If there’s one thing politicians love to talk about, it’s how valuable international students are to their country – how much they contribute to the economy, how important they are for the future workforce and the diversity they bring to universities and colleges.
They normally say this before unleashing a raft of devastating policies that leave students understandably confused about why they just spent thousands of yen/rupees/naira on an education abroad.
So, in case anything is unclear, here’s our country-by-country breakdown of where, after a turbulent year, everyone stands on international students. Be warned, if you’re looking for logic behind the policies – there isn’t any. Oh, and, they’ll probably all change in January anyway.
2023 was the year of policymakers in top student destinations floating the idea of capping international student numbers, seemingly unaware of the barrage of criticism and mass hysteria even a whisper of limitations would unleash.
