29 January 2015

About a third of international undergraduates in the US drop out?Searching for ROI data in a booming market

In the US, international student numbers continue to expand. The latest Open Doors data from the Institute for International Education reported almost 900,000 international students in US higher education in 2013/14, up 8% on the prior year. International undergraduates have grown by 70% over the past decade, with graduate numbers up over 25%. One reason US universities are welcoming more international students is pressure on the domestic market- enrollments are down (a mix of demographics and a sustained weak economy), state funding is still recovering from the Great Recession and institutions face criticism over high tuition, student debt, graduation rates and graduate ROI. The Obama Administration is working on a “college rating” scheme- tracking tuition, graduation rates and the like- to help consumers select an institution, and potentially to help the government allocate funds.

But what about international students? Only domestic students benefit from federal or state grants and loans, and it is public expenditure that drives the conversation on accountability. Yet international students typically pay over the odds for a US education and subsidize US students. US higher education still enjoys unparalleled brand equity, but how long before international students become more vocal about value for money? For prospective international students, what ROI information is currently available?

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22 January 2015

Indian Business School Becomes Australian!? The latest on international branch campuses of Indian universities

One of the things the Observatory is best known for is coverage of the international branch campus (IBC) phenomenon. IBCs have grown in number and variety over the past decade, covering a wide range of host countries and exporting institutions. IBCs embody efforts to address supply/demand mismatches in higher education in different parts of the world, a more entrepreneurial mindset on the part of universities, and a view that a conventional campus- as opposed to more modest presence- may be the best means to a high quality student experience. For more details on the Observatory’s definition of an IBC, please see the end of the article.

The Observatory published its first report on this topic in 2002, with updates in 2006, 2009 and 2012. We will release our latest report in 2015. In preparation for this update, we will comment on subsections of the IBC trend. This article looks at IBCs of Indian higher education institutions. Many foreign institutions are interested in setting up shop in India itself, hampered by the Indian government’s seemingly endless debate about how to regulate such activity, but that is not our topic today. Our concern is Indian colleges and universities setting up IBCs around the world.

Our 2009 report counted ten Indian IBCs, up to 17 in 2012. This was about 9% of all IBCs counted by the Observatory in 2012, and the fourth largest total by home country (after USA, UK and France). Of those 17, ten were in the United Arab Emirates, a major IBC hub and home to large numbers of foreign workers from south Asia, and four in Mauritius. The other three were in Malaysia, Nepal and Singapore. Two Indian IBCs were planned- one in Australia and the other in Sri Lanka. In early 2015, what’s changed? Are there now more Indian IBCs? How are the IBCs noted in 2012 faring today?

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16 January 2015

Loyal to Whom? Canadian language school group now owns two recruitment agencies in South Korea

One of the main reasons education agents are valued is local market knowledge beyond the reach of university or college staff. But critics are skeptical of agents for essentially the same reason - outsourcing recruitment to third parties that tend to work for multiple institutions at once, are not necessarily subject to institutional standards and may be more focused on commission than student fit. But what if institution and agent become one and the same?

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