Page 106 - Movers, Shapers, and Everything in Between: Influencers of the International Student Experience

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Chapter 5
Many interviewees stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the potential of IBCs to offer pathways to, and through, the university. In particular, interviewees noted plans for IBCs to play a larger role in enrollment, recruitment, and mobility initiatives, including 2+1 programs, foundation and pathway programs, and programs with built-in mobility schemes. One IBC head commented that their campus is “at the center of envisioned mobility schemes,” noting that “Since COVID-19, we’ve started to promote that students who are worried about travelling to the UK can spend a year or two on our campus before transferring. We’re giving them more options for their education.” All Malaysian students who were interviewed cited the lower fees and lower cost of living as reasons why they chose to study at an IBC in their home country—a trend that may grow in the wake of price sensitive prospective students and parents.
IBCs appear to have helped minimize the impact of halted/reduced student mobility for the institution. Several academic staff and leaders, when asked, reported that they had absorbed some of the students who were initially planning to study at the home campus, and that this may be an increasingly popular pathway in the future. The head of an IBC hypothesized that some students choose to enroll there rather than at the home campus, with the rationale that if they would have to study online regardless, they would prefer to do so at the IBC, where tuition is cheaper.
For the IBCs in this study, the COVID-19 pandemic has aided the development of a university vision of campuses as equal parts of a global university. All interviews with leaders revealed examples of the IBC playing a part in the university’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These interactions advanced the view of IBCs as strategic footprints that can make valuable contributions to the university. One IBC leader postulated that, perhaps due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the university was becoming more focused on “What is happening in this part of the world, what’s changing, and how can we be a part of that. I’m not sure we’ve always been so visionary. In the past the thinking was: ‘a trend is happening; how can we be a part of that?’”