current issues in international education

The global education crisis – even more severe than previously estimated

Ellinore carroll, joão pedro azevedo, jessica bergmann, matt brossard, gwang- chol chang, borhene chakroun, marie-helene cloutier, suguru mizunoya, nicolas reuge, halsey rogers.

In our recent   The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery report (produced jointly by UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank), we sounded the alarm: this generation of students now risks losing $17 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value, or about 14 percent of today’s global GDP, because of COVID-19-related school closures and economic shocks. This new projection far exceeds the $10 trillion estimate released in 2020 and reveals that the impact of the pandemic is more severe than previously thought . 

The pandemic and school closures not only jeopardized children’s health and safety with domestic violence and child labor increasing, but also impacted student learning substantially. The report indicates that in low- and middle-income countries, the share of children living in  Learning Poverty  – already above 50 percent before the pandemic – could reach 70 percent largely as a result of the long school closures and the relative ineffectiveness of remote learning.

Unless action is taken, learning losses may continue to accumulate once children are back in school, endangering future learning.

Figure 1. Countries must accelerate learning recovery

Severe learning losses and worsening inequalities in education

Results from global simulations of the effect of school closures on learning are now being corroborated by country estimates of actual learning losses. Evidence from Brazil , rural Pakistan , rural India , South Africa , and Mexico , among others, shows substantial losses in math and reading. In some low- and middle-income countries, on average, learning losses are roughly proportional to the length of the closures—meaning that each month of school closures led to a full month of learning losses (Figure 1, selected LMICs and HICs presents an average effect of 100% and 43%, respectively), despite the best efforts of decision makers, educators, and families to maintain continuity of learning.

However, the extent of learning loss varies substantially across countries and within countries by subject, students’ socioeconomic status, gender, and age or grade level (Figure 1 illustrates this point, note the large standard deviation, a measure which shows data are spread out far from the mean). For example, results from two states in Mexico show significant learning losses in reading and in math for students aged 10-15. The estimated learning losses were greater in math than reading, and they disproportionately affected younger learners, students from low-income backgrounds, and girls.

Figure 2. The average learning loss standardized by the length of the school closure was close to 100% in Low- and Middle-Income countries, and 43% in High-Income countries, with a standard deviation of 74% and 30%, respectively.

While most countries have yet to measure learning losses, data from several countries, combined with more extensive evidence on unequal access to remote learning and at-home support, shows the crisis has exacerbated inequalities in education globally.

• Children from low-income households, children with disabilities, and girls were less likely to access remote learning due to limited availability of electricity, connectivity, devices, accessible technologies as well as discrimination and social and gender norms.
• Younger students had less access to age-appropriate remote learning and were more affected by learning loss than older students. Pre-school-age children, who are at a pivotal stage for learning and development, faced a double disadvantage as they were often left out of remote learning and school reopening plans.
• Learning losses were greater for students of lower socioeconomic status in various countries, including Ghana , Mexico , and Pakistan .
• While the gendered impact of school closures on learning is still emerging, initial evidence points to larger learning losses among girls, including in South Africa and Mexico .

As a result, these children risk missing out on much of the boost that schools and learning can provide to their well-being and life chances. The learning recovery response must therefore target support to those that need it most, to prevent growing inequalities in education.

Beyond learning, growing evidence shows the negative effects school closures have had on students’ mental health and well-being, health and nutrition, and protection, reinforcing the vital role schools play in providing comprehensive support and services to students.

Critical and Urgent Need to Focus on Learning Recovery

How should decision makers and the international community respond to the growing global education crisis?

Reopening schools and keeping them open must be the top priority, globally. While nearly every country in the world offered remote learning opportunities for students, the quality and reach of such initiatives varied, and in most cases, they offered a poor substitute for in-person instruction. Stemming and reversing learning losses, especially for the most vulnerable students, requires in-person schooling. Decision makers need to reassure parents and caregivers that with adequate safety measures, such as social distancing, masking, and improved ventilation, global evidence shows that children can resume in-person schooling safely.

