Category: Insight

2021 in focus: Emerging priorities spell shifting pursuits for international students

Posted on by JP Deering

In the competitive career landscape of COVID-19, international students deserve real returns on the resources and time they invest in studying abroad.  As the pandemic continues to impact on the jobs market in 2021, students face dual dilemmas: the financial feasibility of their study abroad aims and the security of their postgraduate ambitions.  As a result, they are not only starting to study in alternative destinations and virtual environments—they are choosing to pursue different subjects, trending toward programs like mathematics and computer science which offer growing opportunities for employment.  It is a pattern at U.S. institutions that preceded the pandemic, and it will play out in years to come as employability continues to dominate among the priorities of students everywhere.

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Causes for celebration and concern: A three-year perspective on female international students in STEM at U.S. institutions

Posted on by JP Deering

The global pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on female international students in STEM programs at U.S. institutions.  According to data from the U.S. Student Exchange and Visitor Program (SEVP), the proportion of female international students in STEM fields in the U.S. grew to new heights in the three years leading up to the pandemic.  However, SEVP’s post-pandemic data shows that COVID-19 has had a more significant negative impact on the number of female international students in STEM in the U.S. than it has on the number of their male peers.

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2020 in the rearview: What discrepancies in pre-pandemic declines imply for U.S. institutions’ recoveries

Posted on by JP Deering

With 2020 in the rearview mirror, the full impact of COVID-19 on international enrollments at U.S. universities is coming to light. It is important to consider last year’s significant decreases in new international student enrollments (NSEs) in the context of long-term international enrollment phenomena, including declines in NSEs which preceded and were exacerbated by the pandemic. Institutions did not experience these pre-pandemic declines equally, nor will they start post-pandemic recovery from the same position as mobility slowly resumes in 2021.

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The proof is in the partnership: NAFSA, APLU, and INTO analysis finds universities with recruitment/pathway partners are more likely to see international enrollment growth

Posted on by Tim O'Brien

The release of the Institute of International Education’s annual Open Doors data this week made for sobering reading among the American higher education community.  Before we provide our take on the findings, we want to offer some key context to the declines we saw in 2019/20. 

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Endowments and international enrollments: How much does your university depend on foreign students? Explore our interactive graphic

Posted on by Tim O'Brien
Image by Sumanley xulx from Pixabay

The global flows of international students confer enormous benefits on the countries which receive their talent: more diverse campuses, richer learning experiences for domestic students, more impactful research and much more.  In the context of the United States and COVID-19, Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), has reported on how the presence of international students and immigrants is helping the U.S. fight coronavirus.

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COVID-19 in Context: Only the Strong Survive?

Posted on by Tim O'Brien
Polar Bear
Image by 272447 from Pixabay

 

Last month, Moody’s released an investor update headlined,   “Universities with strongest brands, significant scale, highest debt levels best positioned for coronavirus challenges.”  While that may be true for the strongest universities, the increased demand for higher education that will inevitably follow the COVID-19 pandemic means that institutional relevance and the agility necessary to respond to shifting market dynamics will be just as important as scale of brand and strength of the balance sheet when it comes to survival.

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COVID-19 in context: What can we learn from previous shocks to tertiary mobility?

Posted on by Tim O'Brien
money
Image by Squirrel_photos from Pixabay

I was delighted to participate in a webinar hosted by the Center for Studies in Higher Education at University of California, Berkeley on May 7, exploring the extent to which COVID-19 will shape international student mobility.  The full seminar is available on YouTube, but I outline my thoughts on the ways in which the Asian financial crisis of 1997 might provide some insight into how sudden shocks can alter the trajectory of global student mobility below.

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Paradigm shift: The rise of math and computer science among international students

Posted on by JP Deering

To kick off International Education Week, the Institute of International Education (IIE) released its 70th Open Doors Report, which outlines international student mobility trends in the United States during the 2018/19 academic year.  The report indicates that there was a 0.05% increase in the total number of international students in the U.S. in 2018/19, 52% of which pursued degrees or completed optional practical training (OPT) in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). 

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Open Doors Report 2019: Things can only get better

Posted on by Tim O'Brien

To kick off International Education Week this past Monday, the Institute of International Education (IIE) released its 70th Open Doors Report outlining international student mobility trends in the United States during the 2018/19 academic year.  Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce commenced the release by lauding the nation’s status as the most popular study destination for international students, attracting more than one million international students for the fourth year in a row. 

The report also indicated that there was a decrease in the 6.6 percent declines in new international student enrollments (NSEs) in 2017/18 to 0.9 percent in 2018/19, evidence that suggests the two-year drop in international enrollments has stabilized.

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