International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying.
In 2020, there were over 6.36 million international students, up from 5.12 million in 2016. The most popular destinations were the United States (with 957,475 international students), the United Kingdom (550,877 students), and Australia (458,279 students), which together receive 31% of international students.
National definitions
The definitions of "foreign student" and "international student" vary from country to country depending on the educational system of the country.
In the US, international students are "[i]ndividuals studying in the United States on a non-immigrant, temporary visa that allows for academic study at the post- secondary level." Most international students in the US hold an F1 Visa.
In Europe, students from countries who are a part of the European Union can take part in a student exchange program called the Erasmus Programme. The program allows for students from the EU to study in other countries under a government agreement.
Canada defines international students as "non-Canadian students who do not have 'permanent resident' status and have had to obtain the authorization of the Canadian government to enter Canada with the intention of pursuing an education." The study permit identifies the level of study and the length of time the individual may study in Canada. Unless it takes more than six months, international students do not need a study permit if they will finish the course within the period of stay authorized upon entry.
In Australia, an international student "is not an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, New Zealand citizen, or a holder of an Australian permanent resident humanitarian visa."
According to the Institute of International Education, an international student in Japan is "[a] student from a foreign economy who is receiving an education at any Japanese university, graduate school, junior college, college of technology, professional training college or university preparatory course and who resides in Japan with a 'college student' visa status."
Destinations of foreign students
Student mobility in the first decade of the 21st century has been transformed by three major external events: the 9/11 terrorists attack, the global financial crisis of 2008, and an increasingly isolationist political order characterized by Brexit in the U.K. and the election of Donald Trump in the U.S. The mobility of international students is influenced by many factors, particularly changes to the visa and immigration policies of destination countries that impact the availability of employment during and after education. Political developments are often a major consideration; for example, a survey conducted before the 2020 presidential election in the U.S. indicated that a quarter of prospective international students were more likely to study in the country if Joseph R. Biden was elected president.
Australia has by far the highest ratio of international students per head of population in the world by a significant margin, with international students represented on average 26.7% of the student bodies of Australian universities.
The greatest percentage increases of numbers of foreign students have occurred in New Zealand, Korea, the Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Italy, and Ireland.
Traditionally the US and UK have been the most prestigious choices, because of the presence of top 10 rankings Universities such as Harvard, Oxford, MIT, and Cambridge. More recently however they have had to compete with the rapidly growing Asian higher education market, especially China. In the 2020 CWTS Leiden Ranking edition, China surpassed the US with the number of universities including in the ranking for the first time (204 vs.198). China is also home to the two best C9 league universities (Tsinghua and Peking) in the Asia-Pacific and emerging countries with its shared rankings at 16th place in the world by the 2022 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. While US is the leading destination for foreign students, there is increasing competition from several destinations in East Asia such as China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan which are keen to attract foreign students for reputation and demographic reasons.