Prospective students are considering the high cost of studying and living abroad in those leading destinations and then they are:

• Looking at rules restricting foreign students’ entry, work rights, and ability to bring their families;
• Comparing what institutions promise about employment outcomes to what current students and alumni say about what is actually happening for them.

When considering each destination individually, they notice that:

• The non-refundable fee for a student visa in Australia keeps ramping up (it is currently AU$2,000), alongside historically high visa rejection rates.
• The UK’s Graduate Route post-study work term is being cut from 24 months to 18 months in 2027.
• Post-study work streams in the US are under review by policy makers.
• Canada’s international student cap remains in place, alongside more restrictive policies for post-graduation work eligibility, and declining visa approval rates.

At the same time, labour markets in the Big Four are being disrupted by geo-political factors and the impact of new technologies. The youth unemployment rate is currently higher in Canada than it was just after the pandemic, and it is the highest it has been in a decade in the UK – trends that contribute to a more uncertain employment outlook for domestic and foreign graduates alike.

“Post-study work is obviously a key driver for a significant part of the prospective student audience,” says Dr Mark Bennett, Vice President of Research and Insight at Keystone Education Group. “But that doesn’t mean it’s their ‘default’ option post-graduation. Rather, it’s one of many opportunities that enhances the value and attractiveness of an international degree. Trusting that the door is there in advance matters whether or not someone chooses to walk through it later.”

Measuring student sentiment

Recent survey research and social media listening studies confirm that international prospects are more skeptical about the ROI of study abroad in a Big Four destination.

Looking just at the UK, for example:

• New research found that 34% of international students are less interested in UK study as a result of the imminent shortening of the Graduate Route (and half of the sample didn’t know about the policy change, indicating that demand might fall still further).

• Student visa applications to the UK in the first three months of 2026 were down -31% compared with the same period in 2025.

• A newly released study by , an AI-powered social media listening platform purpose-built for international education, found that across various social channels there is vigorous conversation about the pros and cons of studying in the UK among current and prospective international students. Anxiety and disappointment are common themes in those online conversations across tens of thousands of student comments throughout 2025. So too is a sense of being valued primarily for paying higher tuition fees than domestic students.

Here are just a couple of quotes featured in the Voyage study:

“The government introduces policies every year, which further deters international students, such as the graduate visa restrictions, not allowing dependents, etc. The new visa restrictions pretty much killed any chance of working in the UK. If you’re looking for a degree from well-regarded institutions, that’s great. If you’re looking to get a job afterwards, just know that your options are extremely, extremely limited and recent law changes have pretty much made it impossible.”

“The immigration policies are made to be as prohibitive as possible. After milking you with insane tuition fees and living expenses while providing you with no jobs, the UK wants you to spend around 3,000 pounds on a graduate visa. This will allow you to stay for 2 years. Will you find jobs on a graduate visa? You have a better chance than the impossible student visa, but it is still hard.”

Overall, the conversations picked up by Voyage include a notable level of concern about UK government policies that limit work rights while tuition fees remain much higher for international students.

A new urgency around career services

In the face of restrictive government policies, it is crucial for institutions to demonstrate their continued value to international students.

This means proving – not just promising – that they are committed to international students’ post-study success. An excellent way of achieving this is (1) customising career services for the unique needs of international students and (2) effectively communicating the value of this function to them.

Recent research shows that this isn’t happening enough as yet. A 2024 QS and Universities UK International study, which surveyed 10,000 international graduates from nearly 40 universities, found that only 3% of employed graduates had found their job with the help of career services. About a fifth had used career services for other reasons, but not for job-finding.

The research highlights a gap between the availability of career services and the relevance of this function in the eyes of international students.

Recognising that international students have more barriers to securing a job than domestic students do can help to close this gap. For those students, career services must go beyond resume coaching, interview prep, etc. They need to cover other critical areas, including:

• Working through complicated visa and immigration processes.
• Being aware of programmes linked to skills gaps (that are thus prioritised by governments and employers).
• Knowing which programmes are eligible for post-study work streams.
• Avoiding being penalised simply because of not being aware of a deadline or requirement.
• Building professional networks both in their host destination and elsewhere, because:
  • There is not a guarantee they will be able to work in the host country after studies due to policies or other factors.
  • They may not want to stay in the host country and be perfectly content to find a good job at home or in another country.
• Identifying employers who are open to hiring/sponsoring international students.

Embedding career and immigration supports

Sanam Arora is the chair of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) in the UK. At the 2025 ���Ϲ��� Monitor Global Summit in London, she explained:

“Seventy percent of Indians choose a destination of study on the basis of overall employability, and they have historically seen the UK or US in particular as a launchpad for global careers. In that sense, the definition of what it means to be educated has fundamentally changed. Universities that realise they’re not just here to educate, they’re here to be that global talent launchpad, will really ace this going forward.”

Ms Arora shared her own perspective on what she would find helpful:

“Before I graduate, I want the university to help me prepare for a successful life. That is what I think of when I think of career services, because success in a career is not that different than success in life. Sometimes career services is seen as something that is off to the side or in a corner, but really it needs to be embedded end-to-end throughout the entire student life cycle.”

Embedding career services means considering the whole student journey – from pre-admission to post-graduation. It means offering help to students not only in choosing the right programme, but also in understanding immigration rules and post-study pathways. Supporting students through those immigration processes is in fact an integral part of career services today, especially in the wake of heightened government oversight and compliance requirements.

Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, has department whose name fits the bill for what is needed in our current context: the . That office combines employment research with immigration guidance, and it is open to all international students.

A wider lens for networking

Another important angle today is to recognise that fewer international students will be able to stay on to work because of new immigration policies – and some will naturally prefer to pursue careers in their home country or in a third country in any case. This puts the onus on institutions to connect students to global networking platforms and to career fairs with international employers.

Collecting data on students from the very beginning of their enrolment about their post-study plans enables the customisation of career services not just on the basis of international versus domestic, but also international “planning to stay” and international “planning to return home or work elsewhere.”

Integral to brand reputation

There is a growing urgency to backing up the promise of employability with real outcomes for students. Helping international students to achieve the ROI they expect is ever-more integral to brand integrity and equity, to student satisfaction, and to the ability to recruit successfully in overseas markets.