But just reopening schools with a business-as-usual approach won’t reverse learning losses. Countries need to create Learning Recovery Programs . Three lines of action will be crucial:

• Consolidating the curriculum – to help teachers prioritize essential material that students have missed while out of school, even if the content is usually covered in earlier grades, to ensure the curriculum is aligned to students’ learning levels. As an example, Tanzania consolidated its curriculum for grade 1 and 2 in 2015, reducing the number of subjects taught and increasing time on ensuring the acquisition of foundational numeracy and literacy.
• Extending instructional time – by extending the school day, modifying the academic calendar to make the school year longer, or by offering summer school for all students or those in need. In Mexico , the Ministry of Public Education announced planned extensions to the academic calendar to help recovery. In Madagascar , the government scaled up an existing two-month summer “catch-up” program for students who reintegrate into school after having left the system.
• Improving the efficiency of learning – by supporting teachers to apply structured pedagogy and targeted instruction. A structured pedagogy intervention in Kenya using teachers guides with lesson plans has proven to be highly effective. Targeted instruction, or aligning instruction to students’ learning level, has been successfully implemented at scale in Cote D’Ivoire .

Finally, the report emphasizes the need for adequate funding. As of June 2021, the education and training sector had been allocated less than 3 percent of global stimulus packages. Much more funding will be needed for immediate learning recovery if countries are to avert the long-term damage to productivity and inclusion that they now face.

Learning Recovery as a Springboard to an Accelerated Learning Trajectory

Accelerating learning recovery has benefits that go well beyond short-term gains:  it can give children the necessary foundations for a lifetime of learning, and it can help countries increase the efficiency, equity, and resilience of schooling. This can be achieved if countries build on investments made and lessons learned during the crisis—most notably, with a focus on six areas:

• Assessing student learning so instruction can be targeted to students’ learning levels and specific needs.
• Investing in digital learning opportunities for all students, ensuring that technology is fit for purpose and focused on enhancing human interactions.
• Reinforcing support that leverages the role of parents, families, and communities in children’s learning.
• Ensuring that teachers are supported and have access to practical, high-quality professional development opportunities, teaching guides and learning materials. 
• Increasing the share of education in the national budget allocation of stimulus packages and tying it to investments mentioned above that can accelerate learning.
• Investing in evidence building - in particular, implementation research, to understand what works and how to scale what works to the system level.

It is time to shift from crisis response to learning recovery. We must make sure that investments and actions for learning recovery lay the foundations for more efficient, equitable, and resilient education systems—systems that truly deliver learning and well-being for all children and youth. Only then can we ensure learning continuity in the face of future disruption.

The report was produced as part of the  Mission: Recovering Education 2021 , through which the  World Bank ,  UNESCO , and  UNICEF  are focused on three priorities: bringing all children back to schools, recovering learning losses, and preparing and supporting teachers.

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Five international education trends that will extend into 2024

Here we are at the end of another fascinating year in international education, and as always, we like to look back over the past months and reflect on the trends and events that most affected educators, agents, students, and other stakeholders. We have no doubt that these trends will carry over into 2024 and influence the way our readers think about business plans, institutional branding, international student support, and recruitment strategies.

One: AI moves into the mainstream

Once a futuristic possibility that we mostly read about in books and magazines, artificial intelligence (AI) became a real-life opportunity for a growing number of educators and agents in 2023. Two ways in which AI tools can make recruitment faster, easier, and better are:

• Reducing response times for queries and admissions applications

If an institution is relying on traditional ways of identifying, processing, and following up with leads, the time interval from “student makes an enquiry” to “student gets a reply” can be 10–15 days. Not so with a technology-led process that uses AI tools. Student enquiries are passed automatically from the institutional website (or via a mobile app used by recruitment staff at education fairs or other events) to a CRM system. The system provides an immediate response to the student, and then automatically triggers a series of scheduled follow-up messages over the following weeks. That all-important interval between enquiry and first response shrinks from 10+ days to 10–15 minutes.

2. Personalising communications for individual students

AI also provides a competitive edge in terms of personalisation. AI-boosted chat tools can reach a wider range of global students, and their families, in their first languages, for example. Research has shown that more than three-quarters of consumers prefer to be addressed in their own language, and that a significant portion “ will never buy ” from a website that isn’t in their language or offer translation. Removing language barriers also helps students to understand complex information related to their applications and is thus a very good way to reduce friction in the conversion process.

With benefits such as these, we expect AI adoption to expand quickly in the international industry – and most industries – in 2024. A March/April 2023 Forbes Advisor survey of 600 business owners found that 97% believe that ChatGPT will benefit their operations; many plan to use ChatGPT to create website content and 44% intend to generate content in multiple languages.

Read on for a deeper dive into the world of AI .

