Some of these changes are in effect immediately; some are still pending.

What has already changed?

As of 1 April 2026, international students no longer need a separate co-op work permit that are part of their post-secondary programme in Canada. This change applies to work-integrated learning components within the student’s programme of study, including co-op placements, internships, practicums, and mentorships.

This is a significant departure from the previous practice where students pursing any such work-integrated learning placement were obliged to obtain a separate co-op work permit in addition to their study permit.

Commenting on the change on LinkedIn, Ankita Goyal, an adjunct professor of immigration law at Queen’s University, said, “Removing the need for a co-op work permit means students won鈥檛 be stuck waiting to start their placements鈥攕omething that has historically caused delays, stress, and even lost opportunities.”

“This change simplifies the administrative process for students by requiring only one permit to complete a single study programme,” adds a statement from IRCC. “It does not increase the number of students who are authorised to work or affect temporary resident volumes; it simply removes an administrative step that is no longer necessary.”

In order to be eligible to carry out any such work-integrated learning with only a study permit, the work placement must be a requirement of the study programme. The updated IRCC guidance says that eligible students must meet all of the following conditions:

• “You have conditions printed on your initial study permit that say you鈥檙e allowed to work on campus.
• You have a letter from your DLI [Designated Learning Institution] that confirms the work placement is a requirement of your study program.
• You have a valid study permit or you applied to extend your study permit before it expired.
• You鈥檙e a full-time student at a DLI.
• Your study programme is at least 6 months long, at a post-secondary level and leads to a degree, diploma or certificate.
• The work placement of your study programme totals 50% or less of your study programme.”

Further easing ahead?

In addition to those immediate changes around co-op of other work placements, IRCC has also proposed to rules around post-graduation work permits (PGWP).

Most notable among these is a proposal, for which consultations will be ongoing for the next month or two, that would allow international students to work without a work permit in cases where:

• An international student is waiting for a decision on a study permit extension; and
• An international graduate is awaiting a decision on an application for a post-graduation work permit (PGWP).

“When international students finish their programme, they can apply for a PGWP. However, there’s a gap between graduating and receiving the PGWP,” says a related report on . “Currently, gaps between permit expiry and approval of a new permit can leave students and graduates in limbo, and unsure about their ability to work, even though current regulations do allow graduates to begin work before receiving their work permit.”

The process and timeline for implementation of any new rules around PGWPs is not yet clear, but the current proposals reflect the government’s stated intention to streamline and Canada’s immigration system, and so seem likely to proceed in some form.

For additional background, please see:

• “Canada: Government audit finds impact of international student cap far greater than expected“
• “Canada鈥檚 foreign enrolment has fallen by nearly 300,000 students over the last two years“
• “Canada: A case study of immigration policy impacts on postsecondary institutions and the wider economy“

The post Canadian immigration officials move to ease rules around student work permits appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

On the one hand, a strong proportion of workers with post-secondary degrees is a win for the economic potential and stability of a country. More education often means the chance at a better job. And when people have jobs that match their level of education, they are more likely to feel satisfied, pay bills, support their families, and feel financially secure.

But this supposes that there is a positive relationship between demand for and supply of graduate-level jobs. In recent years, this relationship has been breaking down. This is because the large proportion of university graduates also means there is more competition for graduate-level jobs, and at a time when (1) President Trump鈥檚 tariffs and rhetoric are destabilising economies across the world, and (2) AI is reducing hiring for some entry-level jobs.

The supply/demand imbalance is profoundly affecting the perceived value of a university degree. This naturally has massive implications for colleges and universities.

The Scarcity Principle

The Scarcity Principle is an economic theory that holds that the scarcer a resource or product is, the more it is valued by consumers and employers. In our context, higher education degrees are becoming less scarce, and so they are losing the edge they used to provide job candidates in the marketplace.

Speaking with earlier this month, Professor Shitij Kapur, vice-chancellor of King’s College London, said that previously, a degree might be considered a passport to a good job. Now, he says, it is now more akin to a visa. The visa allows graduates to enter a tier where there is potential for 鈥� but not a guarantee of 鈥� professional success.

Even as a visa, the degree is becoming less reliable. There is a graduate unemployment crisis in many advanced economies. For example:

• shows that job vacancies requiring a bachelor鈥檚 degree and under three years of work experience have more than halved since early 2024 (see chart below).鈥ㄢ��

• In the US, the overall unemployment rate was 4% in Jan-May 2025, but the rate spiked to 6.6% for aged 20鈥�24 with bachelor鈥檚 degrees. This marked the highest unemployment level for this group in a decade. 鈥ㄢ��

• shows that the share of recent graduates in graduate-level jobs in the UK in 2025 was lower than at any point since 2014.

Faced with the capacity of AI to erode jobs as well as a fragile global economy, youth need more from higher education than a traditional degree.

This prompts a number of questions. What does it take now for new graduates to differentiate themselves? What does this mean for higher education institutions in terms of what they deliver to students?

Attending one institution versus another could make the difference

Prof Kapur says that in advanced economies, the value of attending a prestigious institution/programme is increasing:

鈥淭he competition for graduate jobs is not just all because of AI filling out forms or AI taking away jobs. It鈥檚 also because of the stalling of our economy and causing a relative surplus of graduates. So, the simple promise of a good job if you get a university degree, has now become conditional on which university you went to, which course you took.鈥�

In other words, the proportion of university graduates is expanding but the proportion of graduates with a prestigious degree is not expanding in tandem. This increases the marketplace premium of elite university degrees.

