Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

Diploma mill tourism is one of those phenomenons I really want to see all the externalities accounted for. My only significant issue is disrupting local housing-prices but student VISAs is one vehicle among many. Otherwise I don't really see the difference of gambling on a Chinese fuerdai vs trust fund legacy vs athletic scholarship. They're just different avenues of to building non-academic institutional prestige - the kind that's... important. Tuition aside, a bunch of rich kids that spends big into the economy is also a perk. They're perennial tourists that also occasionally shell out for an exotic car or three. I've known a few of these types, and they're kind of a mix bag. Some are just here to coast. Some are middling. Some are very intelligent, the kind of assets western educational institutions are designed to brain drain.

The latter point gets overlooked, enticing/stealing and retaining talent is a huge western soft power advantage. After separating the wheat from chaff higher up the academic chain, there's a disproportionate of foreign students in PhD and labs [1]. Without going into specific criticism of western secondary school education, the broad point is most countries just don't produce enough talent to fill demand. Also credentialism and educational inflation means many masters programs bend over backwards not to fail anyone. At least among my cohort who spans many types of masters and professional degrees, you get proportionally more unqualified locals getting pushed out of the program with just passing grades as foreign students who bought their way through. There seems to be pervasive pressure to hold graduation metric up because most people recognize, outside of some fields, what you learn is rarely applicable to what you do. And even fields where theres overlap, you have too much unqualified people getting the pass. Regardless, my point is, if we need to acquire talent, hedging against rich international students isn't the worst bet. The odds are overwhelmingly in the house favour. They pay you. Some of them are slackers, but many also received the best education from their home countries but can't make it to the top 1% cut off to enter extremely competitive and prestigious local institutions. Foreign students wanting to pour guaranteed money and potential talent into our society is something to be optimized for.

[1] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-599-x/2016011/c-g/c-g...

Yes, this has long been true for postgraduate students, who are very valued members of most STEM departments. The worry relates to undergraduate students.

You sound like a bitter person.

This is a problem in the UK too.

The independent school (aka private school) sector has seen fees double or triple over the last 10-20 years. This is largely driven by rich foreign students, primarily Chinese, sending their kids to these schools.

I don't particularly regret these bastions of class division destroying their reputation for money, but there are a lot of knock on effects. Independent schools used to be one of the few paths for middle class mobility - scrounge enough to send your kids there, and they are basically guaranteed entry into the elite of British society. But these days the tuition is prohibitively expensive and prices out almost everyone. This just exacerbates the class divide even more in the UK.

The main issue though is that independent schools in the UK have non-profit status - so pay NO tax on the fees they charge. With the rising fees locking out most people from access to them, there is very little societal benefit to these schools. But as a taxpayer, I have to subsidize education for the very rich or rich foreign nationals. It's ridiculous.

You’d be amazed how fast people’s ideology changes when reality punches them in in the face repeatedly. Small costs borne by others people you don’t care about don’t matter. Large costs borne by you? People will adjust their actions very quickly and then explain how their ideology has always supported what they’re currently doing.