When you think to take admission in any university then apparently you look at the ranking of that university and its programmes. But international students think about other aspects when they decided to attend any university.
An International Higher Education Report about students trends stated that the rankings and reliability of the universities are decreasing in value for prospective students with a lot of factors. Teaching quality and price of living considered respectively 45% and 118% more extremely than by current students.
According to the report, this specific trend is a common circumstance with all the international students around the world. This report has discussed student trends of various regions like Western Europe, Northern Europe, Northern America, and Southern Asia.
The report specifically emphasizes on some features which universities should add to their curriculum like teaching quality, living cost and campus life in their marketing materials. Many students have focused on these factors when they think to study internationally.
The study has found that international students have more belief in equal testimonials beside from living cost in specific area and university’s faculty.
Another report of international students surveys stated that 33% more students prefer to value university’s student reviews and choose their university based on the unique opportunities, it offers.
International students also consider the factor to go to a particular country where they can have work opportunities after graduation.
The report noted that international students from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Lithuania are more interested in work visas after graduation.
South Asian students are more focusing on the cost of living, teaching quality and campus facilities. They ignore other common factors like the recommendation of family and friends, the number of offered programs and the university’s location.
Just 14% of international students from the southern side consider program ranking the most important thing. 40% of students think that enrollment requirements in a particular programme are more important.
More factors on which international students seem to be focused on other than ranking are, scholarships and loans, career focus and opportunities of work in the respective country after graduation.
When South Asian International students have decided to study in a country, they surely consider a country’ openness and its friendly culture. They also think about how a country handles its international students. Moreover, students focus a lot on the country’s reputation of high-standard education than its basic spoken language.
To attract international students, universities must highlight these factors on their marking sites instead of just focusing on their ranking.
International students should rely on other factors like students reviews and student ambassadors to make the right choice.
The Pie News, Josh Hopton-Stewart who is the site manager of an educational website stated that international students are more qualified digitally to evaluate quality independent of ranking bodies and take a more simple focus to what kind of education will be best for them.
So, it is concluded that the ranking of universities doesn’t affect the number of enrollments of International Students.