The growing need for a 鈥渄egree plus鈥�

Of course, most students would love to enrol in a prestigious university, but there are only so many seats available in such institutions. Without that advantage, how can these students gain a competitive edge when they graduate and look for a job?

Many are applying for programmes that include work placements, often known as 鈥渨ork integrated learning鈥� (WIL), a broad category that includes co-op placements and internships (see for the differences between different forms of WIL).

Demand is soaring for WIL. Almost half of 42,000 prospective international students (47%) responding to a global 2025 Keystone Education Group survey said that the availability of internships is the most attractive feature an institution can offer. This priority was second only to 鈥渁ffordable fees鈥�(60%) and significantly ahead of other major considerations such as accommodation and even employability, as shown in the chart below.

Work placements provide an edge

Recent research shows that completing a WIL programme can help graduates to earn significantly more money than graduates who do not participate in a work placement.

For example, Toronto-based consultancy analysed a large database of university and college graduates in 2023 to determine whether those who participated in a co-op programme earned higher salaries than others three years after graduating from a higher education institution. The research found that:

鈥淭hose who did not participate in the co-op programs were more likely to have earned less than C$50,000 than those who participated in the co-op programs while they were students. The former co-op students were more likely to have earned over C$50,000 than their non-co-op peers. The differences in salary persisted even three years after graduation.鈥�

Similarly, a 2023 study by CEWIL Canada, a company that facilitates WIL opportunities, found that , a significantly higher percentage than the 71% of students who did not. 

Other research findings highlight similar trends. For example:

• In a 2022 (NACE) survey, employers said that 鈥渉aving an internship with our organisation鈥� or 鈥渉aving an internship within our industry鈥� were the most influential factors in helping them choose between two job candidates.鈥ㄢ��

• LinkedIn data published in 2024 found that students who complete an internship are roughly to be hired for a full-time position within six months of graduation.鈥ㄢ��

• According to of 247 US employers, more than 70% of employers planned to maintain or increase hiring of interns in 2025.

A compelling differentiator for universities and colleges

Universities and colleges that deliver a range of strong WIL opportunities have an increasingly important offer to students, and most of those institutions are fully aware of this and promoting themselves accordingly.

Other ways of adding values to degrees include:

• Including more practical components in traditionally theory-based programmes;
• Offering students that allow graduates to articulate their competencies to employers looking for specific skills;
• Strengthening career services鈥� capabilities to increase graduate employment rates;
• Reviewing programmes to determine if there is enough of a career-readiness element to their design;
• Encouraging students to focus on real-world problems and settings for final papers and theses.

Any effort to improve graduate employment outcomes is an effort worth making. Offering work-integrated learning is a solid choice, but there are other ways to increase the value of a degree for young university students faced with a challenging job marketplace.

For additional background, please see:

• 鈥�Is your institution doing enough to boost career outcomes for students?鈥�
• 鈥�Year in review: What we learned in 2025鈥�

The post Is a university degree still the same passport to success? appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

But students do not always know whether a higher education institution that promises 鈥渃areer-focused education鈥� will truly deliver. David Pilsbury, Chief Development Officer at Oxford International Education Group, wrote for Universities UK on 3 October 2025 that argues that it is time to abandon 鈥渧ague promises.鈥� He writes about a TNE initiative in which he has been closely involved that bucks this trend: the University of Southampton鈥檚 new Delhi campus. Mr Pilsbury writes:

鈥淭his project 鈥� breaks the mould of 鈥榖usiness as usual鈥� in transnational ventures. Instead of the usual rhetoric about employability, it hard-wires a commitment to real employment outcomes for students.鈥�

Mr Pilsbury goes on to explain how the Southampton branch manifests this commitment:

鈥淭hanks to partnerships with industry 鈥� for example an agreement with Deloitte India 鈥� students at the Delhi campus gain access to internships, placements and clear graduate job pipelines from day one. The campus is located in an innovation park amid major businesses, and curricula are specifically designed to prepare students for global careers. In practice, this means engaging industry experts in guest lectures and projects, and constantly updating programmes to match skills needed in the market 鈥�. Crucially, Southampton鈥檚 venture doesn鈥檛 operate in isolation 鈥� it integrates a 鈥榯riple helix鈥� of education, research and industry engagement at its core. Students benefit from links to leading firms with internship and placement schemes already in place.鈥�

The University of Southampton鈥檚 commitment to employability is admirable, and there are other universities that are similarly impressive in accompanying promises with strategy and infrastructure.

We have highlighted a few great examples below.

Experience for the win

Northeastern University (US) is a pioneer of integrating workplace learning into academics. It is famous for its six-month co-op opportunities 鈥� mostly paid, and the university strongly encourages employers to compensate students 鈥� at the undergraduate and master鈥檚 levels. For example, business and law students can work with legal firms or multinationals including Deloitte and Microsoft to gain hands-on expertise. In fact, if you look at Northeastern鈥檚 , you鈥檒l see that 鈥淓xperience鈥� leads the branding in the university鈥檚 carousel-styled banner, followed by 鈥淩esearch鈥� and 鈥淕lobal.鈥�

Leading with excellence in work placements

The landing page for says it all 鈥� and the message is directed right at students:

鈥淓xplore careers, earn money, and gain experience through the world’s leading co-op (paid internship) program.

As a Waterloo co-op student, you鈥檒l typically alternate between four months in school and four months as a full-time employee of the organization you’re working for.

