International students recruitment: policies and development in selected countries
by Joan Enric Aumedes Gomez
This report aims to provide an overview of international student recruitment and mobility policies by national governments in key recruiting and recruitment countries and to identify the emerging implications of these
developments for the Netherlands.
The report is targeted at Dutch early-career policymakers at national and institutional levels, early-career marketing officers and researchers in the area of international student mobility.
The report consists of four chapters.
Chapter 1 sets out the focus of this study and gives an overview of the main factors that influence international student mobility.
Chapter 2 analyses national government policies and strategies for international student recruitment in eleven countries that are active in international student recruitment. These countries include the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and China.
Chapter 3 describes national student mobility policies and the local context in recruitment countries that are (or may become) particularly important to the Netherlands. These countries are Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Egypt.
Chapter 4 offers the conclusions of this study. The main conclusions of this report are the following.
- The number of countries that are actively involved in international student recruitment has grown considerably. Many countries that previously only sent students abroad have started to improve the quality of their own higher education and developed strategies and policies to attract international students themselves. These countries include China, South Korea, Mexico, and – to a lesser extent – Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
- More and more countries are competing for students from the same group of countries. The target countries of the relatively new recruiting countries are often within their own (Asian, Latin American, or North African)region, and are often the same as the main target recruitment countries of the big players in the global recruitment market. In addition, several countries aim to become top destination countries for higher education and research in their respective regions (e.g., Switzerland and China) or international higher education hubs (e.g., Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand) that will help raise their international economic competitiveness.
- The division between recruiting and target recruitment countries is blurring since several countries are key recruitment countries for other nations, while they are also actively recruiting foreign students themselves.
- Global international student mobility flows are changing in two ways in particular. First, with the economic and political balance of power shifting east, mobility patterns are beginning to change in this direction as well. Second, the regionalisation of international student mobility is accelerating. This means that more and more students who study abroad do so in another country within their own region.
- Global competition for students (and especially for the best among them) will likely intensify in the future. Competition does not only take place globally but also regionally and nationally. Since international mobility patterns are not fixed, countries that currently manage to attract a high number of international students should not take those levels of incoming student mobility for granted. Continued efforts to recruit and attract students are necessary, as are high-quality education programmes and support mechanisms for international students since student choices for study destinations are based on the perceived added value of studying abroad in a particular country / at a specific institution.
- International student recruitment is increasingly being integrated into broader forms of international higher education cooperation, such as international double degree programmes and bilateral research collaborations.
- Given the importance of the European Higher Education Area and the economic importance of European countries for the Netherlands, Dutch higher education recruitment and collaboration benefit from a broad focus on Europe and a targeted focus outside of Europe.
The full paper is downloadable here.
Photo by James Healy on Unsplash
[…] He shared with Dr. Sipos his position on disruptive innovation in higher education, the possibility of virtual reality-based education, his opinion on international education in a digital environment and hopes for the future of international student recruitment. […]