Serving international students

With the decline of COVID, colleges and universities around the world are getting back to business. A central part of that business is restoring student enrollment, with international students often being a full-pay portion of that pool. The questions involved for institutions to be successful include; 1) how to recruit international students and 2) what are they looking for?

Inside Higher Education, in cooperation with TOEFL, compiled several articles related to recruiting international students. Readers can download the collection, "Recruiting International Students in a New Era," after registering contact information for subsequent follow up. The collection includes topics such as legal issues, online learning, navigating vaccine requirements, free speech while studying abroad, and the unfolding resurgence of study abroad popularity.

The second part of recruiting international students involves the all-important issue of experience. Language acquisition is likely an important reason for students to study in specific locations; although English dominates instruction in many countries throughout the world, multilingual models are attractive to some students. Language is important not only as a tool of instruction but also as the means to establish relationships. This leads to the central question of whether or not students studying abroad enjoy a quality of learning that causes them to recommend it to peers back in their passport country. Key to this issue is intervening with all institutional faculty and staff to help them understand that the deficit view through which many view international students has to be turned around. Instead of assuming that international students have language problems, are socially inept, or are unprepared in various ways, international students should be assumed to have agency for themselves and given room to exercise it. In the COVID era, providing flexibility to international students is also important, including extension of on-line study options all the way through the 2022-23 academic year.

Responding to the "what are they looking for," it is clear that international students are very interested in the link between degrees and employment. Making this link is closely tied to working after graduation, with some countries making this easier than others. The UK took "working after graduation" to a new level by providing 2-year work visa to graduates of top universities around the world. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the expanded work visa approvals.

Research with over 1,000 international students from 100 countries studying in the U.S.A. indicated that the return on investment isn't as direct as international students would like. Forty-nine percent reported that the value was worth the cost, 41% wanted to work in the U.S.A. for several years, and a whopping 71% indicated they would have stayed in the U.S.A. to work had it been easier to obtain post-graduate employment. Government policies related to Optional Practical Training (OPT) in the U.S.A. is key to international students having opportunity and, by this research, this option must be widely available in order to continue to attract international students to the U.S.A.

Policies clearly impact the flow of international students into U.S.A. institutions. In addition, initiatives that help international students feel more included change the dynamics of belonging that impact the individual international student as well as their family and others who will want to know about their experience. An often overlooked issue is graduation ceremonies, which finds some international students alone in a sea of enthusiastic supports for their classmates. The University of Rochester created a cadre of "stand-in" families to cheer international students on as they graduate to make sure that they left on a positive and "I matter" note.

Recruiting, retaining, graduating, and work training for international students are central issues for any country desiring to hold their numbers or increase them. Competition among host countries is intensifying as the demographics among the sending countries shifts. An example is the intent of India's IITs to increase international student enrollment at the same time as the number of prospects in India represents the new wave of exported students. These shifts will require new recruitment targets and diversify international student programs. And, just incidentally, it's not just the numbers - more importantly, it's the value that international students bring to the institutions where they study and the potential contribution they can make if allowed career training opportunity after graduation.