For additional background, please see:

• “Survey highlights a growing ‘engagement gap’ between international student expectations and institutional response”
• “Is a university degree still the same passport to success?”
• “What students want: The top decision factors for study abroad”

The post A common challenge: Strengthening student confidence in the ROI of study abroad appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

A new resource from immigration law firm Fragomen called “” offers helpful guidance on what international students should consider when applying to a US institution, changing visa status, or leaving the US while on a visa or during a visa transition period (e.g., from an F-1 to OPT, or OPT to H-1B).

In brief, Fragomen emphasises that this is a very risky time for international students to leave the US because of a real chance that they might not be permitted re-entry.

In today’s article, we feature ��������dz����’s advice, and we also provide an update on the broader immigration landscape in terms of its implications for international students, higher education institutions, and employers. In particular, we look at why proposed changes to Optional Practical Training (OPT) and study duration limits – as well as new H-1B rules – pose challenges for US colleges’ international recruitment.

The golden pathway

The majority of international students in the US (57%) are in STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and math. Many of them choose their academic focus to become eligible for the programme called STEM OPT (STEM Optional Practical Training), which:

• Allows international students to work in the US for up to three years (rather than the one-year term permitted for regular OPT participants).


  
• Gives them three chances to be selected through the H-1B work visa lottery system (a significant feature because of the extremely high demand for the limited number of H-1Bs granted each year). The H-1B visa, where applicants are sponsored by US employers, is valid for three years with a possible three-year extension.

In many cases, the pathway envisioned by many international prospects applying to a US university is this: Enrol in a STEM academic programme on an F-1 visa > participate in STEM OPT > apply up to three times for an H-1B visa that allows up to six years of work in the US > potentially progress to permanent residency from there.

The opportunity to pursue this pathway is central to the decision-making of most prospects considering study in the US. A 2025 survey conducted by NAFSA and the found that 54% of current international students would not have chosen the US if there was no OPT option. Another survey, the , found that 92% of US higher institutions believe that international students would choose another destination if OPT were eliminated.

Those survey findings underscore the impact of the OPT programme on an international student’s overall return on investment (ROI) for study in the US. Simply put, participating in OPT helps students to offset the high cost of a US degree, which might otherwise be prohibitive.

The pathway is under pressure

The importance of OPT to US colleges’ international enrolments highlights the massive impact that several recent proposals or rule changes by the Department of Homeland Security may have on institutions’ ability to recruit overseas. These include:

• A proposal to restrict or end the OPT programme. This proposal is currently under review. 

  
• A presidential proclamation requiring an employer to pay a US$100,000 fee for an H‑1B application filed from outside the US after 21 September 2025. This fee is now in place despite multiple legal challenges, some of which are still proceeding through the courts.


  
• A proposal to impose a fixed period limiting international students’ study visa to no more than four years. This would replace the current Duration of Stay (D/S) system that allows students to remain in the US as long as they are progressing in their academic programmes. A fixed admission period would require students to apply for extensions that they wouldn’t automatically receive. If an extension were denied, a student would be required to leave the US immediately, with no chance at OPT. This proposal is under review. Almost half (49%) of current students responding to the 2025 NAFSA/ Institute for Progress survey said they would not have enrolled in the first place had Duration of Status been replaced with a fixed period of admission.

Heightened scrutiny for international students

At the core of the current US immigration strategy is the administration’s belief that international students and workers could be a threat and even to national security.

As a result, the administration has shown that it is willing to use various policy levers to make it more difficult for international students to come to the US, and/or to stay after graduation. 

For the many international students who want to safeguard their ability to study, work, and potentially immigrate to the US, deciding to leave the country for travel can be risky. Re-entering means dealing with US immigration officers again at a time when the State Department is increasing refusals of visas for . It can be very difficult for students to challenge refusals from abroad – and for institutions to help them.

Several universities – with the help of legal experts – are counselling their international students to stay in the US for this reason. ��������dz����’s resource delves deeply into the risks for particular kinds of students based on their visa status or intended visa progression:

“International students are facing significantly heightened scrutiny, which could affect their status, ability to change status, and ability to re-enter the United States after international travel…F-1 students who have applied for, or are working on, post-completion optional practical training (OPT) or may be the beneficiary of an H-1B cap petition and a request to change status should be aware of the requirements and risks of travelling internationally.”

Fragomen adds: “This is true whether you are in an ongoing course of study, your 60-day grace period, a period of OPT (including a STEM extension), or in the ‘cap gap’ – the period between the end of your course of study or OPT and either the date a timely-filed H-1B change of status on your behalf will take effect, or April 1 (whichever is earlier).”

��������dz����’s guidance goes into to describe best practices for specific types of international students in different visa classes or circumstances.

The destabilising effect

Naavya Shetty, an Indian student finishing up her degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, spoke with in October 2025:

“What we [international students] felt would happen was that all these companies would develop a sense of uncertainty about hiring international students. Because who knows when a new law is going to pass that makes them have to pay a lot more for us than we might actually be ‘worth.’”

Ms Shetty explained: “In order to come here, I had to take a student loan, with a particularly high rate of interest. My parents had to mortgage our house in order for me to be able to take that loan. If I do not manage to get a job, there is quite a lot of burden on me and my family financially. The average graduate student salary [in the US] for my field is estimated to be about 100K, whereas in India, the estimated cost is around 15 to 20 lakhs – equivalent to roughly $17,000 a year.”

Keep the facts in focus

The confusing narrative around the US$100,000 H-1B application fee is daunting for employers who may not understand which applicants are affected and which are not. In fact, the fee (as of this writing) applies only to new H-1B applicants outside the US. F-1 students are exempted if they secure a job right after finishing school, which means there is no added cost for US employers wanting to hire them.

What’s more, the new rules could actually benefit F-1 international students. Employers who know about the exemption could pivot to hiring an international student graduate instead of a skilled worker outside of the US, since this would allow them to avoid the US$100,000 fee.

Law firm notes:

“[The new rules] create a sharp strategic divide. US‑based international graduates become far more attractive candidates, while employers may be reluctant to sponsor workers abroad due to the substantial additional cost …

The H-1B program is evolving into a higher cost, higher skill pathway. Employers prepared to invest in top tier talent will remain active participants, while others may pivot to alternative visa strategies or focus on international graduates already in the United States.”

The need for legal advice

��������dz����’s offers exactly the kind of counsel that can seem very elusive for students and institutions alike at this time.

