Volume 14 • Issue 1 • PP: 04–09 • 2026
Business Intelligence for the Global University Market: Bounding Recruitment Concentration and Regional Spending Exposure
Open Access & Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s). Published by ASPG. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Abstract
International recruitment exposes universities and host regions to concentrated cross-border demand, yet published dashboards rarely disclose the joint distribution of source countries and institutions. This study turns the November 2024 Open Doors state fact sheets into a reproducible market-risk screen for 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. These markets contain 1,126,079 international students and $43.817 billion in estimated regional expenditure in 2023/24. The median state’s largest source market accounts for 28.5% of students; its largest receiving institution accounts for 32.2%. Sharp bounds calculated from the separately published margins show that, in 48 of 51 markets, a positive share must both come from one of the five leading origins and attend one of the leading institutions. The median guaranteed overlap is 32.0% of a state’s international students; Arizona’s is 68.4%. An illustrative 10% decline in each state’s largest origin implies $1.511 billion in expenditure exposure across the 51 markets under a constant-spending assumption, led by California ($233.1 million) and New York ($229.9 million). The bounds identify segments requiring institutional cross-tabs; the scenario is neither a forecast nor a measure of university revenue. The analysis supplies an auditable way to prioritize recruitment diversification and market-level due diligence with public business data.
Keywords
References
[1] Institute of International Education, “State facts and fig-ures 2024,” Institute of International Education, State fact sheets, 2024.
[2] T. Weber, C. van Mol, and M. H. J. Wolbers, “Interna-tional students as sources of income? moving beyond the neoliberal framing of internationalization,” Journal of Studies in International Education, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 526–545, 2024.
[3] K. Breznik, M. Restaino, M. P. Vitale, and G. Ragozini, “Analyzing countries’ performances within the interna-tional student mobility program over time,” Annals of Operations Research, vol. 342, pp. 1925–1943, 2024.
[4] Á. Szukits and P. Móricz, “Towards data-driven decision making: The role of analytical culture and centralization efforts,” Review of Managerial Science, vol. 18, pp. 2849–2887, 2024.
[5] NAFSA: Association of International Educators, “In-ternational students contribute record-breaking level of spending and 378,000 jobs to the U.S. economy,” Nov. 2024.
Cite This Article
Choose your preferred format
Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions, and data presented in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of ASPG, the journal, or its editors. ASPG and the editors disclaim responsibility for any harm arising from the use of any ideas, methods, instructions, or products described in this article, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.