Friday, January 20, 2017

Political transitions and internationalization

Numerous and mostly foreboding predictions have been offered regarding international student enrollment in higher education in the U.S.A. under the Trump Presidency. Similar warnings have been issued in the U.K. as a result of Prime Minister May's commitment to activate the Brexit vote. In both these countries' cases, higher education has pushed back with their own initiatives to encourage their native students to study abroad and international students to join their campuses.

An analysis of longer term data in the U.S.A. documents that more conservative presidents (i.e. Republican) brought an overall increase in domestic student enrollment and a corresponding drop or stable proportion of international students (projected at 5.1% in 2017). During these conservative periods the number of U.S.A. students studying abroad increased (projected to be 130,000 or a total of 2%).

The article indicated that the implications of increased study abroad and flat or declining international student enrollment should be considered as higher education leaders allocate resources to support these and other internationalization initiatives.

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