Aims
The International Student Diversity (ISD) indicator looks at the ratio of international students to overall students as well as the diversity of nationalities that those students are from.
The indicator is an evolution of the International Student Ratio (ISR) indicator, with the aim of measuring not only the size of an institution's international student body, but also how successful the institution is at attracting students from a wide range of different countries and backgrounds.
If an institution is attracting a sizeable population of international students from a variety of nationalities this has benefits in terms of networking, cultural exchanges, a more diverse learning experience and alumni diversity.
In addition, if an institution is attracting a sizeable number and diverse range of international students it suggests that it has a positive reputation and is viewed as a good place to study.
This can be reinforced if graduates return to their home country with a positive experience to relay to future prospective students.
It forms part of the Global Engagement lens.
Relevant Rankings
International Student Diversity is an indicator used in the following rankings:
It forms part of the Global Engagement lens.
Methodology
Below you can find the weighting(s) for the indicator. Weightings are reviewed on an annual basis.
| Ranking Project | Weighting |
| QS World University Rankings | Unweighted |
| QS Europe Region Rankings | 5% |
Data Sources
The data for this indicator is drawn from two main sources:
- Institution data - Submitted by institutions as part of the research process
- Data from third-party sources - Including government ministries, agencies such as the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), and web sources
Where possible our data is checked against multiple sources to verify its authenticity.
Calculations
- International Student Ratio is calculated.
- A Student Nationality % is calculated as a ratio of the number of student nationalities in an institution (capped at the highest expected number) to the highest expected number itself, currently set to 80.
- International Student Ratio is multiplied by the Student Nationality % to create an Adjusted International Student Ratio.
- The International Student Ratio and Adjusted Student Nationality Ratio are z-scored and aggregated into a weighted average in proportion of 3:1 to create International Student Diversity.
Definitions
International
- The term ‘international’ is determined by citizenship.
- For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even nationals of other EU states.
- In Hong Kong SAR, this includes staff from China (Mainland).
- In the case of dual citizenship, the deciding criteria should be citizenship obtained through birth, or first passport obtained.
- Offshore exchange students and distance learning students are excluded.
