Out-of-country students are a growth market

(Originally published in TOURISM)

The number of tertiary students enrolled outside their country of citizenship has grown from 0.61 million worldwide in 1975 to 2.73 million in 2005, mirroring the growing globalization of economies and societies, according to a report issued by the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and quoted in Travel Impact Newswire on September 27, 2007.

The report says that freely circulating capital, goods and services - along with greater openness of labour markets - have increased the demand for new kinds of education in OECD countries. Higher education is playing an important role in broadening the horizons of students and allowing them to better understand the multiplicity of languages, cultures and business methods in the world. Several OECD governments - especially in the European Union (EU) countries - have set up student mobility schemes to foster intercultural contacts and build social networks for the future.

The report says that other driving factors include decreasing transportation costs, the spread of new technologies, and faster, cheaper communication which have resulted in a growing interdependence of economies and societies in the 1980s and even more so in the 1990s. This tendency was particularly strong in the high technology sector and labour market.

In 2005, the US received 22% of the total of all foreign students worldwide, followed by the UK (12%), Germany (10%) and France (9%). Altogether, these four major destinations account for 52% of all tertiary students pursuing their studies abroad. Significant numbers of foreign students were enrolled in Australia (6%), Japan (5%), Canada (3%), New Zealand (3%) and the partner economy the Russian Federation (3%).

Asian students form the largest group of international students enrolled in countries reporting data to the OECD or the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, followed by Europeans (24.9%), in particular citizens of the European Union (16.9%). Students from Africa account for 11.0% of all international students, while those from North America account for only 3.7%; students from South America represent 5.7% of the total.

Comments