Open to Canadian and international students, Waterloo’s co-op program is an amazing way to learn to successfully interview for jobs, test drive up to six careers, graduate with up to two years of valuable experience 鈥� and make money!鈥�

Skills-demand forecasting for relevant programmes

As reported by (in a fascinating article about preparing students for long-term success), (RMIT) “forecast the growth of digital jobs in Australia. The university then formed strategic partnerships with major employers to establish pathways and programs aimed at reskilling current students so that they can access these job opportunities.鈥� This is an amazing example of following through on promises of academic鈥搃ndustry connections.

Beyond traditional career supports

Check out Korea-based Seoul National University鈥檚 and you鈥檒l need to scroll to see all the career supports the university provides. From courses to internships to job fairs and career 鈥渃oncerts,鈥� the list is extremely impressive. There are even options specifically for international students and one focused on jobs in the global economy, complete with English-language coaching for resumes, interviews, and presentations.

Make it personal

In France, the EDHEC Business School doesn鈥檛 just offer career services 鈥� it offers for students focusing on one sector or profession. Their website says:

鈥淥ne of the unique strengths of EDHEC鈥檚 Career Centre is its specialised teams that focus on specific tracks and industries. Whether students are pursuing finance, marketing, consulting, or data, they receive expert support tailored to the demands of their chosen field. This ensures precise alignment between academic preparation and market needs.

The Career Booster programme offers sector-specific training, recruitment preparation, and networking opportunities. With 30 sectorial career boosters, students can focus on industries like luxury goods, fintech, consulting, entertainment, and more, ensuring they stand out in a competitive global job market.鈥�

Within the Career Booster initiative is an Assessment Centre that 鈥渟imulates real-world recruitment processes. Students participate in tests, group exercises, and case studies, receiving immediate feedback from industry experts. Each year, our students benefit from this immersive preparation, entering the job market with confidence.鈥�

Lifelong career support

The University of Edinburgh (UK) recognises 鈥� and even after they get their first job. The university offers lifelong career support to its alumni through its Careers Service and the Alumni Services platform. This includes access to online resources and advice, careers events, networking opportunities, and individual counselling support.

Back it up

The five universities profiled here offer a glimpse of best practices in career services as well as a real commitment to graduate outcomes. Increasingly, developing more comprehensive, strategy-based, labour-market connected career supports represents a huge competitive edge 鈥� and one that should be surfaced not just on landing pages, but on the institutional homepage as per the Northeastern example. If they are the real deal 鈥� and not just a claim 鈥� experiential learning and graduate outcomes can be the strongest element of a brand.

For additional information, please see:

• 鈥�What students want: The top decision factors for study abroad鈥�
• 鈥�Global student satisfaction survey highlights growing attention to career services鈥�

The post Is your institution doing enough to boost career outcomes for students? appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

More than seven million students are currently enrolled in higher education abroad. This number has more than tripled since the turn of the century, and it is expected to reach nine million by 2030.

Underlying this growth are different circumstances than in the past, including a changed student mindset about the value of education.

To be more concrete, let us put ourselves in the shoes of just one person: an upper secondary student in Vietnam. She is set to graduate next year and hopes to go abroad for university studies. Over the next few months, she talks with her parents and friends; spends hours online researching programmes, institutions, and destinations; and chats with student ambassadors and alumni on social channels. She attends meetings with her school counsellor and visits a local education agency as well. In no time, she has a longlist of potential countries, cities, universities, and programmes.

But now what? How does she narrow the field of options? What motivates her to apply to one institution versus another? These are the questions that determine the shape of international student mobility.

The want list is longer now

Traditionally, students have prioritised goals such as international and intercultural experience, foreign language acquisition, and the prestige of a degree from a particular institution.

These goals remain influential. However, they are now often secondary to financial considerations and value for money. Global surveys by IDP, Etio, QS, Keystone, and Studyportals find that top concerns centre on cost of living, cost of studying, scholarships, work opportunities, and graduate outcomes, which are all linked to an emphasis on affordability and return on investment (ROI).

It isn鈥檛 that these concerns are new. Rather, what is important here is that affordability and ROI have risen significantly as factors that affect where in the world students decide to study, and in which programmes.

In some respects, this greater focus on ROI is changing the value proposition for study abroad. It affects, for instance, how students evaluate quality of education. For example, IDP鈥檚 Emerging Futures 聴 survey conducted in March found that students increasingly equate quality of education with graduate outcomes.

Other indicators of quality 鈥� such as rankings 鈥� are still important. But IDP鈥檚 findings underline that students are looking beyond traditional indicators to ask, 鈥淲hat can I really expect?鈥� 鈥淲hat am I going to get from this experience?鈥� 鈥淲hat will this mean for my future prospects?鈥�

Affordable destinations

The quest for affordability is a primary reason for the growing interest in destinations other than the 鈥淏ig Four鈥� (i.e., United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia).

As the Big Four have introduced more restrictive immigration policies, other countries 鈥� especially in Europe and Asia 鈥� have opened wide their doors. And it just so happens that many of these countries offer relatively low costs of study and living.

The following table provides a summary of undergraduate fees and accommodation costs in selected destinations, and it illustrates significant price gaps across the international education market.

We should note that costs for an individual student may still vary quite a bit within a given destination. Some fields of study are more pricey than others, smaller towns and cities are less expensive than major urban centres, and some students will have scholarships or other financial support from their host institution/country or home country. But the table鈥檚 broad comparisons reveal the wide spectrum of choice available to students with various budgets.

Factors affecting ROI

Costs of study and living are only part of what students consider when evaluating where to put their investment in study abroad. Students also look at available scholarships, the number of hours per week they can work while in their programmes, and the length of time they can work in a destination after graduation.

