The US is and will continue to be the indisputable number one destination for students in the world. At the moment, there is a huge gap between the US (as the first destination) and the other countries which host students in pursuit of academic degrees and other related programs. As you allude to, there are more than 4k colleges and universities in the US.
With a declining number of domestic students and the rising costs of tuition, it has become increasingly more difficult for universities to find sustainable ways for a secure financial viability. To this end, for years universities have turned to the recruitment of international students to fill that gap. While this strategy has been embraced by a good number of colleges and universities, the truth of the matter is that international students have been equally susceptible to geopolitical and financial conditions, making it harder for students to continue coming to the US, at the rate exhibited during the last ten to twelve years.
This challenge has identified a few areas of vulnerability within these universities. Most of these challenges stem from their inability to create palpable differentiation among them, thereby making it hard for students to find compelling reasons to pick one over the other.
As I think about this further, I am of the belief that these are the most salient points dominating the issue of the future of US colleges and universities:
1. Universities ranked at the top #25 will never face any recruitment challenges. These are highly respectable, well-known brands both here and overseas. Their endowments will continue to grow at exponential rates, they will continue to invest in research, continue to attract the best professors and will be in the business of educating the political and business elites of the world.
2. Universities ranked between #25-#50 will also do relatively ok but will find themselves competing for the same tier of students and will undoubtedly have to engage in an aggressive campaign to allure students with significant scholarships and other incentives.
3. Universities ranked below #50 – #100 will be far more exposed, especially if they happen to be private liberal arts colleges. Another area of further vulnerability is not being able to offer any STEM majors or clearly unique academic tracks.
4. Universities ranked under #100 have very low chances of survival unless they engage in strategic partnerships, whether abroad or domestically, organize themselves in a way to adapt to the rapidly evolving metrics driving student recruitment.
There will be a lot more transnational inter-institutional agreements among universities to further reconcile academic system differences. The coordination of strategic academic mappings, degree validations and accelerated programs will continue to dominate the agenda of US colleges and universities.
To this end, what we have started doing in China and intend to do in other places in Central America and Africa will pave the way to build significant recruitment channels for the future.
Source: https://jimburkee.com/2021/01/20/the-decline-of-us-bound-international-students/
