Fragmented Global Market Allows Students More Choices

For many years, the image of international education was encapsulated in recruiting-brochure pictures of students sitting around a leafy courtyard, leisurely typing away on their laptops. Today, more than three million students study outside their home country, and international education has become a full-fledged business.

One increasingly important dynamic is commercialization, which has turned what was once an ivory-tower experience for the few into a consumer good for many. Australia pioneered this trend starting in the 1990s, and it continues to be a leader in offering education that has become more and more tailored to specific consumer demands.

This development has not been welcomed by all, especially European countries, which consider tertiary education a civil entitlement that should be provided freely and should strive to fulfill a higher purpose, such as raising good citizens. France and the majority of states in Germany still cling to this view, while others, such as Denmark and Sweden, have moved into the tuition world.

What about students as the consumer? They already operate in a choice-driven world where one student decides to enroll in an institution because she gets a free iPod, while another works exceedingly hard to have a chance to attend a prestigious university, and a third is solely interested in work and migration opportunities. As a result, international education has become sharply stratified between the few elite and ever-more-expensive institutions, a broad middle band of colleges struggling to differentiate themselves, and a growing block of decidedly moderate-quality institutions trying to make a living. There is no more simplicity—fragmentation and change have come to rule in the international education market, with more changes around the corner.

Daniel J. Guhr is managing director of Illuminate Consulting Group, in San Carlos, Calif.