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Most international students carry an ethos of economic self-reliance that shapes their aspirations in ways their Western hosts rarely understand, according to a veteran educational researcher.

Rob Lawrence said the ¡°great untold story¡± of international education was that the overwhelming majority had self-employed parents who ran family businesses ranging from market stalls to accountancy practices, doctors¡¯ surgeries and thriving corporations.

Their financial backing of their offspring¡¯s education was often a conscious strategy to reinforce family wealth by infusing the next generation with bankable skills and contacts. Parents with the resources to support the foreign studies of multiple children often sent them to multiple countries, in a deliberate ploy to maximise business networks.

Graduating students were expected to use their expertise and connections to enhance their families¡¯ prosperity, even if not as direct employees of the family business.

In his latest field research, Lawrence interviewed about a dozen parents of prospective international students in each of 14 major cities in China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Ninety-one per cent of working parents were independent businesspeople or ¡°self-reliant¡± professionals, with just 9 per cent on somebody else¡¯s payroll.

Lawrence said research tours he had conducted over the previous 35 years had invariably produced similar results, with?roughly?nine in 10 international students supported by self-employed parents or business networks spread over extended families.

¡°It¡¯s the great untold story in the sector,¡± he said. ¡°Universities don¡¯t realise where their international education earnings come from. They know the money comes in, but they don¡¯t know how it¡¯s made. I¡¯ve never known any institution to ask: ¡®What do your parents do for a living?¡¯.¡±

The question needs to be asked, Lawrence said. ¡°It matters because they have a duty of care to look after their customers, and they need to know their customers¡¯ situation. If the business goes broke, then these students are very, very stranded ¨C and their families are the ones who are most exposed if circumstances change.

¡°We saw it with Covid. When there were lockdowns, many businesses were unable to trade. Kids were reliant on mum and dad¡¯s business surviving, and it had survived for 40 or 50 years, but suddenly mum and dad could hardly survive themselves. That put extraordinary pressure on the kids.¡±

Similar scenarios had played out during the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s, the global financial crisis a decade later and, most recently, the Australian government¡¯s efforts to cut overseas student numbers. ¡°Administrators should care because, in my view, there is still insufficient due diligence and risk management undertaken for a volatile sector which can be hit out of the blue,¡± Lawrence said.

¡°Universities don¡¯t necessarily realise the dynamics that impact families with their own business who are throwing everything from that business into their children¡¯s education.¡±

For example, people in some cultural groups did not allow their compatriots to ¡°go bankrupt¡± but expected something in return for intervening. ¡°Being indebted can create problems for students and their families, which can lead to stresses reflected in performance.

¡°I don¡¯t think a lot of administrators understand the depth of the family behaviours and characteristics ¨C the huge pressures they¡¯re under when their families are exposed.¡±

Family prosperity also influences people¡¯s outlooks as international students, Lawrence said. Children from families with established businesses often treat study abroad as a ¡°rite of passage¡± already experienced by previous generations.

Children of parents with retail outlets, on the other hand, are often the first in their families to study internationally. They rely on agents¡¯ advice, depend on overseas earnings to help offset costs, tend to live in shared accommodation, and are ¡°much more likely to travel long distances to their place of study¡±.

But one thing is constant, irrespective of family wealth. Asked what they expect from international education, 90 per cent of interviewees respond with ¡°the equivalent word for value¡±.

¡°By that, they mean value for money ¨C return on the investment that we¡¯re making as a family. Over the thousands of surveys and tens of thousands of interviews I¡¯ve done, that has never changed.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com