KONTRIBUSI EKONOMI MAHASISWA ASING TERHADAP NEGARA PENYELENGGARA PENDIDIKAN INTERNASIONAL: PENGALAMAN AMERIKA SERIKAT, INGGRIS DAN JERMAN

Abstract

In recent years, the numbers of international students in universities have increased rapidly and have become an important industry and financial resource for the host countries. However, each host country has divergent policies and strategies regarding their international student i.e. tuition fees, scholarship scheme, visa regulation and alumni program. These differences can potentially determine financial benefit that they receive from the foreign students. For example, the tuition fees for international students in German Universities are relatively smaller compared to other countries in Europe. However, a study found that an aggregate value of economic impact of international students to German economic is relatively higher than in the Netherlands and other European countries. Moreover, the economic gains are not solely obtained from tuitions fees and other spending during the study period. Rather, the bigger financial impact can be obtained after the graduation of the international students. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the economic implication of international students for the host countries. More importantly, this study discusses strategies of host countries to optimize the economic impact from their international countries. To do so, three countries have been selected as the object of research, namely the USA, the UK, and Germany. Data is collected from secondary data i.e. academic articles, government reports, and non-governmental organizations reports. The results of this study found that the host countries have implemented different strategies in dealing with their international students that potentially create different scope of economic impact in their national economic. Finally, policy suggestions are proposed to enhance the economic benefit of international students for host countries