Original Article Attracting International Students to Semi- peripheral Countries: A Comparative Study of Norway, Poland and Portugal Cristina Sin a,b , Dominik Antonowicz c and Jannecke Wiers-Jenssen d a Age ˆncia de Avaliac ¸a ˜o e Acreditac ¸a ˜o do Ensino Superior, Lisbon, Portugal. E-mail: cristina.sin@a3es.pt b Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Matosinhos, Portugal. c Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun ´, Poland. E-mail: dominik.antonowicz@uni.torun.pl d OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway. E-mail: jann@oslomet.no The paper investigates the approaches employed for attracting international full-degree students in three countries on the periphery of Europe/the European Economic Area: Norway, Poland and Portugal. These countries, considered semi-peripheral regarding international student recruitment, have shorter traditions for incoming mobility than countries that are major recruiters and which have been the focus of previous research on attracting international students. The paper analyses national policies and strategies, focusing on their emergence, rationales and instruments. The study is comparative, aiming to find commonalities and differences in the approaches of these countries further to the changing global environment in higher education. The major finding is that semi-peripheral countries appear to employ different strategies and resort to other comparative advantages than the largest student recruiters, exploiting political, cultural or geographical aspects rather than educational assets. The findings highlight the need for these countries to identify their distinctive attraction capacities and assets, as well as to be purposeful in choosing their target recruitment regions. Higher Education Policy (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-019-00135-3 Keywords: international students; recruitment; periphery; policies; internationalization Introduction This paper investigates the strategies employed to attract full-degree international students to three countries from the periphery of the European Economic Area: Norway, Poland and Portugal. It aims to examine under which circumstances, why and how national governments in these countries have prioritised international student recruitment as an explicit goal in higher education policy. The concept of Higher Education Policy, 2019 Ó 2019 International Association of Universities 0952-8733/19 www.palgrave.com/journals