Global Policy Updates in International Education

Today’s international students are generally sophisticated consumers of the education sector’s product. But no amount of bright and colorful institutional packaging can hide the government policy ingredients if they aren’t healthy. This article looks at recent policy updates across the globe as they affect international students and our sector.

Commencing with a key comparison of post-study work rights in the top four study destinations, we provide a snapshot of current macro political climates and media messaging that could be affecting the perceptions of individual countries in the minds of international students.

We also examine IDP’s real-time demand and Emerging Futures 4 data to understand what it tells us about which countries and subjects’ potential students have been looking at over the past year to August 2023 and other factors affecting student choice and decision-making.

Costs and opportunities are often top of mind for prospective international students in the current economic climate. Below we compare four key elements of the national policies from the four top study destinations.

Australia

The current Labor Government has reinstated the cap on term-time working hours for international students. During the pandemic, a decision was made by the previous government to allow international students to work unlimited hours, largely to fill workforce shortages caused by fewer working holiday visas being granted.

This changed in July 2023 and international students are now restricted to 48 hours work per two weeks during term time. The move has generally been greeted positively by the sector, and notably keeps Australia ahead of the UK, the US, and Canada where students can work up to 20 hours per week during study periods.

Phil Honeywood, Chief Executive of the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) said in the Guardian that the Coalition Government’s decision to increase the allowable hours had been undertaken with “no consultation whatsoever with the international education sector.” Mr. Honeywood said it was “absolutely necessary” that the cap be put back in place.

In February 2023, the Government announced a two-year extension of post-study work rights for international graduates with certain degrees in areas of verified skills shortages to be effective from July 1, 2023. The extension adds to the one or two-year stay already available to Temporary Graduate visa holders and makes Australia’s post-study work rights duration the most generous of all the major study destinations.

In March 2023, Education ministers from Australia and India signed the first ‘Mechanism for the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications between Australia and India’. The mechanism is intended to strengthen educational and economic ties between the countries and support continued cooperation between students, researchers, academics, and institutions by recognizing school, higher, and vocational education and training (VET) qualifications to assist access to higher education and employment.

One of Australia’s main factors of appeal for international students is its flexible study pathways, including ‘concurrent study’. However, earlier this year, the practice came under fire for its potential misuse and in August 2023, the Government removed the concurrent study functionality from the Provider Registration and International Student Management System (PRISMS), effectively halting the concurrent enrollment of international students. The Department of Education said in a statement, “This provision protects the interests of both [education] providers and students.”

In June 2023, the Association of Australian Education Representatives in India (AAERI) presented Australia’s Home Affairs Minister with a petition calling for the Government to link student visas to institutions (as is already done in UK and New Zealand). The AAERI said that “rules are being flouted” and an increase in fraud is affecting the reputation of international education in Australia.

Another potentially damaging loophole was also closed in August 2023, when the Government announced the ending of the 408 Covid visa. Stakeholders say the visa, which was introduced during the pandemic by the former Coalition Government, is being abused by some students who are using it to end their studies early and take up full-time employment in Australia.

The Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) called on the Government to improve the visa system. Troy Williams, ITECA chief executive said, “ITECA wants to put students at the heart of the international education sector and the associated visa framework. When a student comes here to study, we want a visa framework that best supports them by better enabling them to complete their course.”

Canada

Canada is suffering an acute housing shortage, similar to many other study destinations (see below) and, in August, Housing Minister Sean Fraser said that the Government “ought to consider” putting a cap on the number of international student visas it will grant. In 2022, there were 800,000 international students with active visas in Canada, up from 275,000 a decade earlier, in 2012: a 190% increase.

The country expects international student numbers will increase to 900,000 this year and Canada’s Immigration Minister, Marc Miller, has also spoken of risks to the “integrity of the system” that this level of growth might cause.

However, international education professionals say there is little to no evidence available to suggest a direct correlation between international students and the wider availability of housing, with many provinces and institutions prioritizing student accommodation as part of their financial strategies and many believe a cap will not happen.

In addition, there have been some extremely negative headlines suggesting visa fraud among unregulated, unscrupulous operators involving fake letters of acceptance, particularly in Ontario. Many stakeholders believe that this, alongside negative governmental messaging, is having a negative impact upon the Canada brand.

However, Canada’s International Education Strategy (IES) is being reviewed as the current strategy nears its expiry date of March 31, 2024 and it is hoped that these key vulnerabilities can be addressed.

