and how students perceive, negotiate, adapt to or resist these structures; second, the positioning of studentship within lifecourses shaped by work, relationships and imagined futures. Our analysis demonstrates that international students' temporal experiences are structured by timetables, institutional expectations and national higher education policies, while also shaped by their agency in adjusting to and reconfiguring these rhythms, as well as the temporal orientations with which they embarked on their studies. Attending to the interplay between everyday rhythms, university structures and lifecourse temporalities, this article highlights how international students actively negotiate time, revealing both continuities and divergences across national systems. In doing so, it advances understanding of international studentship as a temporally entangled practice at the intersection of time, mobility and education.