The use of technology in international education brings back core questions about preserving the values of the sector. In a pendulation between integrating technology hastily or too slowly, international students’ needs risk being left aside, translating in lesser quality.

The interest in how novel technology will impact international higher education has increased in recent years, especially due to innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) making the headlines and requiring rapid response from higher education institutions. The disruptive capacity of AI is, however, only the tip of the iceberg in terms of how digitalization in general—or other instruments like extended reality (XR)—will set a new paradigm for international education.

Student Engagement, a Missing Piece of the Puzzle

An area where techno-optimism flourished, and concerns were mainly overlooked, is flexibility and quality of international education as a result of increased digitalization. A closer look shows that deployment of digital tools without adequate infrastructure or student engagement in how they are deployed, superficial adaptations or offering broad choice without guidance can harm student experience, especially when it comes to international students, who are in a more vulnerable position.

If we do not have time to do it right, we will not have time to do it over. As new patterns related to the use of technology in international education are being set, it is crucial that both regulatory frameworks and institutional practices put students at the core and make international education more equitable and student-centered.

Diverging Developments Impact the Equity of New Trends in International Education

The premise of increasing equity is well-known: technology will create virtual cooperation modalities that level the playing field and decrease costs, enabling international learning opportunities that otherwise would be unavailable for all but a select few. In the end, according to UNESCO data from 2021, only 6.4 million students had access to mobility opportunities, amounting to less than 3 percent of the total student population.

However, a survey of the International Association of Universities showed that while the majority of higher education institutions engage in virtual internationalization, this ranges from 58 percent in North Africa and the Middle East to 91 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. Virtual internationalization opportunities for students are considered a priority for 17 percent of higher education institutions worldwide (with the highest rate being 37 percent in Latin America), and making internationalization more equitable and culturally diverse is a pressing future priority for only 18 percent of higher education institutions. In other words, mobility flows risk becoming even more persistently imbalanced.

On the other hand, equity in international education can suffer from other factors that reinforce the vicious cycle, be that individual (availability of digital devices, internet connectivity), institutional (language offers, fees, although according to OECD data, there is no fee differentiation between in-person and online programs in half of OECD countries), or national (for example, no financial support for students in virtual learning in one-third of OECD countries).

Technology in international education should be about creating opportunities for students: increasing the number of students in virtual internationalization may be partly caused not by its popularity or value, but due to low access to physical mobility, and online education being the affordable option.

Technology and the Quality of International Education: A Friend Can Turn into a Foe

An easy pitfall is to expect that AI or other tools would enhance the quality of international experience by design. They can, however, offer guidance to students in the admission process, choice of program, bundling courses or tutoring, internationalization of their curriculum and many others.

Counterintuitively, a study from Osaka University in Japan and the University of Melbourne in Australia showed that AI is being integrated at a slower pace at universities with a more international student population, especially due to different experience in handling AI and the risk of bias. This shows that integrating new tools is not effortless, as it requires both adequate funding for the appropriate technology for an internationally diverse audience and knowledge on how to use it.

One key avenue for influencing policy and institutional strategy is student engagement in quality assurance, though it is affected by mechanisms which are not adapted for digital-enabled international education, be it through a rigid application of “traditional” (in-person study) rules or no rules at all. Coupled with lesser student representation of international students overall, the particular needs of international students can become easily forgotten.

Making the Right Choice in a Sector of Limitless Possibilities

Technology already enables better student choice on where, what and how to study, and institutional choice on who to cooperate with and in what format. In order to make best use of new opportunities for students, higher education institutions should act in two directions. Firstly, in their institutional cooperation, they should do their due diligence in terms of guaranteeing recognition of learning periods and identifying meaningful ways of combining curricula and diversifying the student experience in a global mindset. Secondly, higher education institutions must provide better guidance for students.

The increased flexibility of higher education has not been coupled with the adequate support for learners to understand what they can choose, how that impacts their desires/expectations, and the path dependency in their future professional or academic career. Technology (most notably large language models like ChatGPT) can only partly compensate for this guidance. Moreover, people also simultaneously need to be guided on how to use the technology. The multitude of overseas offerings, some of bogus quality or even explicitly fraudulent, can put international students in an anxious “paradox of choice,” which can bring less satisfaction and worse outcomes, or deceive them altogether.

The Future (and the Kids) Will Be Alright

Technology will help show the importance - and reinforce the values - of international education, but it is not a panacea, nor will it ever be. Arguing that technology would—mostly through moving flows online—fix the ills of international education by itself would be misplaced.

It is crucial that higher education institutions do not jump from one trend or novelty to another without first building solid grounds through institutional practice and making sure the whole academic community is on board. Fortunately, we have seen similar patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic, where initial lacklustre reactions turned swiftly into strategic responses which addressed concerns together with and not only about students.

In many aspects, the dawn of internationalization boosted by technology has revamped the ambitions of the sector, and issues of common concern, such as addressing biases or data ethics, are being increasingly tackled at national and global levels.

Higher education institutions should embrace the new reality and understand a paradigm shift in terms of collaboration in international education: rather than being the main agents, they will become nodes for students in pursuit of lifelong learning. The extent to which the lines between them—mediated by technology—will be durable will depend on whether they really prioritize equity, quality, and flexibility for students.

Horia Onița is the head of the Secretariat of the European Higher Education Area, previously president of the European Students’ Union. E-mail: [email protected].

X: @OnitaHoria