New Research Highlights A Key Remedy for the U.S. Higher Education Demographic Cliff: International School Graduates
15 Maio 2023 - 1:30PM
Business Wire
Resurgent interest from international students may provide a
boon to struggling U.S. colleges that face massive enrollment
declines, according to a new research report from BridgeU, the
leading provider of college and career readiness services to
international K12 schools. The report shows how strong interest
from international school graduates in key global markets, combined
with targeted recruitment and marketing by sought-after U.S.
institution types, can mitigate the much-discussed enrollment cliff
that is predicted to reduce undergraduate enrollment by 15 percent
from 2025 to 2029.1
The newly-released BridgeU report, "Redefining Global
Talent Pipelines: The Crucial Role of International School
Graduates in Sustaining and Enriching U.S. Undergraduate Higher
Education," examines the impact of international school
K12 graduates on application and enrollment trends at U.S. higher
education institutions by analyzing data from 250,000 applications
representing over 32,000 international student applicants from 142
countries.
Key findings:
- Resurgent interest from China and new regional
opportunities.
- The percentage of international students applying to U.S.
schools from China increased by 6.2% from 2022 to 2023, following
the big pandemic-driven drop and closing off of China.
- Emerging markets in Africa and Asia have seen significant
growth in the number of new international schools, with meaningful
potential upside for the U.S.: more than 50% of international
school students in Southeast Asia are interested in applying to a
U.S. university.
- The average number of applications to U.S. higher education
institutions from students in Central America increased from 3.17
in 2019 to 8.49 in 2023.
- The highest percentages of international students shortlisting
the U.S. as their top higher education destination came from South
Korea (86%) and Brazil (79%).
- A silver lining to U.S. enrollment woes. Higher
education institutions in many of the states expecting larger than
average declines in college-aged student populations also receive
the most interest from international school graduates, with
colleges and universities on the East Coast consistently attracting
the highest number of BridgeU applications across all five
graduating years.
- Conversion matters: Active consideration of U.S.
universities by European students rose from 22.5% in 2019 to 33.8%
in 2023, but actual applications have not increased significantly –
indicating poor conversion rates from early interest to application
when compared to regions like Southeast and East Asia and
opportunities to improve.
- Targeted growth by institution type: Over the past five
years, public universities saw year-over-year application growth
from international school graduates – but the largest percentage
growth in interest and applications over that same period was seen
by small liberal arts colleges.
“International students play a critical role in securing
long-term tuition revenue for higher education institutions and in
filling much-needed talent gaps in an already stressed labor
market,” said Lucy Stonehill, founder and CEO of BridgeU. “This is
a growing, diverse pool of prospective applicants with strong
academic foundations and robust English language skills. Our report
underscores the importance of strategic recruitment efforts for
U.S. higher education institutions in engaging with international
school students.”
Stonehill noted that even as the acute shortage of STEM
graduates threatens the United States' ability to remain globally
competitive in the longer term, international students have the
potential to serve as an important source of U.S. labor market
prospects – they make up 72% of all graduate students in computer
and information sciences and between 50% to 70% of graduate
students studying other key STEM fields.2
Meanwhile, the international school K12 segment continues to
expand, driven by demand from middle and upper-middle-income
families in emerging markets. In the last 10 years, the number of
international schools globally have increased by 52% to 13,190
schools in January 20233, and there is continued confidence in the
market which forecasts growth in international K12 schools in the
5-8% CAGR range.
The report analyzes data from across the last five admissions
cycles and includes insights into application trends, institution
type preferences, conversion rates, and university ranking data –
crucial considerations for U.S. colleges and universities seeking
to grow enrollment in the years ahead.
The full report can be accessed here.
About BridgeU BridgeU, a Kaplan company, is an edtech
business whose mission is to connect global student talent with the
best higher education opportunities worldwide and to help K12
schools and universities alike to harness the advantages of digital
solutions to drive international student mobility. The BridgeU
university and careers guidance platform is used by international
K12 schools in over 140 countries to help students make smarter,
more informed decisions about their global higher education and
career pathways. BridgeU’s partnership services help universities
to connect with the largest single community of international
schools in the world and empower admissions teams to design truly
student-centric recruitment strategies that align with
institutional enrollment priorities.
For more information about BridgeU, please visit
bridge-u.com.
Note to editors: Kaplan is a subsidiary of Graham Holdings
Company (NYSE: GHC)
____________________________ 1 AACRAO, (2018), College students
predicted to fall by more than 15 percent after the year 2025,
https://www.aacrao.org/who-we-are/newsroom/article/2018/09/11/college-students-predicted-to-fall-by-more-than-15-percent-after-the-year-2025
2 National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), (2021), NFAP
Policy Brief: International Students in Science and Engineering 3
ISC Research
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Press Contact: Carina Wong, carina.wong@kaplan.com,
646-467-2241
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