Regulating International Admissions: Unintended Consequences on Domestic First-Generation Students’ Access to Higher Education

Abstract Unintended policy consequences in higher education may arise when reforms targeting specific student groups interact with stratified institutional landscapes, with potential spillover effects on structurally disadvantaged domestic populations. This article examines a policy reform aimed at international students—specifically, the 2014 tightening of admission criteria at a Swiss elite STEM higher education institution (HEI)—and its broader, unforeseen impact on first-generation domestic students. Using administrative data and a quasi-experimental design, we find lower attrition among international students after the policy change and no observable change in Swiss students’ graduation rates. At the same time, enrolment of Swiss students declines—most notably among first-generation students—with a compensating increase in enrolment at less selective institutions, concentrated in fields that overlap with the elite programmes affected by the policy. These patterns suggest that the reform altered both formal access and perceptions of attainability, risk and institutional fit, aligning with arguments of constrained educational choice. The findings highlight redistributive costs of regulating international student inflow—shifting opportunities away from first-generation domestic students—and call for system-level governance that anticipates indirect effects on equity.