If the 264 million students enrolled in higher education around the globe were a country, it would be the fifth most populous in the world. Some 53% of its citizens would identify as women and most would be located in Asia. Residents would speak and study in hundreds of languages, but English would dominate.
This nation of learners would also be one of the fastest growing. Since 2000, the number of university students around the world has more than doubled, and the number that cross borders to learn has roughly tripled, to almost seven million. Aided by the Internet, conferences, shared curricula and collaborations, the world of higher education has become more tightly linked.
But the pattern of interconnected growth is beginning to unravel as wealthy Western nations become much less welcoming to foreign students. The administration of US President Donald Trump in particular has been targeting higher-education institutions and international students. Many of the latter are consequently looking elsewhere to earn their degrees, and those opportunities are growing, especially in some low- and middle-income countries. But expanding access to higher education has also raised concerns about the quality and value of that education.
Read more at Nature.