Two: Students expect faster responses

As educators became more dedicated to diversifying their student markets this year, competition became more intense in a greater number of countries. As it did, it became clear that many students – e.g., faced with two similar offers – would choose the one that offered them faster acceptance and visa application processing. Those same students, when conducting their own research on the web, also expected to find information and answers immediately from institutional websites.

Research echoes the stories we heard from the field from recruiters. In 2023, Keystone Education Group asked 23,800 students across 195+ countries how a university could improve its communications. “Speed of response” was a top three recommendation (24%), along with “availability of information” and “quality of response.” The research firm found that 62% of students expect a response from a university within 24 hours or less , an increase of 21% over 2022.

Students’ expectation for speedy responses is one of the reasons that incorporating AI tools is becoming more common across destinations and types of institutions.

Check out the latest research and fast facts on responsiveness here .

Three: Study abroad becomes less affordable

The rising cost of living and studying in major destinations became a struggle for many in 2023. The affordability crisis was widespread:

• In Australia, the cost of living in the September 2023 quarter was 9% higher than the same quarter in 2022.
• In Canada, 2023 marked the fastest rental cost increase in over 40 years .
• In the US, 67% of Americans polled in September 2023 said the cost of living is outpacing their salary/wages, up from 58% in 2022.
• In the UK, more than half of consumers polled this fall said their cost of living increased over the previous month.
• In New Zealand, 90% of those surveyed by The Guardian in September 2023 rated “reducing living costs” more highly than any other issue for the government to tackle and over half said they were “struggling” or “in serious difficulty” financially.
• And across the EU, rising food prices are straining households’ ability to pay the bills and squeezing out extra income that they might otherwise spend in the wider economy.

Affordability was already top-of-mind in international students’ decision-making in 2022, but in 2023 it became clear that only a top segment of the overall prospective student population – or those on generous scholarships – could afford to travel to and study in coveted metropolitan cities. The problem was still more intense for some nationalities, such as Nigerians, who travelled abroad with what they thought were adequate funds for study and living but who then experienced a massive crash in their currency.

Even if students had adequate budgets, finding suitable accommodation was also often a challenge this year. In Australia and Canada, governments became sufficiently alarmed about the cost-of-living and accommodation problems faced by newly arrived international students that they raised the savings threshold for incoming international students (now more than $20,000 in Australia and Canada) and are considering ways to compel institutions to take an active role in increasing on-campus housing or finding students off-campus accommodation.

In 2024, we should see relatively affordable destinations become more popular as a result of the high cost of living paired with more restrictive governmental policies in Australia, Canada, and the UK. Similarly, we expect more intra-regional mobility as students find ways to reduce the overall cost of study abroad, including not having to pay for expensive flights. Our 2023 coverage included spotlights on alternate, more affordable destinations (e.g., Egypt , UAE , and several Asian countries ). And finally, students' interest in studying at a branch campus is higher than last year according to recent IDP research, and "paying lower tuition fees compared to overseas study" emerged as the top motivation for branch campus study.

Read more about the accommodation crunch here .

Four: A sudden move away from an unrestricted growth mindset

At the end of summer 2023, the governments of Australia, Canada, and the UK announced various policies that took them clearly away from an open embrace of international students to a far more cautious stance . Going into 2024, we are seeing a much more explicit link between international education policies and responses to public unease about record-high migration.

The extension of this is that we expect to see institutions reimagine their international education strategies as they face pressure to manage enrolments down, or at least to slow growth as they bump up against capacity limits. Quality and student satisfaction will increase as priorities, not least because of new governmental scrutiny in these areas. In both Canada and the UK, for example, institutions that demonstrate a high level of support for international students – especially when it comes to providing housing – are to be rewarded in 2024 with preferential visa processing treatment by immigration authorities. Crucial in this new environment will be working with trusted agents with impressive qualifications, reputations, and track records and with other well-respected in-country partners.

Read more about new international education policies here , and check out ICEF's Code of Conduct for the Ethical Recruitment of International Students here .

Five: India is now driving global growth in student mobility

This was the year in which India displaced China in the minds of many educators when it came to the #1 target market – if it hadn’t already done so. Consider:

India has been key to the post-pandemic recovery of the international education sector, with 122,391 Indian students in Australia on a student visa in the January-September 2023 period ( +22% year-over-year ). Indians are the second largest international student group after Chinese (159,485). Where Indian student numbers grew by 22% between 2022 and 2023, Chinese increased only slightly by 2%.