A recent analysis by INTO University Partnerships shows that beyond programme and institution choice, students鈥� post-study decisions 鈥� e.g., whether to emigrate, work for a couple of years in the destination country after graduation, or return home immediately 鈥� bear considerably on the time it takes to 鈥渆arn back鈥� the cost of an overseas education.

An undergraduate student from China, for example, who studies at a Go8 institution in Australia could expect it to take 3.5 years to recover study costs if they remained in Australia, 6 years if they worked for a couple of years before returning home, and 9.5 years if they went straight home after graduation.

But for an Indian student enrolled in that same Go8 university, it would take much longer to recover the cost of study unless they remained in Australia for good after completing their programme. In fact, it could take 18 years if they returned to India immediately after graduation, in part because the salaries afforded by the Indian labour market are often lower than in China.

Even across the two countries of origin and the five study options outlined on these charts, there is a tremendous range in that earn-back period. Now extend that to more countries of origin and destinations, and you get a sense of the complexity of decision-making facing students today.

INTO鈥檚 model also underlines the high stakes associated with a student鈥檚 choice of where and how they study. Their decision has serious implications for their future prosperity and wellbeing.

What is driving price sensitivity?

Macroeconomic trends such as trade wars, conflicts, and global warming-induced calamities such as droughts and flooding have a wide geographical and financial impact.

Consumers in both advanced and emerging markets are experiencing the effects of these global events. Inflation, rising food and housing costs, and rapidly changing labour markets are among the factors that impinge upon families鈥� disposable income.

The other factor in play here is that the composition of the international student body has shifted quite a bit over the last 10 or 15 years, and it’s continuing to shift in terms of where students are coming from.

In 2010, there were just about four million students abroad in higher education. Just under a third of those were from China. And as I said earlier, China was the driver of global growth in international mobility for a couple of decades.

Just think for a minute about the profile of those students coming out of China. They’re supported by a burgeoning economy, by an exploding middle class. They were self-funded, they were able to return to their home country and have an expectation of a higher earning potential.

In 2024, with more like seven million students abroad in higher education, only 14% of that total now comes from China, another 19% from India.

And indeed, the lion’s share of that international student body writ large is now coming from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

This includes a greater mix of students who are loan-funded or who are funded with family support or by scholarships. They come with very different needs and expectations. And, as Tim’s work demonstrates to us, they have a different earning potential at home. So that ROI calculation is necessarily different, depending on where you are coming from.

The foreign degree premium

A key factor influencing international student mobility is the value that students, families, and especially employers place on a foreign university degree. This value is in itself integral to the calculus of the expected ROI from study abroad.

Several determinants affect the premium linked to foreign credentials versus degrees earned at home. The weight given to each may vary according to the student鈥檚 home country. For example, if the student鈥檚 domestic higher education system is seen to be of poor quality and incapable of improving career prospects, then a foreign degree will carry more of a premium.

Similarly, if the domestic higher education system has limited capacity and cannot produce enough skilled graduates for a growing economy, there is an aspect of scarcity that enhances the competitiveness of degree holders generally and graduates of foreign institutions in particular.

This premium, however, is not in a steady state. The value of foreign credentials tends to fall if there is an increase in the number of foreign degree holders (which erodes the scarcity premium). It also tends to decline when the quality of the domestic higher education system improves (which narrows the 鈥渜uality gap鈥� between foreign and domestic credentials).

China is perhaps the best contemporary example we have in terms of how that foreign degree premium can shift over time.

From the late 1990s through the 2020s, capacity and quality in the Chinese higher education system grew at an unprecedented rate. Over roughly 30 years, gross enrolment rates rose from below 10% in 1998 to above 50% as of 2024.

Chinese tertiary institutions enrolled approximately 50 million students in 2024, making China the largest higher education system in the world.

Years from now, when we try to pinpoint when the ground really shifted in China regarding the value of foreign degrees, we might think of the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek.

Not only did DeepSeek develop large language models (LLMs) considered to be highly competitive with leading generative AI models (e.g., OpenAI鈥檚 ChatGPT-赂 and Google鈥檚 Gemini), but it also put its high-grade AI product into the market at (reportedly) less than 10% of OpenAI鈥檚 cost.

This arguably makes DeepSeek one of the most important and highest-profile technological advancements to come out of China for some time.

The story behind the story, however, is that there are almost no foreign graduates on the DeepSeek team. Every single member of the team completed their undergraduate degree in China, and of the 24 postgraduate degrees held by DeepSeek team members, only two were earned outside China. 鈥淭his would not have been the case 10 years ago,鈥� says Matt Durnin, a consultant in higher education and principal at Nous Group. 鈥淕o into a large or influential Chinese technology firm and you would鈥檝e at that time seen many more 鈥榮ea turtles鈥� (i.e., foreign-trained returnees). They鈥檙e less valued and less emphasised in key industries than they used to be.鈥�

This doesn鈥檛 mean that there are no longer opportunities for foreign universities to recruit in China. Far from it. But it does mean that Chinese students now assess the value of foreign degrees differently than they did even 10鈥� years ago.

The example of China illustrates that the perceived value of a foreign qualification can change over time.

Most importantly, it suggests that for an institution or programme to retain its premium, it must deliver outstanding student outcomes.

Graduate outcomes

Promoting great student outcomes is an opportunity that is within reach for virtually any institution. It happens as well that our understanding of career services 鈥� especially when and how they are provided and the value that they represent for students 鈥� is changing quite a bit. The range of services will vary from institution to institution, but it typically includes career readiness workshops, assistance in interview preparation and resume writing, counselling, networking events with employers, internships, and job fairs.

