Pathways providers are cock-a-hoop about the UK this year but there’s a slightly embarrassed silence about continuing closures in the US. A quick spin through the websites tells us that INTO looks to be shuttering one of its early partners and Study Group has trimmed another from its stable. And there are plenty of discussions about where the axe might fall next (with one contender noted below).
INTO’s portal for students claims 13 US partners but according to the corporate website there are “12..in the US”. It’s not entirely clear which university was intended to be mysterious number 13, but a click on the number leads to just 11 partner logos shown. The missing partner is Marshall University in Huntington, WV.
The Marshall deal was signed in November 2012 with the first students entering the pathway in August 2013. It was the heady days of expansion in the US and the opening came the same year that Leeds Equity took a 25% stake in the INTO University Partnerships business for £66m ($105.8m). With Shorelight Education launched shortly afterwards there was a lot of private money betting that US expansion would guarantee international student growth for a long time to come.
But Marshall’s non-resident alien population and the strength of the INTO pathway have declined sharply in recent years. Institutional data showing early fall statistics shows a fall of 37.6% enrolled at INTO Marshall and 38.7% in the university overall (which implies that direct recruitment was falling faster).
Table One: Marshall University International Student Enrollments
With respect to Study Group, I reported on closure of three US Centers back in September but since that time yet another has disappeared from the list of logos on the website: Oglethorpe University. A visit to the University’s website confirms that the last intake was September 2019, and that the International Study Center won’t exist after May 2020. The partnership was announced in 2017 with President Lawrence Schall, stating, “As part of our globalization strategy, choosing the right pathway partner was important.”
Reasons for the closure are not easy to discern, as the Oglethorpe Fact book suggests significant improvement of international numbers year-on-year for 2019 entry. The number of countries for represented for first-timers had also increased slightly. Maybe the future did not look bright enough.
Table 2: Oglethorpe University International Enrollments
| Fall 2018 Enrollment | Fall 2019 Enrollment | |
| First time, full time international | 16 | 41 |
| Full time traditional undergraduate profile | 97 | 122 |
While walking through the pathway websites I also came across Cambridge Education Group suggesting that a pathway with Illinois Institute of Technology, first announced in early 2018, is still ‘coming soon’. When I clicked on the link for Illinois Institute of Technology Direct Entry I found an error page. Careless at best if this is an important relationship but perhaps indicative of more deep-rooted reconsideration. As always, I am happy to clarify this if I receive an authoritative correction and explanation.
It seems likely that the US will suffer even more retrenchment in international student enrollments over the coming year. The resurgence of the UK will almost certainly affect the US more than other locations, with the recently reported 93% increase in student visas from India just the early part of the surge to take advantage of enhanced post study work visas. Of course, the implications of coronavirus have yet to play out fully and that may mean that all bets are off.
*The Dwindling Party is a book by Edward Gorey where pop-up illustrations and verses divulge how, one by one, six members of the MacFizzet family, disappear during a visit to Hickyacket Hall, leaving behind only young Neville, who expects “it was all for the best.” It’s an interesting metaphor.
Image by Mediamodifier from Pixabay