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Category: Internationalization

The Future of Internationalization

Last week, I was part of a very interesting webinar put on by ICEF involving myself, Allan Goodman of the Institute of International Education (IIE), and the ex-head of Universities UK, Vivienne Stern. The webinar covered the future of higher education internationalization.  I am not quite sure when it will be posted, but prepping for it made me think about a few of the big new directions in which internationalization is heading. I spoke to three specific trends that may dominate

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December 7, 2020 No Comments

Measuring Internationalization

One maddening thing about universities is that so much of what they claim to value is so badly measured.  Take internationalization.  Usually, this gets measured by the number or proportion of international students, which is ludicrously reductive given the extent to which in many countries international students are primarily income sources; occasionally, you might get some information about the number of foreign faculty.  Maybe.  But that’s it.  Anything deeper on internationalization is usually judged to be unmeasurable, so there is no way

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October 19, 2020 2 Comments

The Outlook for International Students

Everyone is wondering: what’s going to happen to enrolments in the fall?  Particularly, international enrolments?  It’s a big question because for the last decade pretty much 100% of all the increase in institutional income has come from fee income, much of it from international students.  Take that income away, and we’re talking about major cuts: in Australia, which is only slightly more international fee-dependent than Canada, the hit to the sector this term is estimated at over $5 billion.  Some

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May 20, 2020 1 Comment

Coronavirus (18…or so) – Positioned to Pivot

So, last week I suggested that the Fall term was likely both to start and finish online because of practical difficulties in pivoting halfway though in most institutions.  There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that most pivot scenarios assume that students who will start off learning at home are able to drop everything and find local accommodations with very short notice, and not all students are in a position to do that.  This would leave institutions either

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April 21, 2020 No Comments

Coronavirus (11) – The International Student Imperative

Whatever the manifold benefits of a more internationalized student body, at many institutions in Canada, one reigns supreme: money.   It’s a problem everywhere in Canada, but in Ontario, British Columbia and Cape Breton in particular, international student fees make up huge portions of the institutional operating budget: rarely lower than 20% of income and in some cases reaching over 50%.  Partly through government neglect and partly through institutional avarice, institutions became hooked on international student money. And then came a crisis

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April 6, 2020 2 Comments

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One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.

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