For additional background, please see:

• “US suspends immigration processing for nationals from 39 travel ban countries – but F, J, and M visa processing will continue”
• “US: Student visa issuances fell by -36% in summer 2025; OPT uncertainty among factors affecting international student demand”&�Բ�����;

The post What international students need to know about study and work visas in the United States appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

The link between higher education enrolment and jobs

The number of students enrolled in India’s higher education system has more than tripled in the past 15 years to a Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) of 28%, and the government’s target is a GER of 50% by 2035. But the pace of enrolment growth is slowing, and it is doing so in tandem with a slowing of income gains for graduates since 2017.

The APU report offers some sobering statistics:

• Under 7% of graduates in India secure permanent salaried jobs within one year of graduation.
• Of those who do, less than 4% land white-collar positions.
• 40% of graduates aged 15–25 and 20% of those aged 25–29 are unemployed.
• Of the roughly 5 million graduates India produces each year, barely 2.8 million find jobs, with even fewer securing salaried work.
• While on average, graduates still make double the amount of money over the course of their lifetime than those without higher education, the pace of wage growth for them has slowed since 2017.
• The proportion of young men in school is declining – from 38% in 2017 to 34% in 2024.

Tenuous pathways from education to good jobs for women

Among poorer Indian families, the motivation to save precious income for university studies has always been to escape informal and/or poorly paid occupations in agriculture and construction. Between 2007 and 2017, the share of students from India’s poorest households enrolled in higher education rose from 8% to 17%, and while this happened, a growing number of new jobs were created outside of agriculture.

Still, nearly half of all work remains in the agricultural sector, and almost two-thirds of all Indian women working are employed in that sector. Many of them are the first in their family to hold a degree – and they invested in that degree precisely to get out of agricultural work.

A March 2026 article by the sums up the differing outcomes of segments of female graduates:

“At one end, a small but growing cohort of educated and skilled women is entering salaried roles in IT, automobile manufacturing, and business services. At the other, far larger end, most of the increase is in self-employment and unpaid or home-based work, often within households or family enterprises. This signals necessity rather than opportunity. The result is a statistical rise in participation that masks a qualitative divide: opportunity at the top, compulsion at the bottom.”

In March 2025, interviewed 27-year-old Geetanjali Devi, 27, who holds a bachelor’s degree in history. Now, Geetanjali works on her family’s rural farm in the state of Bihar near the border with Nepal. Her husband is not with her: “Like the majority of men in the village, he spends most of the year working construction in the southern state of Kerala, earning $8 a day more than 1,000 miles away.”

Men are also losing hope

Disappointing job prospects are dampening Indian men’s demand for higher education. APU’s study notes that in 2017, 58% of young men cited economic pressure as the reason for not continuing their studies. Only five years later in 2023, this proportion rose significantly to 72%.

Without a degree, more Indian men are turning to informal jobs to meet urgent household needs for cash. They cannot wait to see if the economic returns of higher education will pay off over the long term.

More industry linkages are needed

As reported in a January 2026 article, new survey results from India’s TeamLease EdTech, a provider of employability solutions and educational technology for higher education, show that “75% of higher education institutions in India are not adequately prepared to meet industry expectations.” Only 7% of the 1,000 representatives from wide swath of institutions surveyed said they were achieving placement rates above 75%.

According to the report, ‘”industry relevance is often treated as an add-on rather than a fundamental design principle,” resulting in graduates who emerge with “theoretical knowledge that lacks direct applicability in a modern workplace shaped by technology, automation, and evolving business models.”

There are, of course, high-quality institutions that do prioritise industry linkages, but wealthier students have a much better chance of (1) affording these and the higher-ROI courses such as engineering they offer, and (2) obtaining good jobs as a result of this and their social connections to those in power.

The national urgency

The APU report notes:

“India’s youth population, defined as those between the ages of 15 to 29, is the largest in the world. The 367 million people in this age group account for a third of the country’s working age population. The extent to which this large, increasingly educated and aspirational cohort is productively absorbed into the labour market will determine whether this massive, and continuing demographic dividend translates into an economic dividend.”

Much will depend on whether India can provide more linkages from education to good jobs for segments other than the wealthiest students. If not, the number of degree-holding women left on farms to manage subsistence agriculture will increase, and the number of men who trust higher education to increase their income prospects quickly, rather than over a lifetime, will decrease.

The urgency is real. The Washington Post reports: “Indians are now poorer than Hondurans on a per capita basis. More than half of those of working age are unable to find a place in the formal economy.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Is a university degree still the same passport to success?”
• “Canada and India deepen educational ties; India repositions as an equal player in international education”
• “The number of Indian students abroad fell in 2025”

The post Study highlights poor outcomes for graduates of Indian higher education appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

“DHS has indicated it intends to re-evaluate practical training regulatory requirements for foreign student visa holders through a rulemaking,” said the Secretary. “The rule would propose to amend existing practical training regulations to protect US workers from being displaced by foreign nationals, address fraud and national security concerns, and enhance the Student and Exchange Visitor Program’s capacity to oversee the program.”

The momentum for a rule change stems from a belief in some circles that the current OPT framework takes jobs from US workers, among other assertions. ()

Recent F-1 visa data suggests that OPT’s possible termination is already having an effect on international student demand for study in the US – especially in some of the most important overseas markets for US institutions.

A strategic pillar of US recruitment

The OPT programme is increasingly popular – especially because STEM students can receive a total of three years of work due to their specialisation (regular OPT allows for only one year). Participation in the compared with the previous year.

According Mirka Martel, the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) head of research, OPT is an “essential component of an international student’s academic experience” (which is why the organisation includes OPT numbers in its annual on international student numbers in the US). Keystone Education Group research suggests that OPT may be the The firm found that 86% of international prospects consider staying in the US and working after graduation.

Visas plummet -36%

Leading up to the 2025/26 intake for US institutions, a series of events disrupted international student recruitment. The Trump administration suspended visa interviews at US consulates in May 2025, which lasted for almost a month; revoked thousands of student visas; and it warned of upcoming policies to curb the duration of student visas and post-study rights for international students. In the key summer recruiting window, President Trump also revived the travel ban preventing nationals of some countries from entering the US (and then extended it in December 2025 to 39 countries).

Alongside those events, F-1 visas plunged by -36% between May and August of 2025, according to a analysis of data.