Context: Australia signed a major trade deal with India in December 2022, the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), the terms of which will pave the way for even more student mobility between the two countries. At the same time, the Australian government and some universities are increasing their scrutiny of Indian applicants and of the Australian vocational sector (VET is a very popular option for Indian students). Rejection rates for Indian applications soared in 2023, and as reported in India’s The Print, some universities elected to stop processing applications coming from Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, UP, Gujarat and J&K. They cited “fraudulent documents and high dropout rates as reasons.”

There were 320,000 Indian students with active study permits at the end of December 2022, and these students made up 39.5% of Canada’s total foreign enrolment. The Indian student market for Canadian institutions has grown by 46% since 2019 , in contrast to the Chinese market, which contracted by 29% between 2019 and 2022.

Many Canadian institutions' heavy reliance on Indian students is worrisome going into 2023. Diplomatic tension characterised the Canada/India relationship for the latter half of this year after Prime Minister Trudeau publicly announced that there was “credible evidence” of an Indian-state-involved assassination on Canadian soil in June 2023. Canadian diplomats were expelled and IRCC’s ability to process Indian applications has been seriously weakened . Some experts believe as well that the Canadian education brand is losing its appeal among some Indian families. We should see an even stronger effort on the part of Canadian colleges and universities to diversify beyond China and India in the coming year.

Indian students represented 23% of all non-EU enrolments in UK universities in 2021/22 for a total of 126,535 (+50% y-o-y). They were outnumbered only by Chinese students (151,690). In contrast to trends in other leading destinations, however, Chinese enrolments in UK universities grew (+5.5%) between 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Growth in Indian student numbers will very likely slow for UK educators in 2024. The UK government's ban on student dependants comes into force in less than a month, and also in the works is a review of post-study work rights. Both will present challenges for UK educators in India in the next few months.

In 2022/23, India was the main driver of growth in international enrolments for US colleges and universities, sending 35% more students (268,923) than in the previous year. China remains the top market (289,526), but by the slimmest of margins, and was flat in terms of growth (-0.2%).

The US, and US institutions, are ramping up their recruitment in India. Research conducted by IIE in spring 2023 revealed that US institutions are prioritising India as a recruitment focus, which can only be helping to boost Indian numbers. India was the top focus for institutions recruiting for both undergraduate (57%) and graduate (77%) programmes. There is also a national strategy at play. The US government had a target of processing more than 1 million non-immigrant visas from India in 2023. In September, the US Mission to India reported that it had already surpassed that goal and “processing almost 20% more applications than in pre-pandemic 2019.”

And the overarching trend in 2023? A maturing industry

The pandemic spotlighted just how much international students contribute to the overall economies of leading destination. It did so by interrupting and disrupting international student mobility, which equated to billions and billions of dollars lost across multiple sectors.

The losses encouraged many institutions to take an almost-panicked approach to recruiting overseas when the pandemic subsided – exemplified in monumental growth in international student numbers in leading destinations. But the pace of growth we saw in 2022/2023 is unsustainable, and many campuses and communities do not have the capacity required to provide the experience that international students deserve. This has caught the attention of governments , which are now taking a much more active role in regulating their international education sectors.

Closer government scrutiny and new rules around recruiting will initially feel like a shock. But overall, we are also looking forward to a new year filled with reports of happy students and thriving campuses, innovative approaches to recruitment, and new models of international education that serve both institutions and students well.

For additional background, please see:

• “ Notable government policy shifts going into 2024 ”
• “ Survey reveals students’ views on AI in study, search, and admissions "
• “ How is Indian student mobility changing in 2023? ”
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The turning point: Why we must transform education now

Global warming. Accelerated digital revolution. Growing inequalities. Democratic backsliding. Loss of biodiversity. Devastating pandemics. And the list goes on. These are just some of the most pressing challenges that we are facing today in our interconnected world.

The diagnosis is clear: Our current global education system is failing to address these alarming challenges and provide quality learning for everyone throughout life. We know that education today is not fulfilling its promise to help us shape peaceful, just, and sustainable societies. These findings were detailed in UNESCO’s Futures of Education Report in November 2021 which called for a new social contract for education.

That is why it has never been more crucial to reimagine the way we learn, what we learn and how we learn. The turning point is now. It’s time to transform education. How do we make that happen?

Here’s what you need to know. 

Why do we need to transform education?

