Ethical Possibilities In International Student Recruitment

Abstract

This study explores how international education professionals at public universities in the United States understand ethical international student recruitment. Decreasing federal and state support for public universities has contributed to some U.S. institutions regarding international students as a source of additional revenue, as they often pay substantially higher tuition than domestic students. While practitioners serving and recruiting these students may understand the life-changing decision students and their families make to study in a country outside their own, economics has a mediating factor in recruitment motivations. A social cartography developed out of the Ethical Internationalism of Higher Education (EIHE) study is used to map ethical dilemmas international student recruiters face in their work, making evident the tension between the student’s best interests and institutional financial imperatives. Recruiters who work in a neoliberal-liberal tension zone are guided by a self-perceived ethic of care that was exemplified by personal commitments to information sharing and consultation with trusted colleagues, navigating a contentious higher education environment by developing a set of personal and professional ethics that guided their daily actions.