The fall semester has come to a close in most higher ed institutions, and since the end of one year inevitably leads to interest in the one upcoming, I started to look online for news on trends in international education.
I take trend stories with a grain of salt, but the Germany-based ICEF Monitor has one focused on the business of international education that is at least worth thinking about. They break it down to:
My first takeaway is that many of the issues that we’re dealing with in the United States aren’t ours alone. The rising cost of living that we’re experiencing isn’t just an American or North American challenge.
Similarly, the economic polarization that leads to brutally impoverished countries has created immigration issues around the world, and the debates about immigration that are taking place in the U.S. are taking place elsewhere. That has led to attenuated attitudes toward international students even though the research consistently shows that they’re positive additions to a country’s economy.
The first two seem inevitable. Clearly AI technology has reached a point where it no longer needs specialists to employ it, and almost every non-blue collar job is going to have to come to grips with its impact. There’s no reason to think higher ed is immune.
The idea that students expect faster responses doesn’t seem particularly new, but maybe the news here is what constitutes “faster.” Students have always been impatient, but one study showed that 62 percent of students expected to hear back from a university in 24 hours or less. It seems logical that students who have never known life without the Internet and the speed of communication that it makes possible would expect that kind of customer service, and it’s a condition we’ll simply have to find ways to deal with.
Do those sound right to you? How do they line up with what you’re seeing? I never assume trend stories are simply true, but you write them off at your own risk.
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