Flow of international students across the world

Recruitment and admission staff ring their hands. Budget managers project the numbers and balance institution budgets. Faculty wonder what to do in their courses. Domestic students either don't care or resent the presence of international students in their classrooms and on their campuses. The stakeholders related to attracting and serving international students are diverse and their stakes are sometimes in conflict with each other.

Higher education leaders in many places let the issue of hosting international students get ahead of them, thus placing institutions in a defensive and catch-up posture. It's time that institutions around the world think more carefully about why they want international students and then dedicate the energy and resources to serve them. Two recent pieces, one espousing the benefit of international students and the practices required to attract them, and the other advocating that institutions do more for international students, are important to the conversation. The second piece notes encountering prospective students in Africa who are eager to study in the U.S. Seeing their need and eagerness and understanding how her institution benefits from their presence drew this college president to call other education leaders to join her in articulating the purposes and improving the responsiveness to international students.