The top market for US institutions – India – decreased much more sharply than the average: about -60%, which equates to only 22,870 new F-1 visas awarded to Indian students in those summer months. In July and August alone, the drop was nearly -80%.

Why STEM OPT is so important to international students

Of all the disruptive factors spurring the visa declines, uncertainty around the OPT programme – especially STEM OPT – could have the most significant long-term impact on international student demand – particularly in price-sensitive student markets.

The importance of STEM OPT for the families of thousands of international students can be summed up in three letters: ROI (return on investment).

This is because:

• STEM OPT participants (this is not a rule for general OPT).
  
• This means that at least two of the three years of work that STEM OPT participants engage in are paid.
  
• The three-year term of STEM OPT gives participants three chances to enter the H-1B visa lottery (one per year) – versus one chance offered by a one-year OPT term.
  
• The H-1B visa, which allows US employers to temporarily hire foreign workers for specialty occupations (mostly in STEM), is valid for three years with a possible three-year extension. Those who receive an H-1B have a better chance to become permanent residents because they gain work experience that counts towards eligibility.

STEM OPT participants’ paid work in a specialised STEM field allows them to offset the cost of their degree. The potential ROI increases even further because STEM OPT students have a better chance of receiving an H-1B visa than other students given the multiple times they can enter the lottery.

As Keystone Education Group “The calculation is straightforward: three years of US work experience can be transformative for career trajectories and provides multiple opportunities to secure H-1B sponsorship.”

What is at stake

The following data – which shows the link between international students’ demand for STEM studies in the US and the availability of OPT – foreshadows how devastating a restriction or termination of this post-study work stream could be for US universities and colleges :

• Previous research has found that in the US use their OPT work benefit.

• In 2024/25, of all international students in the US were pursuing STEM degrees, rising to 64% at the graduate level. This means that more than half of all international students in the US are eligible for STEM OPT.

• Indian students, who compose 31% of all international students in US universities and colleges, are overrepresented in STEM fields. Indians also make up nearly half (48%) of all students in the OPT STEM stream. Chinese students, who make up the next largest share of international students in the US, are the second largest nationality in STEM OPT: 21%. Without STEM OPT, the idea of paying for a STEM degree in the US would hold less appeal for Indian and Chinese students, especially given cuts to major research programmes by the Trump administration.

• Vietnam, Nepal, and Nigeria are some of the fastest-growing international student groups in the US (growing +49%, +16%, and +9%, respectively, in 2024/25 compared with 2023/24). They are also the among . US institutions are increasingly reliant on these markets as a counter to over-reliance on China and India.

What is already happening

In our own analysis of , we found that India is but one of many student source markets for which F-1 visa issuances are tanking. In July and August of 2025, F-1 visa grants fell by -78% for India, -33% for China, -17% for Vietnam, -83% for Nepal, and -63% for Nigeria. As noted earlier, international students from these countries account for a large share of STEM OPT participants.

OPT = ROI

In July of 2025, the offered a succinct analysis of what the removal of OPT would mean for Indian students:

“Let’s be clear—it will hurt Indian students. OPT is their runway to repay loans, gain experience, and build global careers. Estimates suggest that the average Indian student spends $60,000–$100,000 on a US STEM degree. Without OPT, the ROI vanishes.”

The Times continued: “Without OPT, US universities become overpriced diplomas without job prospects. Why would anyone pay $100,000 for a degree that ends in deportation? NAFSA estimates international students (led by Indians) contribute $33 billion to the US economy. Kill OPT, and watch that cash vanish.”

Effects on domestic students, institutions, and workers

The bulk of international students in the US pay tuition fees that are two to three times higher than domestic fees – and those fees are essential for many institutions to keep STEM programmes running and research facilities competitive with those in Europe and Asia. Remembering that international students make up 54% of US master’s enrolments and 44% of doctoral enrolments in STEM fields, and that OPT is a major reason for those high proportions, the declines we would see if OPT were actually removed would be even more drastic than what happened in the summer of 2025. All students would feel the impact.

The end of STEM OPT would also severely disrupt the hiring ability of major tech companies and scientific organisations in the US, making it more difficult for them to maintain innovation levels. A recent featured Madeline Zavodny, an economics professor at the University of North Florida, who examined nearly a decade of data on Optional Practical Training. She concluded:

“The results indicate that the OPT program does not reduce job opportunities for American workers in STEM fields … a larger number of foreign students approved for OPT, relative to the number of U.S. workers, is associated with a lower unemployment rate among those U.S. workers.”

Longer-term impacts

an October 2025 working paper by researchers Michael Clemens, Jeremy Neufeld, and Amy Nice, analysed different scenarios that could play out according to specific levels of decline in the number of international STEM graduates in the US. According to the “plausible” scenario of a one-third reduction in US-trained foreign graduates:

“There would be 6 to 11 percent fewer high-skill STEM workers in the U.S. workforce overall (including both foreign-born and domestic STEM workers). The best available economic research implies that, within ten years, this one-third decline in foreign STEM graduates from U.S. universities would lead to long-run GDP losses of $240 to $481 billion each year.”

For additional background, please see:

• “US proposes new rules for student visas including term limits and other restrictions“
• “US: Study estimates that changes to international student policies could reduce GDP by up to US$481 billion per year“
• “There were more international students in the US than ever in 2024/25 but commencements are declining“
• “Canada and the US are losing international student enrolments to Europe and Asia” 

The post US: Student visa issuances fell by -36% in summer 2025; OPT uncertainty among factors affecting international student demand appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

As a result, the government is pursuing international research collaborations, opening branch campuses, and establishing joint programmes with foreign institutions as much as it is trying to attract more students to study in China. A new goal is to see 8 million Chinese students enrolled in transnational education programmes (TNE); the current number is 800,000. No timeline has been specified, but China tends to achieve targets with exceptional speed.

China’s attraction for international students

The number of Chinese universities placing in ranking systems such as Times Higher Education (THE), QS, and Shanghai (also known as the Academic Ranking of World Universities, or ARWU) continues to rise. In 2025, 108 Chinese institutions made ARWU’s top 500, just behind the 111 American institutions in that tier. This was a +10% year-over-year rise for China, compared to +2% for the US. Over the past decade, the pattern is even more striking, as shown in the following chart from Higher Education Strategy Associates. In this chart showing the changed position of 9 countries over 10 years, only Australia joined China in improved performance over time, and that was minimal. The US was the country with the greatest contraction in the ARWU rankings from 2015–25.

