Impact and Adjustment

Higher Education 21: 305-323, 1991.
9 1991 by Philip G. Altbach and the OECD, Paris.

Impact and adjustment: foreign students in comparative perspective*
P HILIP G. ALTBACH
Comparative Education Center, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, N.Y. 14260, U.S.A.

Abstract. F oreign study is a multifaceted phenomenon - its impact is felt on academic institutions in b oth the 'host ' and 'sending ' countries, on the economies of nations, and of course on the individuals i nvolved. With more than one million students studying abroad, foreign study has assumed c onsiderable importance in higher education planning. This article considers the many aspects of f oreign study and discusses the interrelationships of these elements. The policies of the 'host ' nations, f or example, have an impact on higher education planning in the sending countries. The non-return of f oreign students, traditionally referred to as the 'brain drain ', is considerably more complex than was o nce thought since Third World graduates settled in the industrialized nations often retain contacts w ith their home countries and increasingly return after a period abroad. This article also considers the v arious 'push ' and 'pull ' factors which determine the constantly changing flow of foreign students.

H igher education is increasingly international - and foreign students are among the most important and visible elements of this internationalism. There are well over one million students studying outside the borders of their countries- about a million o f these are in OECD nations. The large majority of the world 's foreign students are f rom the developing countries of the Third World but flow patterns are complex and subject to change (Zikopoulos 1989). Other elements of the internationalization of higher education are also of considerable importance - the domination of the w orld 's research enterprise by a small number of major industrialized nations, the

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