The current state of the world calls for a major transformation in education to repair past injustices and enhance our capacity to act together for a more sustainable and just future. We must ensure the right to lifelong learning by providing all learners - of all ages in all contexts - the knowledge and skills they need to realize their full potential and live with dignity. Education can no longer be limited to a single period of one’s lifetime. Everyone, starting with the most marginalized and disadvantaged in our societies, must be entitled to learning opportunities throughout life both for employment and personal agency. A new social contract for education must unite us around collective endeavours and provide the knowledge and innovation needed to shape a better world anchored in social, economic, and environmental justice.  

What are the key areas that need to be transformed?

• Inclusive, equitable, safe and healthy schools

Education is in crisis. High rates of poverty, exclusion and gender inequality continue to hold millions back from learning. Moreover, COVID-19 further exposed the inequities in education access and quality, and violence, armed conflict, disasters and reversal of women’s rights have increased insecurity. Inclusive, transformative education must ensure that all learners have unhindered access to and participation in education, that they are safe and healthy, free from violence and discrimination, and are supported with comprehensive care services within school settings. Transforming education requires a significant increase in investment in quality education, a strong foundation in comprehensive early childhood development and education, and must be underpinned by strong political commitment, sound planning, and a robust evidence base.

• Learning and skills for life, work and sustainable development

There is a crisis in foundational learning, of literacy and numeracy skills among young learners. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, learning poverty has increased by a third in low- and middle-income countries, with an estimated 70% of 10-year-olds unable to understand a simple written text. Children with disabilities are 42% less likely to have foundational reading and numeracy skills compared to their peers. More than 771 million people still lack basic literacy skills, two-thirds of whom are women. Transforming education means empowering learners with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to be resilient, adaptable and prepared for the uncertain future while contributing to human and planetary well-being and sustainable development. To do so, there must be emphasis on foundational learning for basic literacy and numeracy; education for sustainable development, which encompasses environmental and climate change education; and skills for employment and entrepreneurship.

• Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession

Teachers are essential for achieving learning outcomes, and for achieving SDG 4 and the transformation of education. But teachers and education personnel are confronted by four major challenges: Teacher shortages; lack of professional development opportunities; low status and working conditions; and lack of capacity to develop teacher leadership, autonomy and innovation. Accelerating progress toward SDG 4 and transforming education require that there is an adequate number of teachers to meet learners’ needs, and all education personnel are trained, motivated, and supported. This can only be possible when education is adequately funded, and policies recognize and support the teaching profession, to improve their status and working conditions.

• Digital learning and transformation

The COVID-19 crisis drove unprecedented innovations in remote learning through harnessing digital technologies. At the same time, the digital divide excluded many from learning, with nearly one-third of school-age children (463 million) without access to distance learning. These inequities in access meant some groups, such as young women and girls, were left out of learning opportunities. Digital transformation requires harnessing technology as part of larger systemic efforts to transform education, making it more inclusive, equitable, effective, relevant, and sustainable. Investments and action in digital learning should be guided by the three core principles: Center the most marginalized; Free, high-quality digital education content; and Pedagogical innovation and change.

• Financing of education

While global education spending has grown overall, it has been thwarted by high population growth, the surmounting costs of managing education during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the diversion of aid to other emergencies, leaving a massive global education financial gap amounting to US$ 148 billion annually. In this context, the first step toward transformation is to urge funders to redirect resources back to education to close the funding gap. Following that, countries must have significantly increased and sustainable financing for achieving SDG 4 and that these resources must be equitably and effectively allocated and monitored. Addressing the gaps in education financing requires policy actions in three key areas: Mobilizing more resources, especially domestic; increasing efficiency and equity of allocations and expenditures; and improving education financing data. Finally, determining which areas needs to be financed, and how, will be informed by recommendations from each of the other four action tracks .

What is the Transforming Education Summit?

UNESCO is hosting the Transforming Education Pre-Summit on 28-30 June 2022, a meeting of  over 140 Ministers of Education, as well as  policy and business leaders and youth activists, who are coming together to build a roadmap to transform education globally. This meeting is a precursor to the Transforming Education Summit to be held on 19 September 2022 at the UN General Assembly in New York. This high-level summit is convened by the UN Secretary General to radically change our approach to education systems. Focusing on 5 key areas of transformation, the meeting seeks to mobilize political ambition, action, solutions and solidarity to transform education: to take stock of efforts to recover pandemic-related learning losses; to reimagine education systems for the world of today and tomorrow; and to revitalize national and global efforts to achieve SDG-4.

• More on the Transforming Education Summit
• More on the Pre-Summit

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• Future of education
• SDG: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

This article is related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals .

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