A crucial question for institutions is how best to provide solid career services before, during, and after studies to students from around the world. A one-size-fits-all approach cannot accommodate the reality that there is a huge range of international student profiles.

At the 黑料官网 Monitor Global Summit held in London in September, presenters and attendees discussed this very question. Sanam Arora is the chair of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) in the UK, and at the 黑料官网 Monitor conference, she emphasised the place that career outcomes have in the hierarchy of student decision-making inputs:

鈥淪eventy 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鈥檙e not just here to educate, they鈥檙e here to be that global talent launchpad, will really ace this going forward.鈥�

She continues: 鈥淏efore 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.鈥�

A longer window for career supports

Career services used to be introduced as a transition support for soon-to-be-graduates. Now, the window for career supports might begin even before the student has an admissions offer. For example, an institution might send information to applicants (or even pre-applicants) about internship programmes, and it might also offer pre-admission courses or career-readiness training.

At City St George鈥檚, University of London, career services begin as soon as a student has received an admissions offer. The prospective student with the admissions offer may not convert into an enrolment for months, but the university recognises the competitive edge gained from giving that student access to career services right as they are choosing where to study.

Offering career supports at the pre-enrolment stage engages students in the areas they value most, and it draws them to a decision more quickly. If a student has offers from multiple universities, they are most likely to narrow their focus to the one that best highlights post-graduation outcomes.

What鈥檚 more, students who have received career-based information before they enrol are more likely to arrive on campus feeling positive, prepared, and informed.

Career services can also extend beyond the last day of a study programme. The University of Southampton, for example, provides career supports up to five years after graduation. The University of Edinburgh takes the idea even further by offering lifelong career support to alumni through a Career Services and Alumni Services platform that includes access to online resources and advice, career events, networking opportunities, and individual counselling support.

In this context, many students will also place a premium on work integrated learning, such as co-op or practicum placements. We have seen this becoming a bigger part of post-secondary offerings in recent years and I think this is a trend we can expect to continue as well.

The problem with numbers

It is widely acknowledged that there are significant data gaps across international education. In most countries, institutions generally don鈥檛 have enough information on how students are recruited; what they choose to study; how they perform in their studies; whether they graduate and how long it takes them; how often they obtain jobs linked to their programmes; and to what extent they are satisfied with their career outcomes.

This poses a significant problem for international educators who hope to develop evidence-based strategies for recruitment and retention. But lack of data is an even bigger problem for students, because data is what they want and expect when making study abroad decisions.

US institutions have an edge. 鈥淲e are swimming in data,鈥� says Dr Di Maria. 鈥淲e have data on everything because we鈥檙e required by the US government to track what students are doing. More accurately, there鈥檚 a requirement to report on the activities. There鈥檚 not necessarily a requirement to report on success. But at our institution, we鈥檙e tracking both. So that allows me to know that 93% of our graduates are employed and/or pursuing further education within six months [of graduation]. We know the salaries. We know that about 60% of our students interned first at the company where they are now employed. We know 75% of our graduates stay in Maryland and 83% in the Capital Region (Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia).鈥�

Any of us reading those proof points knows how compelling they are for prospective students, current students, alumni, institutions, employers, and parents alike.

This brings us full circle to where we started. If career outcomes are the top priority for international students, it follows that institutions should prioritise outcomes in recruitment strategies, programmes, and services. Collecting better data on student success and graduation will go a long way towards achieving that alignment鈥nd towards giving students what they want.

The post What students want: The top decision factors for study abroad appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

The programme 鈥� produced in partnership by Studyportals with Uni-Life and the British Council IELTS 鈥� relies entirely on student reviews, which this year amounted to 102,000 reviews from students across 3,059 universities and 124 countries. The reviews were submitted between January 2023 and July 2025, from current students or alumni who graduated after January 2022.

Overall student satisfaction remains high at 4.18/5.00, reflecting a marginal decrease from 2023’s rating of 4.21. Comparable to the 2023 survey, just under 96% of responding students rated their overall study experience at either four or five stars.

At a national level, the top-performing destinations 鈥� based on that overall satisfaction score 鈥� were the United States (4.32), Belgium (4.29), and Austria (4.28). The following figure highlights a wider selection of country ratings (for overall satisfaction), comparing destination performance on two dimensions: (i) positive or negative change relative to the 2023 rating and (ii) relative ranking compared to the global average of 4.18.

Aside from the US, Canada showed steady improvement over the last four years, climbing from a rating of 4.07 (2021) and 4.11 (2023) to reach the global average for first time. The United Kingdom has also shown steady, if more gradual improvement, rising from 4.1 (2021) and 4.18 (2023) to 4.23 this year. Australia, however, remains below the global benchmark, with ratings consistently around 4.13 over the past four years.

As we see in the following summary of other key indicators from the 2025 ratings, there is a little more variability sitting behind that overall score.

鈥淭hese results show where universities are winning student trust, and where they risk losing it,” said Studyportals CEO Edwin van Rest. “Students are more confident about career prospects, but increasingly concerned about diversity and their quality of life. In today鈥檚 competitive environment, these student voices are critical signals for universities. Understanding these perspectives is crucial for shaping policies and programmes that genuinely meet students鈥� needs.鈥�

Signals for improvement

The student rating for “Admissions Process” declined from 4.41 in 2023 to 4.24 this year. This parameter reflects student feedback with respect to ease of application, clarity of website information, and quality of staff assistance during the admission process.

Part of the issue here may lie in the premium that students place on ease of use and streamlined experience in other parts of their lives. “Students specifically appreciate when online applications are ‘easy and simple to operate’ and websites are user-friendly,” adds Studyportals. “Modern students expect admission processes to match the usability standards of consumer applications, with intuitive interfaces and straightforward procedures.”