There is a similar 10-year contrast between the number of Chinese and US institutions placing in the top 500 on : China is way up with fewer US institutions ranked.

Ascent up the rankings is a major draw for international students considering China for study abroad, but there are also other benefits. Among them are ample scholarships offered by the Chinese government (especially at the postgraduate level) as well as relatively low tuition fees and costs of living. At the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit, for example, China announced 60,000 new scholarships for African students.

What’s more, for students from over 100 Belt and Road (BRI) countries, the presence of Chinese companies in their home region offers opportunities for post-study employment. Over the past decade, Chinese companies have created millions of jobs in Africa, and China is the continent’s top trading partner.

The extensive range of the Belt and Road initiative – stretching across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean – has also fuelled the diversity of nationalities on Chinese campuses. : “No one nationality is over-represented among China’s international cohorts – an aim many institutions globally are attempting to replicate.”

QS expects international enrolments in China to increase by +2.5% annually till 2030 to about 550,000 – a lower growth rate than European countries as well as New Zealand, Malaysia, South Korea, and Vietnam, but a greater expansion than in the US, Australia, and Canada. Any growth will be thanks in no small part to China’s growing supply of English-taught programmes (ETPs). There are now as many ETPs in China as in many leading European destinations (close to 3,000), especially in STEM programmes and at the postgraduate level.

Language and cultural barriers an issue

The diversity of international students in Chinese universities is impressive, but QS notes that there is a downside: “[It] cushions against single-market volatility but also complicates recruitment strategies and programme design.” With top nationalities including Thailand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Russia – and growing numbers of African students – it is not a simple task to support all students in terms of language and cultural integration.

Integration can also be complicated because international students are often housed in separate, more well-equipped student residences than domestic students – another point of tension for Chinese families. Vietnamese study abroad consultancy notes:

“Rooms are usually more spacious, fully equipped with private bathrooms/showers, air conditioning, mini-fridges, and even balconies. Compared to dormitories for Chinese students (often 4-6 person rooms, shared bathrooms, no or limited air conditioning), the conditions for international students are clearly prioritised.”

Growing resistance to inbound student mobility

Continuing a pattern that can be observed in other major study destinations, there is mounting frustration among some segments of the Chinese public about growing numbers of foreign students in in the country, especially against a backdrop of persistently high youth unemployment rates.

That frustration is in large part driven by intense competition for well-paid jobs in the country. In published by the University of Oxford, authors Wen Wen and Die Hu pointed out that:

“China is a non-immigrant nation with a surplus of domestic college graduates … its ability to absorb foreign graduates into the labour force is low and the legal limitations for foreign students to stay are valid.”

Since that paper’s publication, China launched the K Visa in 2025 in a bid to attract more STEM researchers to the country. Those eligible for the K Visa do not need a job offer from a Chinese employer, and the visa offers considerably more flexibility regarding entry frequency, validity period, and duration of stay than other Chinese visas.

The K Visa was launched the same year that China’s graduating class numbered 12.2 million, up more than +4% over 2024 and the largest increase ever. When the new visa was announced, voicing upset, some of them xenophobic. Canada’s newspaper interviewed Zheng Yifan, a 33-year-old tech worker from Chengdu, who said:

“I feel this visa doesn’t sound wise, and many in my industry share similar views. This whole thing leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of people like me who have climbed the ladder through sheer effort. China doesn’t lack talented people – we just lack job opportunities and resources.”

Similarly, Jakky Yang, a 27-year-old investment adviser in Shenzhen, said: “The fundamental reason many people like me oppose this visa is because our own domestic needs still need to be addressed. Many people in China are caught in a cutthroat competition, struggling to survive, while foreigners can easily access the benefits we have to fight so hard for.”

“Pretending to work”

If anything suggests just how dire many Chinese youth feel about their job prospects, it is the “pretending to work” phenomenon, which dovetails with the “lying flat” trend. Essentially:

• “Lying flat” describes Chinese youth who have simply stopped looking for jobs due to dismay over limited opportunities, choosing instead to stay at home, adopt a minimalist lifestyle, and sometimes be paid to take care of ageing parents or household chores.

• “Pretending to work” is a nationwide trend in which jobless young people pay a company for office space. One example is the aptly branded Pretend To Work Company in Dongguan, which asks for US$5 a day in return for access to an equipped office where clients socialise and/or conduct job searches. In 2025, the interviewed Pretend To Work Company clients, who reported feeling less alone and less pressured by anxious parents in their rented office space.

Both “lying flat” and “pretending to work” are stark illustrations of the tension between the needs of the Chinese economy and the needs of Chinese students and workers facing barriers to landing good jobs in that economy.

Students returning in greater numbers

The situation becomes even more complicated because of the huge numbers of foreign-educated Chinese students returning home. About 495,000 students returned after studying abroad in 2024, nearly 20% more than in 2025, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education. The influx is partly fuelled by unfavourable visa and political climates in some host countries. The numbers have become so large that the government has set up an online job search and start-up assistance platform just for returnees. It has done so in partnership with 50 organisations to add a talent-matching component to the service – particularly in the fields of AI and advanced materials.

As with international students, there is some resentment around the influx, as domestic students and workers worry returnees will take all the most desirable jobs. The reality is more complicated.

Ba Ran, a vice president at the online recruiting firm Liepin Group, told China’s that the swell of returnees has reduced the scarcity premium of a foreign degree. He noted: “The rise of Chinese tech giants has created a demand for locally trained talent with a strong grasp of the domestic market, an area where freshly returned graduates can be at a disadvantage.” Over the past seven years, recruitment platform Zhaopin has seen a drop in Chinese job listings asking for overseas-educated talent.

While returnees with highly specialised STEM skills continue to fare well in the labour market, those with less remarkable credentials are commanding lower salaries in the past. Ba Ran says that HR departments “are no longer dazzled by an overseas degree … now they are more focused on concrete skills and a willingness to work diligently.”

Beyond inbound

Clearly, and as in so many other countries, there are limits to how many international students and researchers China can host without jeopardising social harmony. Jobs are a hot-button issue, and many a country can trace civic unrest or even revolution to perceived injustice around who can and cannot access good job opportunities.

