Exploring the Determinants of International Students’ Mobility Destination from macro-level

With regard to economic recession and intense resource distribution in the post-pandemic period, nationalism appears and more restrictions for international students’ mobility (ISM) are carried out. However, the education is marketized and abundant universities regard international students’ financial support. Thus, the research aims to investigate the macro-level factors of international students choosing destination countries and the factors’ significance. The research adopts theory framework of PESTLE to identify the determinants. And it applies several international organizations’ statistics, OECD, World Bank Group, etc., in the last five years. The statistics are analyzed through descriptive analysis, Spearman correlation, multiple linear regression and a regression model is constructed. The unexpected results indicate that tuition fees and crime rates facilitate ISM development, while GDP is negatively related to ISM. Corresponding conclusions are drawn that prestigious universities located in cosmopolitan cities with high crime rates still attract international students. Also, those universities dominate the decision of high tuition fees for their educational reputation. Meanwhile, international students with deficit academic skills and socioeconomic status have to make a compromise when choosing the destination countries.