The extant literature on the link between international education and socio-political development emphasises the role political socialisation in democratic host societies plays in instilling democratic values in foreign students and prompting them to advocate for democratic change in the home country. In this webinar, I will discuss such assumptions drawing on some findings of my doctoral research project which explored the impact of international educational mobility on Russian young people’s socio-political views and engagement. More specifically, I will consider the influence of studying abroad on Russian mobile students’ understandings of democracy and aspirations to engage socio-politically in Russia. The analysis draws on data from 55 in-depth interviews with Russian students and alumni of British and American universities. The findings reveal that international mobility contributes to heightened socio-political awareness and sometimes helps shape notions of democracy. However, such individual-level democratising impact is somewhat weakened by the conflicting evidence demonstrating that study abroad may contribute to scepticism about democracy as a political system and that newly acquired socio-political knowledge is sometimes impressionistic and fragmented. Furthermore, the evidence points to the paramount importance of the sending country’s political context in examining the linkage between student migrants’ democratic socialisation abroad, aspirations to enact political agency and potential to impact on the level of democratic development in the homeland.