Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Student flows around the world

The explosion of mobility in student populations has caused many colleges and universities to increasingly look at international students as a source of revenue enhancement. The latest OECD figures show a slowdown that may reflect a longer-term decline, potentially impacting the international enrollment growth that Pew Research found was plugging budget gaps for many institutions.

Some countries are bucking the trend of flat or declining enrollment. Canadian institutions report a 10.7% increase overall with British Columbia adding 15.6% to its international student enrollment. This is in contrast to research indicating that U.S. international student numbers dropped across a sample of institutions by 7%.

More recent data reported on December 11, 2017, in U.S. News and World Report indicated that current enrollment in U.S. institutions is down 3.3%. Some states are up and others down with a trend of international students preferring institutions that are near more diverse urban areas. The five states with the highest international student enrollment are California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts and Illinois.

U.S. News and World Report identified six generalizations that education leaders should know about international students in the U.S. The advice included that international student enrollment increased every year for the last eleven until the most recent year (2016-17) when it declined. The international numbers grew most among postgraduate students beginning in the 2013-14 year. The flattening or decline in U.S. international enrollment varied in both proportion and attribution with one possible factor in common - that other countries have targeted strategies to increase international student enrollment, something lacking in the U.S. under the Trump administration.

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