Global student mobility has become an emerging issue in higher education development. Various countries assumed international students could be an important source of income and have a disproportionate influence on the economy and innovation systems. In this sense, this study aims to explore the trends and diversity of inbound students. Taking Taiwan as an example, we collected a series of data from the Ministry of Education from 1956 to 2020. Becker’s D and Blau index were used to transform the data with index formats to interpret the diverse phenomena and their patterns. This study conducts ARIMA to build related predictive models. The findings suggest the diversity of gender has changed fundamentally in this system. Female inbound students will grow into a critical mass in the future. Regarding the program diversity, the slight dropin the Blau index may reflect the selection of major programs that could be more balanced in the future. The predicted values suggest that the increase in inbound students will demonstrate a positive long-term trend in the system. The findings may provide useful information for related policymakers. The design of detecting diversity and trends for inbound students can be extended to explore similar issues in higher education settings
Relation:
ICIC Express Letters Part B: Applications 13(3), p.287-296
