As a consequence of the increased global competition for the best brains, services for international students have come to play an important role in the quality assessment – and thus competitiveness - of institutions. However, Continental European institutions seem to be, in general terms, lagging behind in the development of international student support, and there is a weak realisation of the importance of service provision on the attractiveness of the institution.

This is why ACA decided to embark on a project on services for international students in European higher education – a follow-up and extension of a study carried out in 2006. This project resulted in a comprehensive report on the support needs of non-European degree students, the impact of services on student decision-making, and the strategic approaches and organisation of support at the institutional level, and includes a series of examples of good institutional practice in this area. The project also proposed guidelines of good practice in international student support at the European level. 

The project received funding from the Action 4 of the European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus programme.

Event

As part of the project, the preliminary results of the this study were presented at the second European Policy Seminar of 2010:

Taking care of the ‘brains’ - Principles and practice in international student support

Publication

The results of this study were published in the ACA Papers on International Cooperation in Education.

 International Student Support in European Higher Education. Needs, Solutions, and Challenges

ACA also produced a leaflet with good practice guidelines for institutions:

Support services for international students: towards a European code of good practice (4.9 MB)