International Student Mobility Trends 2015: An Economic Perspective

Abstract

International students contributed almost $27 billion dollars to the U.S. economy in 2014. The growth has been driven largely by students from upper-middle-income economies and countries with large national scholarship programs, which marks a significant shift from before the 2008 financial crisis.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the economic impact these new mobility trends and drivers are having on host countries at the national, local, and institutional levels. We first compare enrollments of international students in the top four English-speaking host countries (the U.S., UK, Australia, and Canada), before looking in more depth at the economic contribution of international students to the U.S. economy and select U.S. universities. We conclude with a look at the implications of the economics of student mobility for international enrollment management at U.S. institutions of higher education.

Keywords: higher education, international student mobility, economic impact, mobility trends