Dive Brief:
- International students find welcome homes at community colleges, where they have more flexibility with language proficiency standards and cheaper tuition.
- University Business reports that international student enrollment at community colleges peaked during the Great Recession at almost 96,000 but has maintained a general upward trend for a decade.
- Some community colleges are actively recruiting international students while others rely on word-of-mouth networks between immigrants in local communities and their friends and relatives back home, according to the article.
Dive Insight:
While there has been enrollment growth of international students at community colleges, it has generally just kept pace with domestic enrollment growth. According to the Institute for International Education, international students have been between 1.1% and 1.3% of total community college enrollment for almost the entire decade of growth — excluding only during the peak year of 2008-09, when they made up 1.5% of community college campuses.
Historically, international students have had a greater presence in graduate programs, and more recently they have become more sought after members of undergraduate campuses for a variety of reasons. Tuition revenue is one, but campus leaders also point to the cultural exchange that benefits their students — especially those who do not study abroad.