The broadening of international education in the twenty-first century

The share of international students studying in traditionally major hosts fell from 63% in 1999 to 40% by 2019, while the shares of other countries grew. What are the primary factors behind the broadening of international education? I extend the small literature on the flow of international students into non-OECD countries by better measuring relative university system quality. This is found to be a driver of international enrollments for non-OECD and non-English-speaking OECD host countries. The results suggest that economic growth and rising university quality are behind the broadening of international education to a wider variety of host countries.