It's not like the country is paying for said education. And if they were, it's not like the money is "lost" in any way, as it goes back into local businesses which "stimulates" the economy and creates local jobs. I personally wouldn't use this argument.

If by a country we mean states, college is at least partially publicly funded in the US and outside generally. If by a country we mean expenditures by the citizenry, definitely true that college is an investment of time and money by the students.

A doctor leaves college maybe with 500k dollars in debt in the US, doctors in most other countries graduate with little or no debt at all: you could import thousands if not 100's of thousands of doctors willing to work a fraction of the current doctor's rate, thus making it cheaper for patients.

> And if they were, it's not like the money is "lost" in any way, as it goes back into local businesses which "stimulates" the economy and creates local jobs

Which money? I fear this is the broken window fallacy Bastiat liked to talk about.

Foreign students typically pay the "state" part of the support as well. For PhD students, well, all grad students are cheap high skill labor, so the uni is always the big beneficiary.