An Overview of International Students and Discrimination in Higher Education

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to figure out the discrimination towards international students in respects of its sources, types, reasons and the results in higher education institutions. It collects information about the experiences of international students by means of literature on international students. All around the world, almost 5 million international students are enrolled to higher education institutions. Institutions compete with each other to recruit more international students. International students contribute to the institutions’ budgets, the internationalization process of institutions, and diversity in higher education. Students’ positive feelings, their satisfaction and good experiences are important factors for providing the maintenance of enrollment.

Discrimination has a negative impact on the rates of enrollment in higher education institutions. However, the level of enrollment is not the most important problem. Struggle against discrimination in higher education institutions is important in relation to the principle of respect for human dignity. Discrimination has psychological, social and physical negative results on students. It prevents the exchange of ideas, intellectual perspectives, information, knowledge, and skills. In terms of discrimination towards the international students in higher education, this study tries to answer to the following questions:

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  “Why are international students important for countries?”

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  “Why is the discrimination important for international students?”

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  “What are the approaches explaining discrimination?”

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  “What is the types of discrimination?

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  “Where and how is the discrimination performed?

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  “Who are the suspects and the victims of discrimination?”

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  “Why do host students treat unequally to international students?”

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  “What are the results of discrimination?”

The answers of these questions may help us to understand the sources, types, reasons and the results of discrimination, and may provide solutions about this problem.

Information About International Students And Expectations

The first part of this study gives information about international students, then it tries to explain the question of “Why international students are important for countries?” There are common definitions of international students. For example, OECD (2017, p. 70) defines international students as “students who left their country of origin and moved to another country for the purpose of study”. UNESCO (2015) defines international students as students who are in a foreign country for educational purposes and enrolled for a tertiary degree (or higher). The difference of international students (refers to non-residents) from foreign students (refers to non-citizens) and “credit-mobile students” (e.g. Erasmus students) is emphasized in the definitions of international students (Migration Data Portal, 2018). Most of the international students are departed from China, India and Central Asian countries, and the main destination countries are United States, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany and Russia. Recently, the number of international students is increasing in Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and New Zealand (Migration Data Portal, 2018).

Expectations from international students can be summarized under the three topics in relation to their contribution to higher education institutions: i. internationalization and diplomacy, ii. financial source and new market, iii. diversity and interaction in education.