The Chinese government seems to have foreseen this breaking point by investing heavily in transnational education (TNE). There are now more than 1,000 Chinese-foreign joint ventures or international branch campuses (IBCs) in various regions, including China. In fact, China’s “education blueprint” explicitly states a goal of attracting foreign science and engineering universities to set up shop in China. Hongqing Yang, chief executive of the Educationist Group, a Hong-Kong based consultancy, told Times Higher Education: “China seeks to cultivate talent domestically by opening up to foreign universities, especially as it faces challenges in sending its students abroad for education, particularly STEM education.”

Evolving approach

In the first 20 years of this century, the Chinese government invested heavily in the capacity and quality of China’s higher education system even as millions of Chinese students continued to go abroad. Three factors are fuelling a further evolution of China’s approach going forward:

1. China’s emerging superpower status, massive investments in research, and well-cultivated alliances and agreements with countries all over the world now allow its universities to partner equally with top foreign universities, which is a new source of innovation.
   
   
2. More restrictive visa regimes in the Big Four study destinations, tensions with the US, and a lower premium for foreign-earned degrees are prompting Chinese families to question the return on investment of study abroad.
   
   
3. The public mood suggests that there are limits to the social licence for attracting more international students to China (a development we have seen in Canada, Australia, the UK, and the US to various extents).

The UK has always been the leader in transnational education provision. In 2026, it faces far more competition in this area. Institutions in other destinations are rushing to set up branch campuses and joint programmes – often in response to government policies limiting their recruitment of students to home campuses. China is at the forefront of this race. The Chinese Ministry of Education approved a record 285 new joint education institutes and programmes at the degree level in 2025. There are now 1,589 active TNE partnerships involving China and another country.

As QS noted in its Global Flows report, China is steadily “positioning its universities as more credible partners in shaping the future of global education.”

For more information, please see:

• “China: Two-thirds of new TNE partnerships are with countries outside the Big Four”
• “China opens up to global STEM talent with new visa class”
• “Market snapshot: International student recruitment in China today”
• “Youth unemployment reaches record high in China”

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It isn’t just computer sciences feeling the impact of students’ jitters about AI. Across the board, universities are moving to position their programmes as relevant to students intent on “future proofing” their study choices.

The disruptive effect of new technologies

Between 2005 and 2023, the number of students graduating with computer science degrees in the US quadrupled. These degrees remain very popular among international students: as we speak, 1 in 5 international students in the US is enrolled in computer sciences.

Enrolments in the field first spiked in tandem with rapid Internet adoption, driving a ballooning of job openings in tech companies in the US and around the world. Coders, programmers, designers, etc. enjoyed a heyday of intense competition for their skills. But now that AI can fulfill some coding tasks and lighten the workload of programmers and designers, there is deep concern among students and workers about whether they should begin or continue a career in computer sciences.

As Boston College Professor has written, of all study fields, computer science is “the most likely to be impacted by artificial intelligence, which uniquely targets high-wage cognitive tasks, unlike past technological revolutions that automated physical labor.”

Worries about the extent of AI’s erosion of computing-related jobs is already manifesting in enrolment data. According to the Computing Research Association, a nonprofit that gathers annual data from about 200 US universities, 62% of computing programmes recorded . What’s more, 66% of respondents said that their students graduating with computing majors were struggling to land jobs.

Writing in about computer sciences enrolments declining at Duke, Stanford, and Princeton, Rose Horowitch said:

“If the decline is surprising, the reason for it is fairly straightforward: Young people are responding to a grim job outlook for entry-level coders. In recent years, the tech industry has been roiled by layoffs and hiring freezes. The leading culprit for the slowdown is technology itself. Artificial intelligence has proved to be even more valuable as a writer of computer code than as a writer of words. This means it is ideally suited to replacing the very type of person who built it. A recent Pew study found that Americans think software engineers will be most affected by generative AI. Many young people aren’t waiting to find out whether that’s true.”

Reason for optimism

Rather than panic, says Tom Griffiths, director of the Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence, students should consider that technology jobs will not disappear, but rather change. He acknowledges that there will be a decrease in so-called cognitive jobs because of AI, but he predicts an increase in “metacognitive jobs, such as knowing enough about software engineering to instruct automated software engineers and systems.” In an interview with the , Mr Griffiths said:

“I can understand why students are trying to model out what the job market is going to look like in a few years when they finish their degrees. But I also think there’s going to be all sorts of things that surprise us in terms of the kinds of jobs that become possible with particular skill sets.”

Similarly, Harvard Business School Professor Suraj Srinivasan has that found that new jobs are emerging as well as becoming scarcer as a result of AI. He found that after the public launch of Chat GPT in 2022, job postings involving “structured and repetitive tasks, likely replaceable by generative AI,” decreased by -13%. At the same time, employer demand for jobs that require more analytical, technical, or creative work – potentially enhanced by AI – grew +20%.” Professor Srinivasan says: “Rather than solely eliminating jobs, generative AI creates new demand in augmentation-prone roles, suggesting that human-AI collaboration is a key driver of labour market transformation.”

Universities are beginning to create new programmes with this human–AI dynamic in mind. For example, in 2025, the University of South Florida in Tampa attracted more than 3,000 students to its new Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing College. The State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) received US$5 million in funding from New York State Governor Kathy Hochul to launch a standalone Department of AI and Society that offers seven interdisciplinary AI degrees.

The interdisciplinary structure has merit: asking for candidates with AI skills – and these listings span a multitude of sectors (e.g., tourism, communications, healthcare).

Future proofing

The spectre of AI disrupting the labour force was already on students’ minds in 2024, at a time when the use of generative AI had just hit the mainstream. In a survey conducted in 2024 among more than 1,000 college students , almost two-thirds (64%) of students belonging to the class of 2027 (i.e., graduating that year) said AI had at least somewhat impacted their academic plans.

Knowing how quickly AI is changing the workforce, students are considering the future as much as the present when considering course options. For example, Travis White, an AI and Responsible Communication major at UB, explained the rationale for his choice of programme on : “My thought was that adding this new major would set me apart from the competition and give me some skills that could get me a niche, higher-paying job that may not even exist yet.”

Students are also looking outside of computing and AI

Some students are considering “interpersonal and hands-on” jobs that seem less likely – at least in the near term – to be jeopardised by AI. This trend is underlined by labour market data, as noted in a February 2026 :

“While AI is still just one factor among many that are leading to layoffs, ADP, the largest payroll company in the US, found that professional and business services roles, alongside information services jobs in media, telecom and IT, collectively lost 41,000 jobs in December 2025. In that same month, employment grew in healthcare, education and hospitality, per the firm’s data.”

