Citation: Kerras, H.; Bautista, S.; Piñeros Perea, D.S.; de-Miguel Gómez, M.D. Closing the Digital Gender Gap among Foreign University Students: The Challenges Ahead. Sustainability 2022, 14, 12230. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912230 Academic Editor: Antonio P. Gutierrez de Blume Received: 27 July 2022 Accepted: 23 September 2022 Published: 27 September 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Closing the Digital Gender Gap among Foreign University Students: The Challenges Ahead Hayet Kerras 1, * , Susana Bautista 2 , Danilo Santos Piñeros Perea 3 and María Dolores de-Miguel Gómez 1, * 1 Departamento de Economía de la Empresa, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, 30203 Cartagena, Spain 2 Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Ctra. Pozuelo-Majadahonda Km 1.800, 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain 3 Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Carrera 45 # 26-85, Edif. Uriel Gutiérrez, Bogota 111321, Colombia * Correspondence: hayet.kerras@edu.upct.es (H.K.); md.miguel@upct.es (M.D.d.-M.G.); Tel.: +34-674562221 (H.K.) Abstract: In today’s world, new and advanced forms of technology are increasingly providing great changes in universities, thus generating new possibilities and impacting pedagogy and learning methodology. Unfortunately, not all students can use these tools in the same way and with the same ability. Not only are there digital gender gaps that limit women from enjoying these learning opportunities, but there are also digital gaps between foreign and natives’ students who have been trained in these technologies in their countries of origin, which impedes the achievement of the sustainable development goals planned for 2030. This study addresses theoretical foundations on the digital gender gap in university studies and provides an econometric analysis, through a simple linear regression, on the existence of a correlation between this digital gender gap and the university study gap by gender. A more specific analysis is also presented on the digital gender gap in the case of foreign students from four groups of countries, according to their income. The results show, on one hand, that differences in the access and use of technologies represent one of the factors that affects the percentage of graduates in higher education by gender; on the other, that there is a highly visible digital divide between countries with high income, compared to low- and lower-middle-income countries. Keywords: ICT; higher education; digital gender divide; foreign students; inclusion 1. Introduction The digital revolution is transforming the world, but some groups of people are falling behind. The World Summit on the Information Society [1] (pp. 2–3) states, to this effect, that: “In building the Information Society, we shall pay particular attention to the special needs of marginalised and vulnerable groups of society, including migrants, internally displaced persons and refugees, unemployed and underprivileged people, minorities, and nomadic people. We shall also recognise the specific needs of older persons and persons with disabilities.” [2]. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are considered the tools that currently allow for the reduction of barriers between these categories of people and encourage adaptation to rapid globalization and digitalization. [3]. In recent decades, the educational field, specifically universities, registered a constant vast increase worldwide, with a huge flow of qualified international migrants. The term qualified international migrants or highly skilled international migrant refers, according to Weinar et al. [4], to individuals which are subject to national immigration policy and law. They often enjoy easier access to an entry visa and/or residence permit than their lower-skilled brethren, but none of them are exempt from these requirements. This category of people is generally composed of students, foreign workers researchers, entrepreneurs, or volunteers in NGOs [5,6] from countries where tens of millions of people live without Sustainability 2022, 14, 12230. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912230 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability