The recommendations below were developed over the past 2 years by an AIRC working group with input from a wide variety of stakeholders including AIRC members, government agencies, and sister associations. This work has been informed by AIRC’s 2022 Symposium, a conference session at the 2022 Annual Conference, and discussions with leaders of a wide variety of partner associations, organizations and government agencies.
The purpose of the recommendations is to:
articulate AIRC’s distinctive vision for how international student enrollment to the U.S. can grow and succeed.
complement the recommendations made by other associations and organizations.
influence the broader conversations on U.S. international education policies and the development of a national strategy.
be a primary resource for AIRC’s advocacy for expanding U.S. international student enrollment.
The intended audience is all entities involved in international student recruitment and enrollment, including AIRC members, partners, stakeholders, and government officials.
Chaired by Jing Luan, Provost Emeritus at the San Mateo Colleges of the Silicon Valley, the working group that developed the recommendations included members, Cheryl Delk Le Good, EnglishUSA; Maria Dietrich, Northampton Community College; Daniel Harper, Christian Brothers University; and Michael Shaver, The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS).
AIRC will be launching a promotional campaign to promote these recommendations and will use them to shape its resource development and programming.
AIRC’s Recommendations for Advancing International Student Recruitment and Enrollment in the United States
Approved and Endorsed Unanimously by the AIRC Board on 7/20/23
As a destination for education, the United States finds itself today in a diminished position due to increasing competition from nations with more favorable student mobility policies and practices. At the same time, no other nation in the world can match the enormous breadth of educational options offered by U.S. institutions and organizations. How can the U.S. reestablish itself as the undisputed top global destination for international students?
By promoting and supporting the entire range of educational opportunities that serve as entry points for international students, and by promoting the linkages between these experiences, the U.S. can promote an interconnected education ecosystem to support diverse, accessible, and flexible avenues by which international students flow to and within the U.S. To accomplish this, the U.S. will need coordinated leadership, effective strategies, and consistent policies.
As the membership association and Standards Development Organization (SDO) serving the field of international student recruitment and enrollment, AIRC works with and supports the full breadth of entities that recruit and enroll international students in the U.S. As such, AIRC is well-positioned to offer the below Two Recommendations for Advancing International Student Recruitment and Enrollment in the United States to help make the U.S. the undisputed premier destination for international students. These recommendations are intended to inform and shape the activities of all entities and professionals working to recruit international students to the U.S., including the U.S. government, membership associations, educational recruitment agencies, and all stakeholders.
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. An updated view of student mobility is needed to reflect current realities so that policies, programs and opportunities are aligned with the characteristics of contemporary international student journeys.
International students today may choose from a wide array of non-credit and credit-bearing experiences and combine multiple experiences to advance their academic and career goals in a personalized way that works well for them. Students are looking for accessibility, value, relevance, and flexibility in their educational avenues, including in application processes, admissions, enrollment, course selection, learning modality, credit articulation, transfer, and study abroad. International student mobility should refer to a movement both to and within the through a variety of entry and transition points. This updated understanding will help not only to formally recognize this dynamic process, but also will position the U.S. to compete effectively in recruiting and enrolling international students.
Recommendation 1
Promote the many and diverse U.S. educational entry points to expand access to International Student Mobility.
With entry points spanning K – 12 schools, public and private secondary schools, community colleges, as well as undergraduate and graduate institutions of higher education, the U.S. educational landscape offers unparalleled opportunities for international students. These entry points include intensive English and pathway language programs, vocational and business training, short-term study abroad and exchange programs, volunteer, work and cultural programs, an online learning. However, many of these entry points are not known or appreciated even by international student recruitment professionals. As a result, some of these opportunities are left out of the promotion of the U.S. as an international student destination.
Increasing knowledge of the entry points that are available to international students will provide more options for students to begin their U.S. educational journeys, thereby expanding access and increasing program enrollments. Entry points are very often a first step in a longer educational avenue that includes other educational experiences. Increasing awareness and promotion of the number and range of entry points can therefore lead to increased enrollments in additional educational programs.
Recommended Actions for All Institutions and Organizations
Identify and promote model practices that demonstrate the benefits of a wide variety of educational entry points.
Train those who advise and counsel students about the diversity of educational entry points.
Promote multiple entry points to students, their families, and stakeholders so that they are aware of the robust educational choices students have.
Increase the attractiveness of student educational entry points by providing evidence on how the opportunities are an excellent value.
Advocate for improving the processing of student and exchange visitor visas to make entry to and transition between educational opportunities as seamless as possible.
Promote and conduct training on enrollment management standards and best practices that support the features of international student mobility.
Recommendation 2
Facilitate connections between entry points to support International Student Mobility.
Achievement of a U.S. academic degree involves accumulating course credits, a process that can start at diverse entry points throughout the student lifecycle. Increasingly, international students are taking ownership of their educational avenues, combining discrete educational experiences to construct what they believe are the most relevant, affordable, and valuable experiences. Completing an English language program is an entry point that can provide a solid foundation for educational success. A summer work or internship experience can ignite interest in pursuing a professional degree program. Graduating from a secondary school can provide an effective entry point to a two- or four-year college degree experience. Completing two years at a community college can be a valuable entry point toward a four-year college degree.
Linkages between entry points are not currently well articulated or developed to benefit the international student’s educational avenue. Ideally, discrete educational experiences should be connected seamlessly together to foster continuation toward completion of an educational journey that delivers relevant and valuable outcomes. Instead of entry points that are well integrated horizontally and vertically so that students can easily map out their educational path, students often encounter institutional and programmatic silos without clear road signs between them. To that end, we must develop, expand and improve the links between international student entry points, and make earned credentials truly portable from state to state and from nation to nation. Achieving this will help make students’ educational avenues more efficient, and their education outcomes more meaningful and relevant.
Recommended Actions for All Institutions and Organizations
Highlight models of articulation that link entry points into educational pathways to serve as examples for institutions and students to emulate.
Advocate for policies and financial practices that support international students’ access to funding to support their international educational avenues.
Support greater portability of international students’ educational credentials and transfer opportunities by adopting the principles of the Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region | UNESCO.
Develop course articulation databases and assessment practices that include the use of life skills equivalencies and non-standardized aptitude tests.
Develop a scorecard for “accessibility of entry points and outcomes” and conduct listening sessions and surveys to monitor improvement.