According to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), international students are those who travel to a country different from their own for the purpose of tertiary study. Despite that, the definition of international students varies in each country in accordance to their own national education system. Below are several definitions of international students;

Australia

‘International Students’ are defined as those studying onshore only with visa subclasses 570 to 575, excluding students on Australian-funded scholarships or sponsorship or students undertaking study while in possession of other temporary visas.^[1] New Zealand citizens do not require a visa to study in Australia, so are not classed as international students.

United States

‘International students’ are defined as students who are enrolled at institutions of higher education in the US who are not citizens of the US, immigrants or refugees.^[1]

Japan

‘International students’ are defined as foreign nationals who study at any Japanese university, graduate school, junior college, college of technology, professional training college or university preparatory course on a ‘college student’ visa, as defined by the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.^[1]

Based on the definitions above, international students are basically referring to those studying in foreign educational institutions. This includes either those doing the long term or the short term programs.

Other examples of definitions of international students can be found in World Education Services (Appendix A).

Top Source Countries[link]

Top two source countries for international students are China and India with 441,186 and 170,255 globally mobile students respectively in 2008.^[2] The key drivers of mobility of Chinese and Indian students are quite similar. On the supply side, two key drivers are increasing prosperity, which enables the ability to afford foreign education, and rapid expansion of the system of higher education at the expense of quality. On the demand side, two key drivers are universities’ aggressive approach to recruiting students to compensate for budget cuts and access to a wider range of recruitment channels and service providers.^[3]

Requirements[link]

Prospective international students are usually required to sit for language tests, such as IELTS^[4] & TOEFL,^[5] DELF^[6] or DELE,^[7] before they are admitted. Tests notwithstanding, while some international students already possess an excellent command of the local language upon arrival, some find their language ability, considered excellent domestically, inadequate for the purpose of understanding lectures, and/or of conveying oneself fluently in rapid conversations.

Destinations of International Students[link]

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in their 2009 World Conference on Higher Education report, there were more than 2.5 million students studying outside their own country. UNESCO also predicted that the number of international students might rise approximately to 7 million by year 2020. The main destinations preferred by international students are the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Australia. Overall, the number of international students more than doubled between 2000 and 2007, to over 2 million.^[8]
However, the sharpest percentage increases of international students have occurred in New Zealand, Korea, the Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Italy and Ireland.^[8]

In recent years, some Asian and Middle East countries started to attract more international students. These regions have entered the market with declared ambitions to become regional education centers by attracting as many as several hundred thousand international students to their countries.^[1]

United States, United Kingdom and Australia[link]

The US, UK and Australia are countries that have the highest number of international students. In terms of straight numbers, the US is the undisputed front-runner with approximately 671,616 foreign enrollment in 2008-9,^[9] followed by the UK and Australia, respectively with 330,000 and 280, 000 registered overseas students.^[1] Of which approximately 200,000 of USA, 160,000 of UK and 70,000 of Australia's international students learned ESL (English as a Second Language) or it's equivalent as a subject or course.

International student mobility in the first decade of the 21st century has been transformed by two major external events, 9/11 and the recession of 2008.^[10] The 9/11 forced US to tighten visa requirements for students and Australia and the UK cashed in on this opportunity and were successful in absorbing most of the growth in international students. The growth story for Australia and the UK would have continued, but the recession of 2008 exposed two aspects of international student enrollment in these countries—unmanageable high proportion of international students compared to home students and issues of quality raised by the use of aggressive recruitment practices.^[11] In 2009, international students represented 21.5% and 15.3% of higher education enrollment in Australia and the UK, compared to less than 4% in the US, according to the OECD.^[12]

The number of US Visas issued to Chinese students to study at US universities has increased by 30 per cent over last year, from more than 98,000 in 2009 to nearly 128,000 in October 2010, placing China as the top country of origin for international students, according to the "2010 Open Doors Report" published on the US Embassy in China website. The number of Chinese students increased, Overall, the total number of international students with a US Visa to study at colleges and universities increased by 3 per cent to a record high of nearly 691,000 in the 2009/2010 academic year. The 30 per cent increase in Chinese student enrolment was the main contributor to this year's growth, and now Chinese students account for more than 18 percent of the total international students.^[13]

U.S. colleges and universities have long welcomed students from China, where the higher-education system cannot meet the demand. Three years ago, a record 10 million students throughout China took the national college entrance test, competing for 5.7 million university slots. Because foreign undergraduates typically fail to qualify for U.S. federal aid, colleges here can provide limited financial help. Now, thanks to China's booming economy in recent years, more Chinese families can afford to pay. U.S. colleges also face challenges abroad. Worries about fraud on test scores and transcripts make occasional headlines. And even Chinese students who test high on an English-language proficiency test may not be able to speak or write well enough to stay up to speed in a U.S. classroom, where essay writing and discussions are common.^[14]

Germany and France[link]

In 2006, with approximately 20% of world’s foreign students, or 515,000 out of the 2.7 million students studying outside their countries, Germany and France are best understood as secondary higher education destinations.^[1]