Another notable change this year was in the area of “Student Diversity,” which reflects “how effectively universities foster welcoming environments for students from different countries, cultures, religions, age groups, gender identities, backgrounds, and those with special needs.”

Student satisfaction with respect to “Student Diversity” dropped from 4.37 (2023) to 4.15 this year, a change that the report summarises as, “Universities that intentionally create welcoming spaces for students from different backgrounds see higher satisfaction. Conversely, some students faced problems integrating into the campus community or feeling at home in a new country.”

The meaningful thing about both parameters is that they are largely within the control of each university, which highlights that they remain areas of opportunity and potential competitive advantage for most institutions.

The steady rise of career services

Students rated their satisfaction with “Career Development” at 4.13 this year, a small increase over the 4.08 rating from 2023 but an impressive gain over four years from the 3.86 rating from 2021. As the term suggests, this aspect of student experience is concerned with, “How well universities support students’ career development through extracurricular courses, workshops, conferences, internship assistance, and other employability-enhancing activities.”

Overall, “Career Development” is the most-improved category tracked in the programme, indicating the greater attention to student support and student outcomes in this respect. Given everything we are learning in recent years about the greater emphasis students now place on those outcomes, this is a particularly relevant finding in the 2025 ratings.

This year’s report also includes a series of related recommendations for institutions planning to further strengthen their career services for students.

• “Facilitate industry professional connections. Organise regular interactions with working professionals through guest lectures, networking events, and mentorship programmes. These direct industry connections often prove more valuable than theoretical career guidance, providing students with realistic insights and professional networks.

• Expand hands-on learning opportunities. Bridge the gap between academic learning and professional application through well-supported internships and real-world projects. Students need practical experience with current industry tools and challenges to feel prepared for their careers.

• Leverage faculty research connections. Ensure professors actively engaged in current research translate contemporary industry challenges into classroom content. This makes education feel immediately relevant and prepares students for the evolving problems they’ll encounter in their professional lives”.

For additional background, please see:

• “How likely are students to recommend your institution?“
• “Global survey says graduate outcomes the most important factor in students鈥� choice of institution abroad“
• “Better living and social environments for students linked to better mental health“
• “Is employability still the holy grail for the new generation of international students?“

The post Global student satisfaction survey highlights growing attention to career services appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Many employers are now (1) looking for evidence that a job candidate can be productive
working remotely and (2) seeking convenient recruitment funnels. Students who excel in their virtual internships are just the sort of workers these employers are looking for.

It hasn鈥檛 taken long for students to reconsider the value of internships in which at least some of their work experience happens remotely and through meetings with colleagues and employers on platforms including Skype, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom. A College Pulse survey conducted in spring 2021 of 1,500 college students found that more students wanted a hybrid internship (42%) than wanted a completely in-person experience (38%). Only 20% wanted their internship to be fully remote.

Distinct benefits

Part of the appeal of virtual internships for some students is affordability. By working from home, they can avoid the costs of international or domestic travel, transportation, and accommodation that are often significant in traditional internships.

Another huge advantage is that virtual internships aren鈥檛 tied to a particular location or pool of employers. Because of this, a student studying environmental science in the UK, say, could participate in a virtual internship with a pioneering eco-efficiency start-up in Costa Rica. Borderless virtual internships also offer a major benefit for students studying abroad who intend to return home after graduation. Chinese students are especially likely to return home (up to 80% do) and are naturally interested in linking their foreign degrees to job opportunities in preferred Chinese cities 鈥� it鈥檚 key to a favourable return on investment. It鈥檚 not difficult to imagine a Chinese prospect deciding to apply to a particular foreign university upon discovering that the university can connect them with an internship with a top company located in China.

Without doubt, virtual internships stand to strengthen an institution鈥檚 attractiveness to another international student segment: those planning to study online with a foreign institution from their home country. Being able to offer these students access to a global network of employers and peers through virtual internships represents a compelling competitive advantage.

Best in class

Some universities have moved quickly to develop well-designed virtual internships. Last fall, for example, Oberlin College, in Ohio, designed a remote micro-internship programme that incorporated soft-skills development and a career readiness component. Dana Hamdan, associate dean and executive director of Oberlin鈥檚 Career Development Center, wrote about the college鈥檚 Junior Practicum in an article for Inside Higher Ed:

鈥淲e wove into the programme a series of complex problems 鈥� like climate change, refugee protection, politics and the media, gentrification, and political polarisation 鈥� that we knew would resonate with students 鈥�. We folded in sessions to help students with resum茅s, grant writing, branding, negotiation and many other skills. We organised group workshops on topics such as navigating the workplace as a person of color, allyship, inclusion and more. And then we sent them off to remote micro-internships to practise what they had learned.鈥�

The role of career services

Oberlin鈥檚 Junior Practicum is indicative of an institution that is wisely investing in career services. Research shows that too few institutions prioritise this area. For example, a Strada Student Viewpoint survey fielded by College Pulse last September of 2,000 students found that only 35% said their college was 鈥渆xcellent or very good at connecting education to meaningful careers.鈥� Crucially, of those who said they had received excellent support, 83% said their education 鈥渨ould be worth the cost,鈥� while just 17% who said they had received poor support believed that their investment in college was worth it.

The long and short of it is that strong career services can greatly influence student satisfaction, and satisfaction leads to the positive peer-to-peer word of mouth that is so important for recruitment results.

Third-party options

College and university staff have their hands full, to say the least, because of the pandemic. With resources stretched, some universities are turning to third-party companies to provide their students with remote opportunities.

