fbpx
Market intelligence for international student recruitment from ICEF
20th Feb 2012

Author forecasts a tripling of international students worldwide by 2025

In a newly published book, Making a Difference: Australian International Education, contributor and industry consultant Bob Goddard provides a global view and a long-term forecast for the international education marketplace. Goddard projects the world's population of higher education students will more than double to 262 million by the year 2025. He expects that the bulk of this growth – more than half from China and India alone – will be in the developing world. Even more significantly for international recruiters, Goddard forecasts that developing nations will be unable to offer sufficient higher education spaces to keep pace with this demand. As a result, the world's population of international students will grow to eight million by 2025 – that is, nearly triple the number of students enrolled outside of their home countries today. Further, and as has been widely observed in recent months, the field of countries competing to recruit international students will also continue to expand (see "A more complex marketplace taking shape for 2012" for our synopsis). A University World News commentary on Making a Difference sums up the situation as follows.

The English-speaking countries have been long accustomed to dominating the market in selling international education to students but that situation is undergoing rapid change, Goddard notes. Traditional source countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Middle East are developing their own capacities to offer education to outsiders. Singapore hopes to attract 150,000 foreign students by 2015, Malaysia 100,000 by 2020 and Jordan 100,000 by the same year. China, despite facing huge demand for higher education from its own young people, is planning to expand its enrolments of foreigners from 200,000 at present to 300,000 by 2020. Then there are developed countries such as Japan that have shown little interest in the past in marketing education overseas. With an ageing population and an increasingly under-utilised higher education sector, Goddard says there is a growing realisation among the Japanese that this could provide opportunities for 'substantial levels of international recruitment'.
Making a Difference

is available for order from the International Education Association of Australia. Source: Making a Difference: Australian International Education, Dorothy David and Bruce Mackintosh, ed., UNSW Press, 2012; University World News

Most Recent

  • UK ELT reports a decline in student weeks for 2024 Read More
  • What is happening with Indian enrolments abroad this year? Read More
  • ICEF Podcast: How are schools and agents adapting to rising visa rejection rates? Read More

Most Popular

  • Which countries will contribute the most to global student mobility in 2030? Read More
  • Research shows link between study abroad and poverty alleviation  Read More
  • Beyond the Big Four: How demand for study abroad is shifting to destinations in Asia and Europe Read More

Because you found this article interesting

UK ELT reports a decline in student weeks for 2024 English UK, the peak body for English-language teaching (ELT) in the UK, has released full-year data for 2024...
Read more
What is happening with Indian enrolments abroad this year? Just a couple of years ago, Indian students were flocking to a number of attractive study abroad destinations,...
Read more
Full-year data highlights decline in foreign enrolment in UK universities in 2023/24 For the first time in ten years, the total number of students enrolled in UK universities fell in...
Read more
Analysis shows impact of immigration settings on international tuition fees at Australian universities Keri Ramirez, managing director of sector data specialist Studymove, hosted a fascinating webinar recently that looked at the...
Read more
US: Trump administration actions creating an uncertain outlook for international students So far this year, research indicates that international students still have a mainly positive view of study in...
Read more
Germany recovers an 8x return on investment in international students A new analysis from the German Economic Institute (IW), and commissioned by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD),...
Read more
New Zealand resource aims to connect prospective international students with qualified agents Faced with an ever-more complex international student recruiting environment, many educational institutions are becoming more strategic and selective...
Read more
International degree graduates of Canadian colleges no longer have to meet “field of study” requirements for post-study work permits Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has revised its requirements so that international students in degree programmes delivered...
Read more
What are you looking for?
Quick Links