The Guardian interviewed Jasmine Escalera, a career development expert at professional development firm Zety. Ms Escalera spoke to research by the firm that found that “close to half (43%) of Gen Z workers who are anxious about AI are moving away from entry-level corporate and administrative roles and toward careers that rely on ‘human skills’ including creativity, interpersonal connection and hands-on expertise.”

Study after study shows that employers remain interested in hiring people with strong “soft skills” (e.g., empathy, teamwork, communication, and creative problem-solving) – and it may be that the rise of AI will increase this demand. Fields such as the humanities and social sciences – which have been losing enrolments for years – are the very ones that cultivate soft skills, and some universities in the US are leaning into this in their marketing and programme design. They are boldly countering the narrative that the humanities are useless with an assertion that the very reverse is true. As reported in in 2025:

“The number of undergraduates majoring in the humanities at the University of Arizona has increased 76 percent since 2018, when it introduced a bachelor’s degree in applied humanities that connects the humanities with programs in business, engineering, medicine and other fields. It also hired a humanities recruitment director and marketing team and started training faculty members to enlist students in the major with the promise that an education in the humanities leads to jobs.”

Similarly, notes the Report, “Georgia Institute of Technology has also started drawing a connection between the humanities and good jobs … which has helped boost undergraduate and graduate enrolment in Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts by 58 percent since 2019.”

The Report cites a real-life example of a student who achieved the ROI she was looking for through a humanities programme: “Olivia Howe was hesitant at first to add French to her major in finance at the University of Arizona, fearing that it wouldn’t be very useful in the labor market. Then her language skills helped her land a job at the multinational technology company Siemens, which will be waiting for her when she graduates this spring.”

Ms Howe commented: “The reason I got the job is because of my French. I didn’t see it as a practical choice, but now I do. The humanities taught me I could do it.”

Quick thinking

The increasing use of AI in workplaces does not mean that human skills are becoming obsolete. Smart universities are setting their students up to work alongside AI and/or in jobs that remain high-touch and hands-on. They are reviewing programme design, positioning, and career services to align with the most important theme in higher education: career outcomes are the top driver of student choice and student satisfaction.

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The data suggests that the Canadian government’s reforms have achieved many stated goals, but that these achievements have come at considerable cost to the country’s economic potential. Canada’s population is in decline, and there are significant skills gaps in critical areas. notes:

“To function at its peak and provide a better life for all Canadians, our economy needs to fill tens of thousands of critical positions in engineering, technical occupations (medical technologists, dental care occupations), higher-skill goods (mechanics, electrical trades), and other higher-skill services (nurses, teachers, social services and therapy professionals). The worker shortage in these ‘clusters,’ as categorized by the Conference Board of Canada in a recent report, is costing us a lot — around $2.6 billion this year already … but simply put, we’re short on Canadians.”

Have the policies been effective?

The stated aims of Canada’s new policy settings include:



• Reducing demand pressure on rental prices, affordable housing, and health care;
• Responding to public unease about immigration levels;
• Eliminating the ability of and financial incentive for institutions and agents to recruit aggressively or irresponsibly in overseas student markets.

International student policy reforms have played a role in spurring progress in all these areas – except for alleviating the strain on health care. For example, polls show that Canadians are now about immigration levels than in 2024. Rental prices in 2025 than in 2024, though a rapid injection of new housing supply is as much a reason for this as fewer new temporary residents.

As for health care, the decline in new international students has not resulted in more health care capacity and quality for Canadians. Instead, there is a growing shortage of doctors and nurses in Canada. The National Library of Medicine notes: “Canada faces a 22,823-family physician shortfall, with only 1,300 new graduates annually, making it impossible to close the gap at the current rate, especially in rural areas.”

Similarly, the told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM) in 2025 that the reforms are exacerbating Canada’s acute shortage of nurses, particularly in rural areas:

“Beyond the financial implications [of reduced international student tuition] for schools, certain locations rely on international student nursing graduates to fill shortages in local health care institutions. This is particularly true of programs that operate in linguistic-minority contexts and rely on international students to meet the increasingly diverse health industry and population needs. Current reforms are therefore significantly affecting provinces’ health human resources needs and increasing the vulnerability of precarious, yet essential, nursing programs. In the short term, the decisions affect the viability of programs (such as through program closures, layoffs, hiring freezes). In the long term, they affect the academic institution’s capacity to address the increasing needs of a diverse population.”

The effects have been significant

A central goal of the reforms was to reduce the number of international students in “low-demand” programmes such as business, which accounted for the lion’s share of new international student enrolments between 2018 and 2023. But international enrolments in a much wider range of fields have fallen dramatically, including at the graduate level and in the STEM specialisations Canada needs most for its global competitiveness.

In September 2025, , a leading source of Canadian business and technology news, interviewed Robert Asselin, the CEO of the U15, which is the association representing Canada’s most highly ranked research universities such as the University of Toronto, McGill University, and the University of British Columbia. Commenting on the effect of the cap and associated reforms, Mr Asselin said:

“Like capital, talent is mobile. [International talent] can go elsewhere if they feel that they’re not welcome here, and this is what’s happening.”

According to U15 data, between September 2023 and September 2024 (when the study permit cap started affecting Canadian college and university admissions) international enrolments fell by -21.4% in electrical and computer engineering. Double-digit declines also occurred in graduate medical residencies, chemical engineering, environmental sciences, and biology and botany.

In a statement to The Logic, Matthew Krupovich, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab, said, “Cutting the number of university grad students was never the government’s goal. Canada remains open to graduate students.”

But the “the Canadian message heard abroad is rather different,” said the U15’s Mr Asselin:

“What we’ve said around the world is, ‘Don’t come to Canada. We don’t want you here. Even if you’re smart, even if you have the best grades, the best marks, we’re closing the door.’”

It seems clear that the government is aware of falling graduate enrolments in vital subject fields. It recently announced that it would exempt international students applying for master’s and PhD programmes at public higher education institutions from the study cap.
 
After removing the cap on PhD and graduate students (along with their families), Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab said:

“We recognize that we need them here to grow our economy. And we also recognize that when you’re coming as a graduate student and a PhD student, you’re obviously coming for that purpose. So I think that’s a great start for now.”