One such company is , an online platform that provides students with international work experience programmes across 18 career fields. The start-up, whose co-founders are Daniel Nivern and Ed Holroyd Pearce, received US$2.5 million in investor funding this summer and is quickly gaining traction. In 2019, the company arranged internships for 100 students. In 2020, the number was 1,700, and this year, 6,000 students are expected to secure placements through Virtual Internships. More than 4,000 host companies across 70 countries are on the platform, and more than 100 universities and educational institutions worldwide are clients.

The way the model works is that students can pay Virtual Internships for their experience or a school can pay for students to have a guaranteed internship with one of the companies on the platform as well as an optional academic credit. The Virtual Internships platform manages the applications, screening, approval, and acceptance process from end to end. Programme duration is 4, 8, or 12 weeks, and students work 20 to 30 hours a week.

Mr Nivern explains that the platform is made for the quickly changing needs of students and employers:

鈥淒igitalisation has completely accelerated the way we work with people across the
globe and internships should mirror this pattern. With a focus on accessibility,
diversity and clear learning outcomes, we鈥檝e redesigned the internship experience for a new, virtual and borderless world.鈥�

For additional background, please see:

• “Most international students say career supports a big factor in their choice of institution“
• “The ’60-year curriculum’ and the elevation of career services“
• “Internships in demand, but not always easy for students to undertake“

The post The growing footprint of virtual internships appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

from the University of Wisconsin at Madison 鈥� based on more than 1,200 interviews and survey responses from students enrolled at three unnamed American colleges 鈥� looked at internship participation, structural features of internship programmes, and student perspectives about internships and participating in them. The study thus relies on findings from American students but its observations can nevertheless be broadly instructive for global educators.

The study鈥檚 key findings include:

• Students are more likely to participate in an internship if it is paid;
• Internships were more limited for colleges based in small towns and rural areas;
• Many students felt that they were pressured to participate in internships by their school even as the school did not adequately help them find a placement.

And importantly, students feeling financial pressure felt that they had to work in one or two paid jobs not linked to internships to make enough money to live and study. Among the 509 students who had not done an internship but who had expressed interest in doing one, these are the top reasons cited for not being able to:

• 鈥淣eeded to work at job鈥�: 58%
• 鈥淐ourse load at school was too heavy鈥�: 52%
• 鈥淟ack of internships opportunities in my field鈥�: 42%
• 鈥淚nsufficient pay offered鈥�: 27%
• 鈥淟ack of transportation鈥�: 15%
• 鈥淟ack of childcare鈥�: 5%

One interviewed student said,

鈥淗onestly, my biggest struggle is most of them are unpaid. And I am 26, I am getting married in like a year鈥� I am trying to do adult things and not getting paid for several months is just not something I really think I can afford to do right now.鈥�

Unpaid internships

Earlier this spring, in Quebec, Canada, thousands of students , and a key area of dissatisfaction was that female students in certain fields tend to be more likely to be offered unpaid internships than male students.

Commenting on the trend to Canadian broadcaster CBC, Alexandre Frenette, an associate director at the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, said,

“I’ve seen consistent trends of gender bias in terms of the intern economy. Certain fields … like architecture tend to pay their interns and they tend to be mostly men, versus other fields like arts education [that] tend to be mostly women, and those are unpaid internships.鈥�

He noted that nursing, social work, or education remain associated with 鈥渨omen鈥檚 work鈥� and is thus often 鈥渄evalued as something that is done out of caring, out of a labour of love.”

Increasingly, students are speaking out about the fact that unpaid internships can be a required component of a programme and can stretch over months. For many students, it鈥檚 too much to balance their academic studies, internships, and other work they may have to take on.

Best practices and best outcomes

In a paper presented at the ASEE Annual Conference and Exhibition, Dr Sudarsan Rangan and Dr Malini Natarajarathinam of Texas A&M University explain that the best internships are structured as follows:

鈥淎n effective internship experience is mutually beneficial to both the intern and the business. The student is exposed to best practices, effective management and an understanding of the skill sets and the application required to successfully transition into a productive contributor. The business benefits by providing structure and guidelines to the student which helps them understand the opportunities within the organisation and the industry, and these businesses often end as the first choice for these trained contributors.鈥�

Among their guidelines for well-run internships, the professors emphasise that employers should 鈥淧ay [interns] well, housing or relocation allowance, even a small signing bonus. The supervisor should understand that school comes first, and be mindful of their family and school commitments.鈥�

The University of Wisconsin study found in in its focus group interviews that, 鈥淔or the students who had participated in internships the most cited outcome of an internship was 鈥榬eal-world鈥� or 鈥榟ands-on鈥� experience. Students discussed their internships鈥� experiential value in terms of gaining experience in an authentic workplace setting with people engaged in the daily work of a profession, which was seen as distinct from yet complementary to their classroom experiences. Another outcome was the opportunity to explore the field, where students felt that they could use internships to 鈥榯est out different avenues of what you might want to go into.鈥欌��

For additional background, please see:

• 鈥�Well-designed internships look like the new competitive advantage鈥�
• 鈥�International internships are increasingly valued by employers鈥�

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• Demand for STEM-type skills (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) is rising sharply. In the US, for example, by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation states that the proportion of STEM graduates will have to increase by 20鈥�30% by 2016 to allow the US economy to grow according to projections, and that the number of jobs in STEM fields grew three times more than non-STEM jobs over the past 12 years and is expected to grow twice as fast by 2018. Meanwhile, in the UK, found that 4 in 10 (39%) STEM-reliant firms are 鈥渟truggling to recruit workers with the advanced, technical STEM skills they need鈥� and that 41% expect shortages to continue for the next three years.

