New insights to enhance university strategies for attracting student talent in a national context

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to provide new insights to enhance university strategies for attracting international student talent in Spain within a competitive global Higher Education scenario. It focuses on understanding the perspectives and satisfaction of international students within the Spanish University System (SUE) to inform strategic decision-making.

Design/methodology/approach: The research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining text mining of student reviews with a literature review to develop a weighted SWOT matrix. NLP techniques were applied with the use of software SAS Viya to analyze text reviews from international undergraduate students in Spanish universities, covering the period 2019–2022.

Findings: The study reveals an overall positive sentiment among international students regarding their experiences in Spanish higher education. Key positive aspects include good teaching and the academic environment. However, negative sentiments are primarily linked to perceptions of university offerings and institutional image. The SWOT analysis highlights Spain's attractiveness and the satisfaction of international students as strengths, and the cost of tuition and university rankings as weaknesses.

Practical implications: Universities should strategically combine academic offerings with the Spanish lifestyle in their promotions. Employability programs and a focus on service quality are crucial for attracting and retaining international talent.

Social Implications: The research underscores the relationship between internationalization of Higher Education and socioeconomic progress. By improving the attractiveness of Spanish universities, the study contributes to fostering a more internationalized environment, potentially leading to enhanced global competitiveness and the development of a knowledge economy

Originality/value: The paper applies advanced text mining techniques to a large dataset of international student reviews, providing a nuanced and data-driven understanding of satisfaction in the Spanish university context. This approach provides an advanced understanding of student satisfaction that goes beyond traditional surveys and contributes a student-centric perspective to the development of internationalization strategies for Spanish universities.