Abstract:

Context:
The European Union (EU) faces various social and environmental challenges, including significant demographic changes. A key concern is the aging population. According to Eurostat (2023), the EU has seen an increase in median age from 38.7 years in 2002 to 44.4 years in 2022, alongside a decrease in the proportion of young people (aged 0-19) across all Member States during the same period. The impact of these trends reaches different sectors, including education. This demographic shift, marked by a decrease in student enrollment, poses a challenge to the stability of educational systems. Recognizing the direct implications for the Higher Education (HE) sector, the European Union (EU) must try to bridge this gap by actively seeking to attract international students from third countries and advancing initiatives aimed at fostering internationalization (European Commission, 2020). In response, universities have embarked on a process of rethinking and renewing themselves, recognizing the need to effectively tackle these societal challenges through enhanced engagement in transnational cooperation (European Commission, 2022). This also represents one of the objectives of the European Strategy for Universities, claiming that by exchanging talents from all over the world and building strong bridges with partner countries across the globe, universities could gain more power. Initiatives such as the formation of National Promotion Agencies and the Study in Europe project play a central role.

The strategy's central actions aim to:
a) demonstrate Europe's educational prospects to students around the world;
b) assist international students in navigating European higher education, study, research and scholarship opportunities; and
c) build bridges between European higher education organizations and international students and partners.

Methodology:
This study is designed to examine the variables that contribute to the appeal of European universities for international students. In developing our methodology, we will rely on a mixed-method approach based on:
a) University Questionnaires: We have identified 151 universities across 27 EU countries using the ETER database, focusing specifically on the variable "Share of foreign students ISCED 5-7." This allowed us to calculate the proportion of international students to the total number of students at each institution.
b) National Promotion Agencies Questionnaires: We have selected 27 national promotional agencies for our survey to gain insights into best practices and services they provide to enhance the appeal of European universities.
c) Universities’ Websites Scraping Analysis: We will perform a text analysis of the selected universities' websites, looking for potential correlations between the frequency and usage of specific words or combination of words and the university’s level of attractiveness and internationalization.
d) Quantitative Analysis Using Descriptive Statistics and Econometrics: The collected data will be subjected to various quantitative analyses to derive meaningful patterns and conclusions.

Results:
This research highlights the critical factors that enhance the appeal of European universities to international students. We show the existence of antecedents that influences attractiveness for Universities towards increased international enrollment. The findings of this study will provide actionable insights for strategic decision-making in HE policy and institutional planning.

Keywords:

International students, Attractiveness, European Universities, Aging Population, Erasmus+.