The PhD and graduate student exemption came into effect in January 2025. It won’t erase the losses of key talent over the past couple of years, but it may help reverse the tide.

Retention is also an issue

A report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) and the Conference Board of Canada, , reveals that Canada has not only lost potential global talent as a result of its broad-based international education policies, but that it is also losing the global talent it already has.

The report’s main insights are:

• Immigrants are leaving Canada at near-record rates;
• The most educated and skilled immigrants are leaving at twice the rate of other immigrants;
• The weakest retention rates are immigrants skilled in high-demand fields such as business and finance management, information and communications technology, engineering and architecture management, and manufacturing and processing engineering.

The report concludes:

“[These findings are] particularly noteworthy given Canada’s demographic reality. The country’s fertility rate has hit a record low of 1.26, placing it among the lowest in the world. With births declining and an aging population, Canada’s immigration model has become essential for maintaining workforce levels and economic growth. Reduced immigration targets mean fewer newcomers will arrive. Coupled with onward migration, economic impacts will compound.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Canada: A case study of immigration policy impacts on postsecondary institutions and the wider economy”&�Բ�����;
• “Canada announces new incentives for international recruitment of masters and PhD students”
• “Canada’s foreign enrolment has fallen by nearly 300,000 students over the last two years”

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The government-funded Talent Taiwan website says, “The message from the 2026 amendments is clear: Taiwan is no longer just looking for ‘workers’—it is looking for residents.”

Generous new work rights

Two years of open work rights for most international students: As long as they graduate with at least an associate’s degree, international graduates of Taiwanese universities can now work for two years in Taiwan without needing an additional work permit. The first allowance is one year, which can then be extended by a further year. During this time, graduates can intern, freelance, work part time, or work full time to “discover their ideal career path” in Taiwan. 



Before this amendment, only graduates who met salary requirements and worked in specific occupations were eligible for post-study work rights – and only then if they were sponsored by an employer.



Two years of open work rights for top students graduating with degrees from other countries: Students who have graduated in the past five years from one of the world’s top 200 universities (as ranked by Times Higher Education, QS, or US World News) can now apply for a two-year open work permit in Taiwan. 



Elimination of the two-year work experience requirement for employers hiring eligible students from abroad: Taiwanese employers can now hire graduates of the world’s top 1,500 universities (as ranked by Times Higher Education, QS, or US World News) without those graduates needing two years of work experience in Taiwan.



Shortened time to permanent residency: Prior to 2026, all international graduates of Taiwanese universities needed to work for five years in Taiwan before they could apply for permanent residency. But now, graduates of undergraduate programmes need only four years; graduates of master’s programmes need only three; and graduates of PhD programmes need only two before they can apply for permanent residency.



Pension upon hiring: Foreign workers no longer need permanent residency status to be enrolled in a pension plan in which Taiwanese employers automatically contribute 6% of salaries to “.” This allows foreign workers the same pension rights as domestic workers, and the policy is aimed at improving the appeal of a long-term career in Taiwan.

The government-funded Talent Taiwan website says: “By aligning retirement benefits, shortening the path to permanent residency, and giving students the freedom to explore the market, Taiwan is positioning itself as the most talent-friendly destination in the region.”

Why the push for foreign talent?

Taiwan faces a serious demographic challenge in the form of a low fertility rate and an ageing population. In 2025, it became a “super-aged” society; one in five Taiwanese (20.06%) is now aged 65 or older, compared to a world average of 10.4%. Other, even older, societies include Japan (30% are 65 or older); Italy and Portugal (25% each); Greece (24%); Germany and Hong Kong (24%); and France (23%). Not coincidentally, all these countries are aiming to attract more foreign students and workers.

Taiwan’s demographics are exacerbating skills shortages. Taiwan’s publication notes:

“The National Development Council projects about 350,000 job vacancies by 2028 … including for sectors such as semiconductors, advanced manufacturing and healthcare.”

The need for semiconductor experts

Significant skills shortages in the semiconductor sector would pose a massive risk for Taiwan’s economy. Semiconductor chips are widely considered to be the “brain” of all modern electronics, from cars to medical devices, and from computers to smartphones. Their importance is only growing: the technology think tank states: “Semiconductor manufacturing is arguably the most lucrative industry for future economic competitiveness.”

Taiwan is the world’s top manufacturer of semiconductors, representing about 60% of global production – and 90% when it comes to the most advanced microchips that power AI innovation, high-performance computing (HPC), and sustainable technologies.

Semiconductor manufacturing accounts for 20.7% of Taiwan’s GDP, with the vast majority of that contributed by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). That foundry, on its own, held 50% of the global market in 2025 and supplies companies such as Apple, NVIDIA, and AMD.

In terms of global share, South Korea, China, the US, and Japan are the runners-up to Taiwan, and they are competing fiercely for more of the market.

Scholarships for semiconductor-focused students

Suffice to say, Taiwan needs more semiconductor-focused STEM students, and it needs them fast. Scholarships are one of the instruments being used to boost foreign enrolments in programmes such as electrical engineering, materials science, and physics, as well as niche areas including nanotechnology, quantum physics, and microelectronics.

This year, the government will add roughly NT$1 million (US$31,668) to scholarships for top foreign students pursuing studies in semiconductors and AI.

On 26 January 2026, MOE Secretary-General Lin Po-chiao announced and said:

“While the US, Japan and the EU have ramped up investment in semiconductors and AI, proactively recruiting advanced high-tech talent globally, Taiwan must promptly adjust its talent policies to maintain a strategic advantage in the next wave of technological competition.”

More investment is also slated for the major industry-academic scholarship International Industrial Talents Education Special Program (), which was launched in 2024.

INTENSE obtains its substantial funding for students from the government (responsible for bringing in and supporting students in their academics) and industry (for internships and pathways to employment).

The programme is open to students from outside Taiwan as well as international students currently studying in Taiwanese universities. Notably, INTENSE scholarship recipients are required to remain in Taiwan to work after graduation for the same length of time as it took to complete their programme.

The new work and permanent residency rights in place for 2026 will undoubtably make it easier for Taiwan to retain scholarship students for long-term careers in Taiwan’s technology sectors.

For additional background, please see:

• “Taiwan is close to reaching its pre-pandemic benchmark for international enrolment”
• “Asian destinations show their strength in latest ranking of student cities”

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