International student strategies must change, says ACE

A new report from the American Council on Education (ACE) calls on United States college and university leaders to fundamentally rethink their approach to international students, arguing that “a gap between rhetoric and reality” not only raises concern about the quality of the international student experience but also misses an opportunity to nurture more meaningful global engagement on campus.

Drawing on a wide swathe of research, the report notes numerous shortcomings associated with the education of international students and lays out an ambitious framework for change that centres on building “lifelong relationships between students and institutions from the first point of contact to their postgraduate careers”.

“There’s cultural change that needs to take place,” says co-author Chris Glass, an associate professor of education at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Students.

The report, Toward Greater Inclusion and Success: A new compact for international students, was released on 12 February by the American Council on Education (ACE), an umbrella organisation that represents the interests of higher education leadership in Washington.

It was sparked by longitudinal data collected by ACE showing that university leaders, on the one hand, ranked international student recruitment as a top priority for its internationalisation strategy, but, on the other hand, lagged on offering commensurate support for international students once they arrive on campus.

More than one million international students were enrolled in US colleges and universities in the 2019-20 academic year, according to the Institute of International Education, which annually collects data for the State Department. Enrolments were down 1.8% from the previous year, and numbers are expected to plunge more steeply when comprehensive data for the 2020-21 academic year are published later this year.

A snapshot survey of 700 institutions at the height of the coronavirus pandemic last autumn found enrolments were down 16% for new and returning international students, and 43% for new international students alone.

International students comprise 5.5% of all enrolments in US higher education, and more than 56% of them rely on personal and family funding for their education. About 21% are funded by an employer, while 17% are funded by their host universities.

In their bid to attract international students to the United States, education leaders and policy-makers typically cite the economic returns of hosting students from abroad; in 2019, US Department of Commerce data found that international students contributed US$44 billion to the US economy and supported more than 450,000 jobs.

Many public universities rely on tuition revenue from out-of-state students to make up for shortfalls in state funding; international student tuition fees have similarly become a key funding source for many private universities, and in particular those that are smaller and less well-known.

Unsustainable and transactional

The outcome, the report says, is “an unsustainable business model based on transactional relationships with international students”.

The report recommends a human-centred model that emphasises inclusion and equity. A “new compact” must be “culturally responsive, address discrimination and racism, and acknowledge the impact of national politics and policy”, the report says.

During a virtual gathering last week to launch the report, international educators, students and other stakeholders shared strategies that have worked on their campuses but also acknowledged areas of neglect.

One community college president, for example, said she sees to it that international students’ names are pronounced correctly during commencement exercises. Several participants noted opportunities for their alumni and career-planning offices to better serve international students.

The shift also requires some soul-searching campus-wide conversations around issues such as racism, nationalism and the implications of expecting international students to “adapt” and “adjust” to US-centric practices and policies.

This is “not the work of one office”, says report co-author Kara Godwin, ACE director of internationalisation.

Jenny Lee, a University of Arizona education professor who has long studied campus discrimination against international students, said the report offers helpful information but said “there needs to be more financial resources to actualise these recommendations”.

“For too long, US universities have passively enjoyed the financial and scholarly benefits that international students contributed with limited attention to their unique experiences,” says Lee, editor of the forthcoming book, US Power in International Higher Education. “Humanism and inclusion can’t be done on the cheap.”