The Diplomat
International students enrolled in Spain generated a direct income of almost 3.8 billion euros in the 2018-2019 academic year, just before the COVID-19 pandemic brought student mobility almost to a standstill.
This is what emerges from the sixth edition of the study The Economic Impact of International Students in Spain, which was presented this past Wednesday and has been promoted by ICEX Spain Export and Investment and the association EDUESPAÑA with the aim of analyzing the benefits of this economic activity not only by measuring the direct expenses made by these students, but also reflecting its multiplier effect.
The results of the report show that 1,044,898 international students enrolled in Spanish institutions in the 2018-2019 academic year, that their overall economic impact on the Spanish economy was 3,795,740,732 euros and that the multiplier effect of student spending was 2.27. A multiplier effect of 2.27 indicates that, for every euro spent on their academic program, these international students spent an additional 1.27 euros in a wide range of sectors of the Spanish economy.
“In addition to the economic results collected in the study, it is worth taking into account other long-term intangible benefits derived from international mobility in our classrooms”, said the Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, during the presentation of the report. “When a student comes to Spain to train, he or she is exposed to our culture and builds close and invisible ties with our country that last a lifetime”, she continued. “Thus, these international students, who will become great professionals, will always see in our country an opportunity to make investments, to build collaborative alliances and will be prescribers of Spain”, she concluded.
The report also reveals that Spain has remained the preferred educational destination for international students for the past three decades, a trend that continued in 2018-2019. In any case, ICEX warned in a press release, this year’s report refers to “the last stage before the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the world, bringing student mobility almost to a standstill”. “It is important to use the results of the year under review as a basis for predicting how the different categories of programs can best recover, helping Spain to re-establish its place as a privileged global destination”, it added.
The document also indicates that, “in the 2018-2019 European ranking, Spain ranks first in receiving Erasmus+ students in Higher Education, well ahead of Germany, France, the United Kingdom or Italy, a position it continues to hold uninterruptedly since 2001, and second in sending students, only behind France and well ahead of the rest of the Program countries”, said Coral Martínez Íscar, director of the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE), a public body attached to the Ministry of Universities that acts as the National Agency for this program in Spain.
On the other hand, the largest enrollments are registered in Spanish language programs, up to 47% of the total. This is followed by Instituto Cervantes students completing courses at its centers abroad and candidates for its standardized tests, with 27%. The remaining 26% includes master’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, Study Abroad studies and Erasmus+ students. All in all, the greatest impact per student is from international students enrolled in master’s degrees, followed by bachelor’s degrees. Although these two categories represent 15% of the international student population, they account for 65% of the economic impact of Spanish exports of educational services.
