Policy Swings and Behaviour Shifts: Your Mid-Year Higher Ed Reading List

So far, 2026 has been a flurry of policy disruption, political moves and changing student behaviors. Travel bans and visa reforms, the growing role of AI in student search, and continuous shifts in student destination preferences are just some of the topics that have been driving conversations in higher education throughout the year so far.

So before we tackle the second half of the year, we thought a mid-year break is the perfect time to catch up and reassess what’s been happening this year in higher education, and where we think the sector might be headed throughout the rest of 2026 and beyond.

1. Political swings and policy changes affected how international students see the Big 4.

It’s been a big year for policy changes across the Big 4, and this has had its knock-on effect on how international students perceive these countries as study destinations.

At the start of the year, much of these concerns pointed towards the USA, as several rounds of sweeping immigration and travel bans, tacking onto last year’s changes to H-1B visas, greatly affected who can, and cannot, study in the USA now. In“How does the United States travel ban affect international students?” we took a long, hard look at how a sweeping new immigration law affects international student recruitment in the US.

Similarly, “Number One – But for How Long? US International Education in the Second Year of Trump” focused on the bigger picture and asked the harder follow-up: the US has led the world for decades, but with policy volatility at home and confident competitors abroad, the security of that position may now be up for debate.

Meanwhile, in the UK the picture has been a little more complicated. “The UK Is Still an Attractive Study Destination, But for How Long?” made the case that the pull remains genuine but is increasingly conditional, as well as asking the important question of which students still strongly see the UK as their preferred destination. And there was a particular big piece of news concerning the UK this year, too, as the country rejoined the Erasmus program after previously leaving it at the end of 2020.

With the future of the Big 4 as de-facto preferred study destinations hanging in the balance, TNE has become a massive topic of discussion for this year as a potential solution for keeping institutions in the Big 4 front and center without asking students to bear the emotional and financial costs of moving across the world. "Key Notes: TNE and the 2026 UK International Education Strategy" took a look at how institutions across the UK are leaning on transnational education as the next big thing, focusing on the branch campuses, partnerships and delivery models that are reshaping the UK’s offer abroad.

2. Alternative study destinations are on the rise, and students are looking to stay within their region

Not all destination conversations centered around the Big 4. In fact, one of the major conversations in higher education this year has been the increase of student interest in studying in Asia and other alternative destinations. Nowhere was that topic clearer than at this year’s APAIE conference, the biggest one yet, and in “APAIE 2026 and the Rise of Asia as a Study Destination” we captured the momentum straight from the conference floor.

Meanwhile, “How Asia competes with the ‘Big 4’” got specific about the levers doing the work: affordability, a growing catalog of English-taught programs, geographic proximity, welcoming policy settings and a sharpening focus on graduate employability. It’s a shift The PIE tracked from another angle in "Beyond the Big Four: The Study Destinations to Watch in 2026", charting the ambitions behind it: Malaysia targeting 250,000 international students by 2030, while France aimed for 30,000 Indian students over the same period.

Two of our podcast episodes put names and strategies to this specific story, too. In "Hong Kong’s Rise as an International Higher Education Hub" we spoke with Tina Villareal on how a mix of policy ambition, funding and reputation is repositioning the city as a serious destination in its own right, while a conversation with Dr Hassan Ammari in "Abu Dhabi and the UAE: A Rising Global Student Hub" examined the deliberate, well-resourced strategy behind the growing appeal of the UAE as an international student destination.

3. Students are more informed than ever, and their decision-making process is changing

If one theme tied everything else together, it was how much more informed and strategic students have become, a shift The PIE captured well in "The New International Student: More Informed, More Strategic, More Selective", describing applicants who track policy changes in real time and weigh return on investment long before their first conversation with an institution.

Our own research told the same story at scale. Our "State of Student Recruitment 2026 Virtual Session", hosted in June and moderated by Dr Mark Bennett, brought the headline findings from this year’s State of Student Recruitment Report  to a panel of university practitioners able to give real-world texture to the data, measuring it against the realities of a live recruitment cycle.

"The Evolving Student: Where Are They Looking, What Are They Thinking" touched on the same thread from the student’s perspective, mapping how expectations, motivations, and decision-making are changing, and how universities should adapt their student recruitment strategies to constantly shifting student behaviors.

Picking up on more crucial destination data from our 2026 State of Student Recruitment Report, "Where are students looking to go (and why) in 2026?" mapped the widening gap between where students are interested in studying and where they ultimately commit, the factors driving their interest and how different destinations are perceived in areas like practicality and prestige.

And in a year where career ROI is influencing student choices more than any other factor, "How is Post-Study Work Changing?" became essential reading to understand how destinations quietly reshaping the rules on what comes after graduation can have a knock-on effect on student interest.

4. How higher education is approaching AI – from students to institutions

No half-year would be complete without the robot-shaped question hanging over the whole sector. We spoke with Boris Walbaum on our podcast episode  "AI Is Disrupting Higher Education: Are Universities Ready?", moving past the hype to a more useful exchange about what genuine institutional readiness looks like and where the gap between ambition and capability is widest.

Our April webinar, "Beyond Chatbots: What Meaningful AI in Student Recruitment Actually Looks Like", took that thought to the specifics of student recruitment, looking past the surface-level tools to what’s lying underneath: what it means when an AI model, rather than your homepage, forms a student’s first impression of your institution. ICEF Monitor made a similar case in"The ChatGPT Generation: How AI Is Quietly Rewriting the Global Student Search Experience"  drawing on a survey of more than 1,600 newly enrolled students to show how unevenly that behavior is distributed across markets.

5. How universities can reach prospective students in an age of changing behaviors

Understanding where students are heading counts for little if you can’t reach and engage them along the way, which is why the most practical content of this first half of the year found such a large audience. Our March webinar with Megan Prettyman, "Mastering Global Student Communication Strategies", tackled how universities can effectively engage with prospective students, including practical advice on connecting across markets and cultures. And if you’d rather have a written recap to return to at any time, "Student Communication Strategies Universities Need to Implement Now” summarizes the key points and useful guidance from the live masterclass.

Despite the rise in use of AI search, social media has not dropped off the list of priorities for higher education institutions. Our two companion sessions, "Using Social Media to Attract New Students"  and "Social Media Strategies for Recruiting Students" got tactical about the platforms doing the heavy lifting, from TikTok to LinkedIn, how to use them well, and how to take full advantage of the prospective student's desire for authenticity with user-generated content. 

What’s next for higher education in 2026?

If the first six months taught us anything, it’s that the old certainties are up for grabs, which is precisely what makes this such a compelling time for the higher education sector.

We’ll be carrying the conversation into the second half of the year, and we’d love to do it in person. We’ll be at EAIE in Glasgow this September (8–11), and there’s no better setting than "The Rhythm of Revolution" to talk through what all of this means for your institution.

If you’d like to sit down with our team while we’re there, book a meeting with us and we’ll bring the data, the insight and the honest conversations.