International graduate ‘stayers’ generate US$110bn a year

The 41% of international students who remain in the country of study after graduating – dubbed the ‘Stayers’ – will generate an eye-watering US$1.7 trillion in economic output over their lifetime, but that impact is unevenly distributed with the majority of it, US$1 trillion of generated in the US, UK, Canada and Australia alone, according to a new Studyportals report.

Their economic contribution in the first year after graduation is US$110 billion, according to the report Talent Beyond Borders: the global impact of international graduates.

The 2025 cohort is expected to generate a similar figure over their careers, with similar amounts to be expected from graduating cohorts each year going forward, explained Edwin Van Rest, founder and president of Studyportals, which, along with Cambridge IELTS undertook the study.

This increased economic activity, the report shows, is heavily skewed toward countries offering English-taught programmes, which in 2023 accounted for 55% of international students, yet makes up 75% of the total economic contribution of all international students. 59% of the total economic activity was captured by the big four English destinations: the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.

But the detailed breakdown of data by professions also suggests that viewing the economic generating power of international graduates purely as an export industry overlooks the important role that many international graduates play in supporting communities through jobs in home care, public health, childcare and community services.

“International students bring significant value to countries all over the world. Talent Beyond Borders puts this firmly in the spotlight. Our new report places the economic contribution international students make to host economies at US$1.7 trillion over a lifetime, which is a remarkable figure,” said Francesca Woodward, global managing director, English, at Cambridge University Press & Assessment (CUP&A).

“But the financial impact is only part of the story when you consider the social and cultural impact students have on the countries where they study, work and live. “International students enrich communities, plug vital skills gaps, boost diversity and help build stronger connections between people and countries.

“The report also paints a fascinating picture of the pathways students take after graduation and highlights the positive impact they continue to have on communities around the world,”

According to Van Rest: “Many of the world’s most successful companies, universities, research labs and governments are led by former international students. This is the first time their labour contribution is quantified.

“International students are worth so much more as a talent source than they are in tuition fees and local spend. Furthermore, there’s a lot more they bring in social impact and soft power that no spreadsheet can capture. We hope this supports policymakers and the world to not only think about international education as an export, but to more comprehensively consider their contributions.”

‘Stayers’, ‘Homecomers’ and ‘Nomads’

Without borders divides graduates into three new categories: ‘Stayers’, ‘Homecomers’ (those who return to their home countries) and ‘Nomads’ (those who go to a third country to work after graduation). Forty-one per cent of international student graduates are Stayers.

Among students from India 63% are Stayers the highest of any country, with Iranian, Nepalese and Bangladeshi students next with Stayers making up, 60%, 56% and 54% respectively of their cohorts, although it must be noted that the total number of Indian students is many times larger than these other three groupings.

Some 35% of students who are ‘Homecomers’, with Kenyans, South Africans and Sri Lankans having the the largest percentage of Homecomers in their cohorts, at 50%, 49% and 48%, respectively.

Twenty-four per cent of international graduates are considered ‘Nomads’, with the three largest cohort percentages found among French (34%), Italian (34%) and Spanish (32%) students. At 30%, British students have the fifth largest group share of nomads in their cohort.

Top study destinations of the ‘Stayers’ shows the dominance of the English-taught programmes and the three of the Big Four (minus the UK). In the 2024 cohort, Canada was 12 percentage points higher, 66%, than the next most popular English-taught study destination, Australia, which was at 53%. Ireland was at 45%, with the US at 44%. (Germany was in the middle at 49%.)

The Canadian figure, however, should not be seen as predicative; the 2024 cohort was the last cohort before the government of Canada drastically cut the number of international student visas.

Among ‘Homecomers’, South Africa was the most popular destination to study (51%). It was followed by India at 47%, Spain 43%, China, 40% and Czechia at 40%.

Among ‘Nomads’, the most popular destinations were bunched between 35% and 33%: Portugal, Italy, Czechia, Switzerland and Spain.

According to Without borders, the fact that Nomads are “concentrated within Europe, reflect patterns of regional mobility and the ease of movement across closely connected labour markets. These graduates may be particularly well positioned to transfer skills, knowledge and professional networks across borders, serving as conduits for the circulation of international talent rather than for talent retention or return.”

Variable career paths

While there are some similarities, both the study and the career paths of each group vary.

Approximately 20% of each group studied business and management. Significantly more ‘Stayers’ studied computer science, and engineering and technology, 12 percentage points greater than did Homecomers or ‘Nomads’, 8% of whom studied computers and 7% and 5%, respectively, studied engineering and technology.

The percentage studying medicine and health was approximately 5% for each group, with environmental studies being studied by 3% of each group. Between 2% and 3% of each group studied the humanities.

Significantly more ‘Homecomers’ (12%) and ‘Nomads’ (11%) studied social sciences than did ‘Stayers’, 8%.