• College and university graduates are having an increasingly . A 2012 Futuretrack survey of recent graduates鈥� career paths found that 40% of graduates failed to get graduate-calibre posts more than two years after leaving education, around twice the proportion of their peers a decade earlier. See also 黑料官网 Monitor’s recent article that references some Chinese graduates鈥� difficulties finding jobs upon return to China from study abroad.

• Employers are noting how difficult it is to hire people with the right skill sets for positions. As James Jefferson, creative director and co-founder of the digital marketing agency points out: 鈥淚f you look at the roles we hire for in our agency, none of them, bar programming, is well catered for by universities 鈥� some, like SEO, are almost entirely self-taught.鈥�

Overall, these trends point to one conclusion: students will increasingly demand more of their post-secondary experience in terms of preparation for employment. As a result, higher education will be challenged further to balance the imperative to provide students with a theoretical grounding in their chosen field and the practical, particular, up-to-the-minute skills required to get a desirable job.

Internships increasingly seen not as might-haves, but rather must-haves

As Martin Birchall, managing director of graduate recruitment research firm , notes:

鈥淲ork experience is no longer an optional extra for university students, it鈥檚 an essential part of preparing for the graduate job market. Students who just focus on their degree studies without spending time in the workplace are unlikely to develop the skills and interests that graduate employers are looking for.鈥�

Mr Birchall鈥檚 firm conducted a survey in 2013 that found that than other graduates:

鈥淩esearch shows that some 36% of students completing a work experience placement had received at least one definite job offer by the Easter of their final year compared with just 11% of other undergraduates.鈥�

Can internships be made more relevant and flexible?

In an April 2013 黑料官网 Monitor article, we looked at various examples of how institutions and governments are recognising the increasing importance of internships. Our examples were mostly traditional internships 鈥� paid or unpaid 鈥� where a student goes to work for a company for a specified time and then may or may not be hired on.

But James Jefferson of Equator recently contributed an article to that posits that the concept of internships demands re-evaluation 鈥� and stretching. He writes:

鈥淗ow can we give students ongoing first-hand experience of the type of thinking we expect from our team? 鈥�. Might it be possible to create a digital social space that enabled professionals and students to work side by side continually? To share experiences, critique work and mutually benefit from the experience?鈥�

Mr Jefferson argues that digital platforms that allow for learning and collaboration while incorporating the features of social media like Facebook and Twitter 鈥� such as 鈥� can begin to connect students to the professional world much sooner, and more seamlessly, than traditional internships alone.

You can think of a platform like Yammer as Facebook for a professional discipline or an organisational group. So, for example, you could have a Yammer community devoted to new media, with professors, students, and industry professionals as members. These members could all post ideas, reports, projects, and questions 鈥� as well as build relationships.

It would be a great way for a new media company to scout the most promising students while they are still in school 鈥� and then decide whether to offer them physical internships or better yet, proper jobs.

From the other side, the ambitious student in such a group would have a ready-made way of demonstrating her talent 鈥� and connecting with the professionals and firms she was most interested in.

Another advantage of 鈥渧irtual鈥� internships? The cost. Students, professors, and industry meet and collaborate for free on platforms such as Yammer, and thus the chances for professional firms to eventually hire the right people go up 鈥� because the firms have already seen what the students can do.

And finally 鈥� what a promising opportunity for international students and/or students who want to find jobs in countries other than where they are studying! Digital meeting-places level out the geographical playing field for international students: a Malaysian student studying at a branch campus in Hong Kong could easily make an impression on a top-notch American medical professor at Harvard on a platform such as Yammer, and the potential career path from there might well be very promising.

Can internships help save the humanities?

Enrolment in the arts and humanities (e.g., an English degree) is declining rapidly. At Harvard College, for example, the number of bachelor degrees in the field has fallen by half from 1966 to 2010. This, despite the fact that many of the world鈥檚 top leaders and thinkers began their education in the humanities, an area which 鈥� taught well 鈥� provides the basis for rational and critical thinking as well as writing skills. Such skills may not be immediately valued in the short-term for a company, but without them, vision and leadership is lost to an overemphasis on urgent yet ephemeral technical know-how.

As colleges and universities endeavor to justify liberal arts and reclaim enrolments (), it may be that internships can provide part of the answer. One school of thought holds that the arts and humanities are often unnecessarily 鈥渟iloed鈥� 鈥� held off from other subjects and industries as if they didn鈥檛 have bearing on them or couldn鈥檛 be useful.

So some liberal arts and humanities departments at schools are starting to jump on the internship bandwagon. For example, in Albany, New York, now makes internships mandatory for its English majors. As puts it:

鈥淪ome of the areas in which Saint Rose students are finding internships might not have even occurred to them otherwise 鈥� managing social media for a local credit union, for instance. Through such an experience, students can reconcile the realities of a liberal arts education and the 21^st century workplace.鈥�

Moreover, there is a new trend of schools offering summer programmes to help students in any discipline top up their regular studies with specific, marketplace-focused applications. :

鈥淎 summer programme typically places students in immersive courses teaching basic business skills and principles, and may move to more focused areas like economics, marketing, finance and management.鈥�

It seems clear from all this that providing effective linkages between the world of study and the world of work has the potential to be a more important source of competitive advantage going forward.

The colleges and universities that gain a reputation for graduating students with the best balance of desired degree credentials and job-ready acumen and experience may well be the institutions of choice for the next generation of international students.

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