"3.4 million students studying outside their home countries" - up 10% annually.

[pampango]

University Ranking Shows Boom in Global Student Mobility

The compilers of a leading league table of the world’s top universities on Tuesday reported an “unstoppable rise” in the numbers of students choosing to travel abroad to study.

“Global student mobility is on a seemingly unstoppable rise, with those seeking an overseas education targeting the leading universities,” wrote John O’Leary, an academic adviser to the London-based Quacquarelli Symonds, which produces the annual QS World Universities Rankings.

“Even after considerable growth in recent years, the latest rankings show an extraordinary rise of almost 10 percent in international student numbers at the top 100 universities.”

QS noted that the most successful universities competed to attract the world’s best students and faculty. “Simple evaluations of the proportion of international students and international faculty serve as indicators of an institution’s diversity and international attractiveness,” it said.

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/university-ranking-shows-boom-in-global-student-mobility/

I don't know from personal experience but I would imagine that studying outside of your home country does much to expand your world view and understanding of other countries and cultures.

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. It also hinders access to education among the citizens who pay for those schools.

I pay more than 15% of my income in taxes to the State of Washington. A large portion of that goes to colleges such as the UofW.

Nearly 20% of incoming freshmen each year are foreign students sent here by the elite families who can afford the huge tuition.

Meanwhile, my kids go to community college... because they're not "the world's best". They are only citizens.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2016769522_international15m.html

[pampango]

2. International students should (and do) pay a high tuition premium ("huge tuition") since

they and their parents have not paid taxes to support these colleges and universities.

Since they pay a "huge tuition" colleges are in better financial condition and can afford to keep domestic students' tuition lower than it would otherwise be or admit more domestic (low tuition) students or expand course offerings for everyone. Of course states may decide to use the extra money received from international students to offset cuts in state aid to these schools. Thereby saving the state money but doing nothing for domestic students who attend or want to attend those schools.

AFAIK, all countries charge international students a hefty tuition premium for this reason. Whether these huge tuitions are high enough to improve the opportunities for local students at the same time would vary by institution and country. (It is certainly easy to imagine that international tuitions could be 'huge' enough to make a significant improvement in this regard.) I haven't seen any studies on this but it could be that removing the extra money coming from the "huge tuitions" that international students pay would hurt the financial condition of colleges to the extent that the opportunities for local students would be diminished.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. No, no, no.

Your own article indicates that they use these proceeds to "attract the worlds best students and faculty", to attract a bigger slice of the lucrative international student business, which can then finance better facilities and faculty.

There is nothing in it for the citizens paying taxes. Further, the STEM education that many if not most of these students purchase is then either taken back to their country of origin, or the student visa is turned into a H1B visa thus displacing a US worker.

There is no good social reason to turn US education into a tool to facilitate offshoring and foreign labor.

[pampango]

5. And you don't think that "attract[ing) the worlds best ... faculty" is good for local students?

A college and its students benefit from having the best faculty and best facilities. Great faculties and great facilities are as good for local students as they are for international students.

If the presence of a great faculty is a byproduct of the presence of international students (and the money they bring in), I will choose that any day over a campus without them. I am glad that my son attended a college with a large international student presence. He knows how hard most (not all) of them work which, I think, has made him understand that he had to do the same.

"There is nothing in it for the citizens paying taxes."

Colleges don't admit international students out of the goodness of their heart. They do it for the money.

What do you think happens to the extra money raised by the 'huge' tuitions paid by international students? It goes to better faculty and/or better facilities and/or less tuition from local students (again, unless the state siphons the extra funds off). If any or all of those mean 'nothing' to you, then by all means lobby your state to kick out all the international students. Try to pressure the state to make up for the lost funding or local tuition will have to increase or the quality of the faculty and facilities is likely to decrease in the long term.

If you do convince the state to kick out international students, be nice to Canada and let them know what Washington is doing? Canada actually looks at highly educated foreigners as an asset and wants them as immigrants - not temporary workers like H1B types.

"the STEM education that many if not most of these students purchase is then either taken back to their country of origin...

Of course, the international student could receive an education at home. But by having the students attend an American university they pay 'huge tuitions' that subsidize our colleges and make them better for our students, too. Our colleges are financially better off with international students and the quality of education all students is improved. We are going to end up competing with the rest of the world (95% of the globe's population in not American) unless we figure out a way to seal our borders and keep out everyone and everything from outside.

"...or the student visa is turned into a H1B visa thus displacing a US worker."

I agree that turning international university graduates into H1B's is bad news. We may not agree that Canada's approach is better. If they want to stay, some do and some don't, provide a means of obtaining a permanent visa and a long term path to citizenship. This removes the abuses of H1B and other temporary visas. Such a process would make them as legal as the next person so that they have the same workplace rights as anyone else. As Canada sees it you will have a talented and productive new citizen who is as asset to the economy. As the 'land of immigrants' we should have a similar process.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. It should be patently obvious that it's worse for the 20% who couldn't get in. n/t

[HopeHoops]

4. My eldest spent last semester in Budapest. She's back at the home campus now. Good experience.

[aquart]

6. Good. Anything that wakes 'em and shakes 'em.

[Posteritatis]

7. Only a good thing, and I hope the number rises. (nt)