Japan, Canada and New Zealand[link]

Japan, Canada and New Zealand are perceived as evolving destinations for international students. In 2006, Japan, Canada and New Zealand together shared roughly 13% of the international student market, with approximately 327,000 of the 2.7 million students who traveled abroad for the purposes of higher education.^[1] Canada has seen a large increase in the number of India students, where the number of Indian students rose 280% in 2010 compared to 2008.^[15] Organizations such as Learnhub are taking advantage of this growing trend of Indian international students by providing recruitment services that bring Indian students abroad.^[16]

Malaysia, Singapore and China[link]

Malaysia, Singapore and China are the emerging destinations for international students. These three countries have combined share of approximately 12% of the global student market with somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000 students having decided to pursue higher education studies in these countries in 2005-6.^[1]

The flow of international students above indicates the South-North phenomenon. In this sense, students from Asia prefer to pursue their study particularly in the United States.

The recent statistics on mobility of international students can be found in;

• The 2009 Global Education Digest (GED) by UNESCO
• International Flows of Mobile Students at the Tertiary Level by UNESCO
• Empowering People to Innovate - International Mobility by OECD.

The Challenges for International Students[link]

There is a trend for more and more students to go abroad to study in US, Canada, UK and Australia so as to be better educated^{[citation needed]}. English is the only common language spoken at universities in these countries. International students not only need to acquire good communication skills and fluent English both in writing and speaking but also absorb western academic writing culture such as the style, structure, reference and the local policy toward academic integrity in academic writing. Therefore, international students may not write a good article just like teachers have asked because of the differences in culture, which is likely to be quite a challenge to typical international students especially if some international students are less confident in English academic writing. The false grammars and some spelling mistakes will influence academic achievement of international students, although some insightful opinions are expressed on the paper but they may lose the original meaning in language transforming. Even if the international students acquire good scores in English proficiency exam or are able to communicate with native American students frequently in class, they will find an obstacle ahead of them: the academic paper they write are hard to satisfy teachers’ demands and they often puzzle with the choice of the words and format of writing. Therefore, it is a long way to go before international students are adapt to this new writing requirement for them.^[17]

Most international students encounter difficulties of language issue. Such issue blocks the chance for international students to get to know people from the countries they went in deep and it makes it hard for them to learn the new culture when they are not able to make domestic friends. Sometimes it would cause ignorance and disrespect toward international students who could not use the second language effectively.^[18]

International students have several challenges in their academic studies at North American universities. Studies have shown that these challenges come from different sources: students’’ inadequate English proficiency; their unfamiliarity with the North American culture; their lack of appropriate study skills or strategies; their academic leaning anxiety; their low social self-efficacy; their financial difficulties; and their separation from family and friends.^[19] Do some female Chinese international students willingly choose to be invisible and silent in their American classes? If not, what makes them invisible and silent in their American classes? Despite the general perception that American culture is characterized more by diversity than by homogeneity, the American ideology of cultural homogeneity implies an American mindset that because Eurocentric culture are superior to others, people with different cultures should conform to the dominant monocultural canon and norms.^[20]

As Chinese overseas students being a big component of international students, except for language proficiency, the other aspect that leads to the challenges Chinese international students confronted is because of different educational background. As for the Chinese educational structure, it focuses on exam-oriented education, which represents a kind of educational thinking and activities with the purpose of meeting the entrance examination. In this way, students stress more on the performance on the exam to manifest their knowledge proficiency. Therefore, teachers are inclined to focus on the lecture to enrich student’s knowledge. In addition, “parents are also convinced that the more students listened to the lectures, the better they would score on the finals.”^[21] All of their thoughts lead students and teachers to ignore the importance of practical activities, such as group work, because these skills will not be tested on the exams. When Chinese students first come to U.S, the emphasis of student’s ability on group work under U.S educational system makes them difficult to deal with. Thus, they show passive attitude toward group project. Simultaneously, with the lack of English proficiency, this kind of challenge has been aggravated. Therefore, overcoming this common failing of Chinese students, they should combine the improvement of their attitude while being in group work and also enrich their linguistic knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and so on so forth.

See also[link]

• Study abroad
• Student exchange program
• Fulbright Program
• Apprentices mobility
• EducationUSA
• Erasmus programme
• F-1 Visa
• Goodwill Scholarships
• International Baccalaureate
• International education
• International Students Day
• International Student Identity Card
• Japanese students in Britain
• Monbukagakusho Scholarship
• Vulcanus in Japan
• Student migration

Organizations[link]

• American International Education Foundation (AIEF)
• Amizade
• Brethren Colleges Abroad
• International Union of Students
• NAFSA: Association of International Educators
• PFL Education
• Journal of International Students, a peer-reviewed publication, web www.jistudents.org

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Orleans, Leo A., Chinese Students in America: Policies, Issues, and Numbers, National Academies Press, US National Academies, Office of International Affairs (OIA), 1988.

External links[link]

• University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP)
• InternationalStudents.org
• List of tips for international students coming to study in the U.S. -- Collected throughout the years from the international MBA students of Babson College