In August 2023, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) was reported to be implementing a Trusted Institution Framework, to be in place by 2024, as part of plans to modernize its International Student Program. The framework will establish a two-tiered structure for Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs), with the introduction of the category ‘Trusted Institution’ which are those deemed to be reliable partners with sustainable intake, identification of genuine students, monitoring and reporting on their compliance and providing a safe, quality experience for international students. Student visa applicants to Trusted Institutions will receive expedited visa processing.

Improving diversity is still a key issue for Canada, not only in the range of countries students arrive from, but also in working to ensure international students are seeking placements more evenly across the provinces. In May 2023, it was reported in The Pie that more than half of all international student permits were linked to institutions in Ontario (411,985 in 2022). There is also a notably heavy reliance on students from India and China. In papers relating to the refreshed IES, Global Affairs Canada noted that there were “enormous” opportunities to diversify the cohort from within India as most students come from the northern region.

In terms of student work rights, a policy response to the pandemic saw international students with off-campus work authorization being allowed to work unrestricted hours during study time. This was a temporary measure to assist with labor shortages and it has now been rescinded. From December 31, 2023, off-campus work will be once again restricted to a term-time allowance of 20 hours.

UK

There was sincere disappointment within the UK higher education sector in May 2023, when the Conservative Government announced that international students travelling to the UK to undertake most postgraduate programs will no longer be able to bring dependents. It was seen as a policy change that will impact student numbers, particularly among women, who may be unable to study if they cannot bring dependents with them. Only students undertaking postgraduate research programs will be able to bring dependents. This move was largely seen as a way for the UK Government to mitigate negative public sentiment prior to announcing record immigration figures.

This news was swiftly followed in July with the announcement that visa fees, including Student visa fees and Graduate visa fees, and the health surcharge were going to be increased. Coming into effect from October 4, 2023, the new visa fee structure increases student visas by almost 35%, from GBP 363 to GBP 490, for applications from outside the UK. The post-study work route application fee for the Graduate visa will increase by 15%, from GBP 715 to GBP 822.

The immigration health surcharge (IHS), which allows international students and other visa holders to access the National Health Service for free, is discounted for students from the full charge of GBP 625 to GBP 470 per year of study (payable at time of application for the full duration of stay). The new charge, which was slated for autumn 2023 but may not be introduced until 2024, will be GBP 776 per year. For those students planning to stay in the UK following completion of their studies by applying for a Graduate visa, the charge will be GBP 1,035 per year of the duration of their visa. This means that graduates applying for their two-year Graduate visa will have to pay a total of GBP 2,892 and this is before securing employment.

In a recent report compiled by the APPG for International Students on the Graduate visa, produced by Independent Higher Education (IHE) and IDP, the costs relating to the Graduate visa were seen by a significant number of students and graduates as a negative factor in the UK’s post-study work offering. These costs were seen as a barrier for students wanting to remain in the UK to gain work experience and, potentially, a barrier to the uptake of international education in the UK.

The hike in visa and IHS fees was chiefly put in place, reports suggest, to cover the cost of public sector wage increases after a prolonged period of industrial action from public sector employees, including teachers and university lecturers, relating to pay and conditions. The announcement of the Visa and IHS increases coincided with a pay deal made by the Government to raise wages, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying migrants – including students and graduates – would have to pay more to stay in the UK. A headline in the Guardian newspaper described the move as “borderline racist”.

The marking and assessment boycott, and, for some, the disruption to rail and travel services, caused students to have a fractured year of study which culminated in some 2023 graduates not having their marks and qualifications at the expected time. This, again, created distinct negative sentiment among international students and was seen by leaders in the sector as potentially damaging.

US

In July 2023, the US Government included international education in its National Export Strategy (NES) for the first time. This was greeted with positivity from the sector but prompted calls for a harnessing of the momentum to reinforce the country’s position as a top destination for international education.

The NES, published by the Department of Commerce through the International Trade Administration, dedicated a section to international education which acknowledged the “significant contributions to U.S. innovation” that international and exchange students make to the country.

Conversely, July also saw reports of new data that showed F-1 visa denial grew significantly between 2015 and 2022. Jill Welch, Senior Policy Advisor at the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, wrote in The Pie that “qualified international students from the African continent are routinely being denied visas to study on US campuses at disproportionally higher rates than students from other areas of the world.”

Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, wrote in an article for Forbes that in FY 2022, out of 631,807 applications for F-1 student visas, 220,676 were refused, a refusal rate of 35%. He noted a drop in numbers of international students attending US universities and said it had been caused by a combination of consular officers denying visas and uncompetitive immigration policies that appear unattractive to students when compared with other study destination countries, such as Canada.

However, the US State Department reported that the total number of F-1 student visas issued in FY 2022 was a record and surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time. In the first 10 months of FY 2023 (to 1 August 2023), more than 393,000 F1-visas had been issued and the total number looked certain to surpass the total 411,131 F-1 visas issued in FY 2022.

In August 2023, AIRC – The Association of International Enrollment Management published recommendations that, it said, would help advance international student recruitment and enrollment in the United States, and address the current “diminished position due to increasing competition from nations with more favorable student mobility policies and practices.”

The two primary recommendations were:

• Promote the many and diverse US educational entry points to expand access to international student mobility.

• Facilitate connections between entry points to support international student mobility.

On its website, AIRC said, “The U.S. needs to adopt an updated understanding of international student mobility to accurately describe the expansive educational avenues navigated by today’s international student. International students enrolling today do not necessarily want to be limited to a single, discrete overseas educational experience that proceeds in a linear fashion. They want customized educational avenues that fit their personal, academic, and professional goals, and that can be pursued across a variety of linked educational experiences and programs that may be delivered through diverse modalities and in a variety of places.”

Our IQ Demand data shows us which destination countries, subjects and programs students are searching for across IDP websites and highlights fluctuations and trends historically. This allows us to track changes and analyze student exploration of international higher education.

Comparing August 2022 to August 2023

The top performing country in terms of search demand from August 2022 to August 2023 was the US: rising from 24% to 27%. Demand for the US peaked in April 2023 at 28%.

The second most in-demand country was the UK. In August 2022 it had 22% of the demand share and this remained the same in August 2023. Demand for the UK peaked in September 2022 at 24% when the country overtook the US – the only time in the 12-month period that another country saw greater search demand other than the US.

Canada was the only top-four study destination country to experience a year-on-year decline from August 2022 to 2023, dropping from 21% of the demand share to 19%. Demand for Canada peaked in November 2022 at 22%).

In August 2022, Australia’s share of search demand was the lowest at 15%. By August 2023, this had risen to 16% but this still saw Australia garnering the smallest share of the top-four destinations. Demand for Australia peaked in February 2023 at almost 17%.

Housing Crisis

All four top study destinations have recently reported that student accommodation is a pressing issue. The sometimes sensationalist headlines, such as those in Canada referring to possible capping of student numbers, have been a cause for concern among recruiters, who largely believe such announcements are damaging to destination brand perceptions.

The Pie spoke to a number of specialist accommodation representatives, all of whom believed capping numbers of international students was not a policy option that would resolve national housing problems. However, while federal governments hold the reins on housing policy, institutions, local government, and councils can and must work together to provide strategies to help.

While the importance of safe, affordable student housing cannot be overstated, our Emerging Futures 4 (EF4) research showed that the majority of students (more than two thirds) are willing to travel to their study destination without having this important factor settled. When asked what they would do if they were unable to secure accommodation prior to travel, 44% of the respondents said they would keep their study plans and travel anyway, 25% said they would travel, but reassess their study options and 31% said they would not travel without accommodation.

When we asked students about their experiences relating to accommodation in their study destination there were some interesting findings. Students in private accommodation reported that they are exceeding their budget, living further from campus to save on rent, and settling for housing that does not meet their requirements. This indicates that international students are compromising in their expectations for housing.

Education Exports

A recent HEPI article stated around half of all global heads of state have been educated either in the UK or the USA tertiary sector. The USA has the edge slightly in the 2023 Soft Power Index, but both countries boast around a quarter each – (65 were educated in the USA and 58 in the UK). The closest competing country is France where 30 current leaders were educated, followed by Russia with 10.

There is no doubt about the appeal of international education qualifications and that the desire for such accolades is booming. However, questions of sustainability amid the global economic crisis, not to mention the potential threat of further health pandemics, mean that the numbers of international branch campuses (IBCs), transnational education (TNE) programs, and joint training programs are increasing.

