USA: Shrinking Hold

Updated on: Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Since the 1950s, the US has been the leading destination for international students, and it continues to host an increasing number of students and scholars from around the world. The shift in USA’s world share as a host of international students from 28% to 20% over the past decade is due to multiple factors, including the increased capacity of the higher education sector in many non-traditional destinations, especially in Asia, to host domestic as well as international students; strong national-level internationalisation policies and strategies in competing destinations; domestic economic, demographic, and workforce conditions that might affect students’ decisions regarding an overseas education; and the rise of non-traditional forms of educational delivery such as virtual learning and offshore education.

Roaring Asian Tigers

Singapore has been making strides in this area with the establishment of Education Singapore, a new agency charged with promoting and marketing Singapore and attracting 1,50,000 foreign students by 2015. Malaysia seeks to attract 80,000 international students by 2010; China seeks to host 5,00,000 by 2020; and Japan has set the goal of hosting 3,00,000 international students by 2020.

India: A Sleeping Giant

India has not been as significant a host for students from other countries. It’s due in large part to the same quality and capacity issues of its higher education sector that led so many Indians to seek educational opportunities elsewhere. Though students from 195 countries come to India for undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes from 127 universities, they total around 21,778 (2009), or about 8% of the total of outbound students.

USA: Shrinking Hold

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