Of the 108,747 members of the cohort who graduated with a degree in business and management, 46% were ‘Stayers’, 35% were ‘Homecomers’ and 19% were ‘Nomads’. Of the 46,331 graduates of computer science and IT programs, the percentages are 56%, 27% and 17%, respectively.

Of the 13,054 members of the cohort who studied law, 36% were ‘Stayers’, 40% ‘Homecomers’ and 23% ‘Nomads’. Interestingly, amongst the 11,939 humanities graduates, ‘Homecomers’ were the largest group at 43%, with ‘Stayers’ making up 32% and ‘Nomads’ 25%.

Of the 4,313 who graduated with degrees in agriculture and forestry, a surprising number, 50% were ‘Stayers’, while 30% were ‘Homecomers’ and 20% ‘Nomads’.

Career paths largely followed disciplines studied. Twenty-six per cent of Stayers have their first job in the education field, which includes university teaching, research and post-doctoral work in STEM.

Eight per cent of ‘Stayers’ took jobs in Software and IT Services and 6%, 9% and 7% had their first jobs in non-profit, manufacturing and corporate services.

When looking at these figures, Van Rest cautioned that “you can have a STEM job in a non-profit sector. People will think that the manufacturing figure points to people standing on conveyor belt lines. They are not,” he said.

To stress the importance of ‘Stayers’ to the American economy van Rest the posed question: “What do Google, Microsoft, Oracle and Adobe have in common?” They are all run by immigrants to the US. Fully 41% of stayers build careers where they studied.

However, as Without borders shows, this sub-cohort is not quite as fixed as business rhetoric has it.

“Within this persona, there is still meaningful variation: some graduates settle down permanently and integrate into the local economy and community, while others stay temporarily – often until their post-study work visas expire – before moving or returning home. This makes ‘staying’ less a single outcome than a spectrum of durations, from a few working years to a lifetime.”

The severe limits that both the US and Canada have put on post-study visas suggests that starting with the 2026 cohort, these figures are likely to be very different.

But also some sending countries such as India view staying on in destination countries as a positive contribution to brain circulation, if it means they later return to the home country with valuable expertise and experience, potentially generating more economic impact than a ‘Homecomer’ as a result.

“The debate about brain drain/brain gain/brain circulation has been going on already for decades. All three views have some merit, but it depends on context,” says Hans de Wit, Professsor Emeritus at Boston College’s Center for International Higher Education in the US.

“For low-income countries, students going abroad for degrees is clearly more a brain drain, as the chances that they come back are low and also the options to circulate, but at the same time these countries and their families benefit from the money the graduates send back.

“For students from middle-income countries, the chances to return, stay or circulate are better, and they will decide on the opportunities available. For students of high-income countries, that is even more the case, with a higher likelihood of circulation.

“What we currently see, is that students from low- and middle-income countries are facing challenges to stay in high-income countries and so go back or circulate, in other words they are pushed out, but the prospects for students from low-income countries who return are less promising than for those in countries like China,” De Wit wrote in an email to University World News.

Beyond traditional matrices

An equally innovative part of Without Borders is its effort to account for the impact of graduated international students outside the traditional matrices of gross employment, field of employment and economic impact.

Since a plethora of such traditional ‘hard data’ does not exist, the effort, Dr Carla Pastorino of CU&A, explained, requires a mix of qualitative and what quantitative data there is. The qualitative data is supplied by three personal stories, a ‘Stayer’ graduate from Brazil, a Homecoming graduate from South Africa and a Nomad graduate born in Gambia, who studied in Qatar and ended up in Germany.

“To convince the people who need those quantitative measures, we're selecting, for example, professions or industries that are typically associated with community impact, not-for-profit. We also have healthcare, community care, child care, nursing homes, that kind of employment post-graduation,” said Pastorino.

Looking at graduates through this lens reveals a surprising fact. While a majority of ‘Stayers’ did not choose to study such social occupations, among ‘Stayers’ who did choose them, the retention rate in these fields is extremely high: 94% for home care services, 90% for veterinary services, 78% for public health and public safety, 72% for museums and cultural institutions and 71% for childcare and community services.

“This points to a broader contribution than simply supplying talent to STEM-intensive occupations. International graduates who remain in their study destination appear to be supporting a wide range of community, service and care-orientated industries,” stated the report.

More ‘Homecomers’ work in media production and communications than do ‘Stayers’ (52% vs. 30%). Of the total number of the cohort who work in the non-profit field, 33% are ‘Homecomers’: 31% work as designers, artists, writers and publicists. Twenty seven per cent of ‘Homecoming’ graduates work in museums and historical sites and 25% at zoos.

Pastorino, told University World News that these data points demonstrate “how we’re starting to construct our argument from a quantitative perspective about the impact that goes beyond economics.

“It’s not to say that these professions don't have an economic impact. They obviously do. They are work. They are professions, but they also have this kind of societal community building, community support impact,” she said.