New academic class 2021: what outlooks for international mobility?

AEF Info, a media specialised in higher education, organised a garden party for the start of academic year at the Cité internationale Universitaire de Paris (CIUP) on 31 August 2021, with French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation Frédérique Vidal. Campus France was invited to speak during a conference about the consequences of the current crisis on international academic mobility.

Start of year event to rethink international mobility

During this garden party, Patrice Goujet, task officer with the General Director of Campus France was invited to participate in a conference on the theme “Covid crisis, climate crisis, political crisis: how to rethink the international for the next decade?” with Matthieu Peyraud, Director of culture, from the research learning and network department at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Pierre Tapie, President founder of the Paxter firm, and Luc Abbadie, director of the Paris Institute of Ecology and Environmental Science at the Sorbonne University.

left to right: Matthieu Peyraud (MEAE), Patrice Goujet (Campus France), Pierre Tapie (Paxter) and Luc Abbadie (Sorbonne U)

© Campus France

First trends of student mobility in France

Patrice Goujet said that the first trends identified for international students’ mobility towards France allow optimism for the year 2021-2022. The first figures show a pickup of the number of international students welcomed in France for the academic year 2021 at a level equivalent to before the crisis two years ago (-1% currently), with a growing part of students coming from Africa and the Middle East (70%).

So, the strategy of France to open its borders to foreign students, even during the peak of the crisis, mitigated the impact of the crisis on long-term mobilities.  In a still highly competitive context, the start of academic year 2021 finally led to confirm that major attractiveness countries, which adapted to the crisis, are currently refining their strategy, which could lead to changes in international rankings.

“Campus France Briefs”: outlooks for student mobility in the academic year 2021

To support the reflexion about the impact of the health crisis on international mobility for the years to come, Campus France published “Outlooks for the academic year 2021 in major host countries of international students”, the 8th edition of the “Les Brèves” collection (“Briefs”).

The new study focuses in the following themes using key figures:

• The place of France in attractiveness rankings
• The determined approach of France at the start of the academic year 2021
• Points of international comparisons with major host countries of international students

Download Brève #8 (in French)

The new publication provides a complete overview of current and next trends of international students’ mobility in France and in the main host countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Canada, China, etc.