Lay of the Land

International higher education leaders are experiencing a whiplash of doubt, ambiguity, and rapid flux amid unexpected votes to elect Donald Trump and pull Britain from the European Union, the continued upheaval in the Middle East, and the newly  unpredictable foreign policies of traditionally stable world powers. International higher education increasingly finds itself operating at the turbulent nexus of all of these global dynamics, even as it grapples with increased competition, changing demographics, declining public funding, technological innovation, and other factors.

And yet, challenges beget opportunities. As institutions and leaders take stock of the shifting international education map and try to plot the best way forward, experts on the trend lines and front lines of the field see untapped markets, increasing interest in nontraditional programs, and opportunities for new revenue growth. Along with risks, each of these opens new doors and new ways to diversify prospects, meet imperatives, and accomplish the goals of international higher education.

Perhaps the most obvious issue for traditional international student magnets is that interest in both the United States and the United Kingdom—the world’s top two destination countries—has declined and flattened, respectively. Although international mobility is at an all-time high, with international students surpassing the 1 million mark in the United States and more than 4.1 million mobile students worldwide, the proportion of these studying in Britain has stagnated at about 11 percent, and the United States is losing market share to Australia and Canada, as well as to emerging destinations in Asia.

The latter is part