AFRICA
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Post-study work opportunities drive student mobility

The long-time attraction of international students from Sub-Saharan Africa to quality universities in European Union member states and their counterparts in the United States and Canada includes an appetite for getting jobs in host countries, according to ICEF Monitor, a market intelligence firm for international student recruitment.

ICEF Monitor says many international students from Sub-Saharan Africa are now linking their studies with labour market skills gaps in hosting destinations, such as Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.

Although the virtual learning environment imposed by COVID-19 was expected to encourage virtual academic mobility without moving out of the country of origin, most international students in Sub-Saharan Africa prefer to learn on the campuses abroad.

Highlighting the Nigerian experience in a report, The Big Picture on Rising Nigerian Student Demand, Segi Adewusi, a researcher at IDP Connect, a London-based student marketing and recruitment firm, noted that, beyond getting a degree from the UK, the new Nigerian international student, for instance, is highly interested in post-study work opportunities overseas.

“Like crude oil, Afrobeats and natural gas, university students will need to be added to the list of Nigeria’s biggest exports in the foreseeable future,” said Adewusi.

But it is not just Nigeria’s mobile students that want to get pathways for work in the host countries.

Job opportunities matter

According to Campus France, an institution in charge of attracting international students and researchers to France, 40% of African students studying for a degree or diploma in France contemplate looking for work there, and 17% for an internship.

“Only 17% of African students in France are firmly opposed to the idea of looking for work after completion of their studies,” stated Campus France in a briefing.

Although a large majority of African students studying overseas do not necessarily want to pursue a career abroad, Campus France stated that about 60% were open to an international option if they were offered a good opportunity.

Even in circumstances whereby some students are interested in going back home after completing their studies, the prevailing idea is that many of them would like to get work opportunities during their studies.

Adewusi noted that, whereas African students want quality education, they are also interested in a welcoming environment and affordability, but above all post-study work prospects.

Towards this goal, international students from Sub-Saharan Africa appear to have their sights on admission to degree programmes with strong post-graduation career outcomes.

Top destinations for African students include countries such as Canada, the UK and the US and Australia, where visas and work rights are extended to international students working in certain occupations.

What is emerging is that the graduate employability challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly pushing international students from the sub-region to enrol in academic fields that they would not have wanted if the economic and political climates in their countries of origin were different.

Outbound students

Paul Schulmann, the director of research at World Education Services (WES), says that, in addition to the strong Nigerian contingent, Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Angola, Sudan and Zimbabwe are other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with large numbers of outbound students.

WES is an organisation that provides academic credential evaluations for international students and immigrants planning to study or work in the United States and Canada.

Although, two years ago, Campus France, in a report, estimated that there were about 404,000 international students from Sub-Saharan Africa, this number might have dropped marginally because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

By then, Beatrice Khaiat, the director-general of Campus France, had predicted an increase of outbound students from Sub-Saharan Africa in the future, as the region had the fastest growing student population globally.

But, even as international students from Sub-Saharan Africa continue to navigate their choices of study based on financial affordability, availability of scholarships and post-study work rights, there are indicators that their hopes might be shattered by events beyond their expectations.

According to Professor Hans de Wit, a senior fellow at the UNESCO-based International Association of Universities and Philip Altbach, a research professor at the Centre for International Higher Education at Boston College in the United States, the rise of nationalist and populist movements, strict student visa rules and attacks on academic freedom are likely to have negative implications on global internationalisation of higher education in future.

In their study, ‘Internationalization in higher education: Global trends and recommendations for its future’, the two scholars argued that, whereas it is too early to tell what the exact and direct consequences of these developments will be, most likely they will change or accelerate patterns of mobility, autonomy, academic freedom and other key dimensions of global tertiary education.

War in Ukraine

Besides, prolonged war between Russia and Ukraine is likely to impact negatively on mobility of African students, especially those that might be looking for financial support from the US and governments in Western Europe that are committing huge resources in support of Ukraine.

Commenting on the issue, William Reinsch, the holder of the Scholl Chair in International Business at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in the US, told University World News recently that, whereas Ukraine’s allies in the West might not be vindictive towards African countries development efforts, they do not have infinite resources.

“It is a logical assumption that significant increases in support for Ukraine could ultimately lead to less support for others’, and I can see that circumstances might conspire to push Africa aside as we concentrate on the more immediate crisis,” Reinsch told University World News.

But, even with harsh economic, political and social realities and natural calamities, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, stifling mobility of students from Sub-Saharan Africa, unmet demand for university education and high graduate unemployment at home will act as catalysts for young people to seek higher education placement and economic opportunities elsewhere.