According to the Cross-Border Education Research Team (C-BERT), there are 333 international campuses worldwide provided by 39 home countries, hosted in 83 countries (as of March 2023 – new figures due out in November 2023). From March this year, media reports of new IBCs and countries planning to expand their tertiary education footprint include:

• Foreign Universities and Higher Education in Vietnam (March 7, 23)

• Deakin University to become first foreign tertiary institution with campus in India (March 8, 23)

• UK TNE has taken off in Europe, despite Brexit obstacles (June 16, 23)

• Tokyo keen on overseas university branch campuses for Japan (September 5, 23)

• First Greek university branch campus to open in Egypt (September 26, 23)

Government policy is key in the field of IBCs and TNE, both in terms of education export policy and host country government policy. Without government support, the future of IBCs and TNE will be challenging and C-BERT figures show that 58 campuses have closed.

India’s potential tax demands – Higher education stakeholders have been concerned recently with the news that the Narendra Modi Government in India could be seeking to accrue tax revenue by introducing a ‘permanent establishment tax’ (PE); with a potential worst-case scenario of institutions being asked to pay 40% income tax on recruiting activities in India backdated over the past five years.

As well as the tax payable, PE could mean in-country representatives would need to be registered with local authorities and accounts would need to be filed. Institutions are being urged to analyze their operations in India and seek expert advice on existing and future activities relating to PE, particularly involving changing methods of student recruitment, enrolment, and transnational education.

Egypt’s Policy updates for competing nations – In August 2023, The Egyptian Initiative for Scholarships and Educational Tourism (EGYAID) was launched as part of a broad package of projects within the country’s National Strategy for Higher Education 2030. Designed to grow international student recruitment and boost the country’s appeal as a study destination, EGYAID incentives include scholarships, student visa residency rights, as well as student discounts. Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research states that HE institutions have high international student acceptance rates – three out of four applicants – and low cost of living.

Nigeria’s devalued currency – According to UNESCO, in 2022 there were 71,753 students from Nigeria who were studying abroad. Student visa grants for Nigerian students traveling to the UK jumped by 73% year-on-year through June 2023.

While the Nigerian economy is the largest in Africa, and is continuing to grow, Nigerian currency is faltering, and a sharp devaluation cycle was commenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria in June 2023. This means that Nigerian students are likely to be struggling to afford international student tuition fees and the rising cost of living expenses. Speaking to University World News, students from Nigeria recently spoke to University World News about the problems caused by the falling value of the naira.

“Two months ago, I was buying [GB] pounds for 850-870 naira per pound,” said one student. “But it has since moved up to over 1,000 naira. It’s been very challenging."

National governmental policy changes relating to the international education sector often repeat themselves in a cyclical fashion over varying periods of time. At times governments seek to encourage international student growth and their policies and rhetoric reflect this. Then, as international student numbers increase, various issues arise and a change of sentiment occurs which leads to less welcoming messaging, negative media reporting and even policy change. This then causes a drop in perceptions of the destination among prospective students and family decision makers, and international student growth declines.

The government wins back public opinion, but at a cost to the sector and to the nation’s soft power, research strengths, and the technological and entrepreneurial advancements made by international graduates. An outcry occurs and policies are changed to encourage growth. And so, the cycle repeats itself.

We can see from the global comparison of visa and PSW rights that Australia has made positive adjustments to its offering and is reaping the benefits among students looking to study abroad. Our EF 4 survey responses have shown that perceptions of Australia have improved and it has now joined Canada as the joint top first-choice destination.

Simon Emmett, IDP Connect Chief Executive Officer, said changes in perceptions and factors that students consider in their decision making show the top-four destinations should not rely on previous positive sentiment and high rankings.

Upon the launch of the latest EF4 findings, Mr. Emmett said, “Policy changes, dynamic shifts within institutions and global economic conditions all have the power to affect a destination’s standings. Global competition between destination countries for international students remains high, and the impact of perceptions of post-graduation opportunities, or lack of opportunities, continues to impact student choice.”

Rachel MacSween, Director of Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement, UK and Europe, said, “IDP continues to converse with government, stakeholders and institutions to affect policy and assist in the dynamic changes that will support students during their education journeys.

“Our commitment to the sector and to the students who embark on the international education experience is cemented in our knowledge of the processes and key policies affecting student choice. Our ability to positively affect the outcomes for students and institutions alike is what makes us work harder and better each day.”