Studies show that Chinese and Indian international students make up the largest portion of the student population in top study-abroad destinations, outnumbering students from other countries. While students from countries like South Korea, Nepal, and Nigeria also study abroad in significant numbers, their totals fall short of reaching the hundreds of thousands of students from China and India.
Indians are the most steadily growing demographic among international students
The ICEF Monitor reports that Indian students are the most steadily growing demographic of international students in several top destinations. The US, Canada, the UK and Australia are known as the “Big Four” of international education, meaning that they attract the most international students worldwide. One of the reasons Indian students choose them is that programs in these countries are taught in English.
In 2023, Indian students accounted for the largest number of incoming students in Canada and the UK while ranking second in the US and Australia. Nearly half a million new Indian students enrolled in Canadian institutions in 2023. About 270,000 and 175,000 chose the US and the UK respectively. As for Australia, around 125,000 Indians headed Down South for their studies at the start of the last academic year. Overall, around 35% of Indian students head for North American destinations, while slightly less than 15% choose the UK.
However, a surprising trend reported by The PIE News is that more Indian students are now opting for continental Europe instead of the traditional "Big Four" destinations. Many are now choosing to study in Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, and Finland. This shift is driven by lower tuition fees and living costs in these countries, the availability of programs taught in English outside of the Anglosphere, and language classes offered to international students.
Campus France, for one, aims to attract 30,000 Indian students by 2030. To help reach this goal, the cultural organization Alliance Française has increased the number of special French language classes it gives around India to prospective Indian international students. An increasing number of Indian students are also applying for the prestigious Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters scholarship in the EU.
What do Indian students tend to study abroad?
Insights from the British Council shed light on the trends in their program choices. According to the British Council's Director for India, there is a noticeable decline in the number of Indian students in the UK pursuing business degrees. However, a strong preference for STEM degrees remains, as has historically always been the case. Bucking the trend, an increasing number of Indian students are also heading abroad to study creative arts such as filmmaking and fashion design.
Within STEM, specifically, Indian international students have a preference for computer science, Artificial Intelligence and sciences connected to sustainability. The case is the same in the US, where 80% of Indian students choose to major in a STEM field, especially in computer science and engineering. These are growing sectors that lead to high-paying, in-demand jobs – making the investment in expensive international fees a worthwhile one with safe returns. Despite the weakening of the rupee, Indian students have been willing to invest 60 billion USD in international education in 2023.
Why do these students choose to study abroad?
India Today spoke with a range of education experts, including university deans and international education agents, to understand the reasons behind this decision. Some experts highlight that the difficulty of securing admission to top Indian institutions, like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), drives students to seek prestigious degrees abroad as an alternative. With an oversupply of STEM graduates in India, a degree from an international university, along with additional skills gained overseas (such as foreign language proficiency and international internships), helps returning students distinguish themselves in a highly competitive job market.
Even if numbers have fallen, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students still study abroad
Even if India is growing as a sending country of international students, Chinese students remain the largest population of international students in the US and Australia. In 2023, nearly 300,000 Chinese students enrolled in American universities and around 160,000 in Australian universities. In Canada and the UK, they rank as the second largest student demographic after Indian students.
The shifting political and economic climate following Trump's presidency and the pandemic is driving changes in where Chinese students go. The Economic Intelligence Unit reports that in the first half of the 2010s, the number of Chinese students abroad increased steadily by around 10% each year. However, a sharp decline occurred in 2019, which was further exacerbated in 2020. Not only did closed borders during the pandemic prevent students from traveling, but the former President Trump also signed Proclamation 10043, which barred prospective students suspected of being associated with the Chinese Communist Party from obtaining visas.
Students who had previously studied at universities specializing in science, technology, and aeronautics in China were particularly likely to have their student visas denied or canceled due to suspicions that they might engage in industrial espionage in the US. Even after Trump left office, these policies and the strained US-China relationship have largely persisted. Earlier this year, the US Secretary of State stated that they would continue to limit Chinese students' access to STEM courses related to sensitive technology with security implications. In contrast, he mentioned that Chinese students in the humanities and social sciences would be encouraged.
Outside of the US, the number of Chinese students in the other Big Four destinations has also declined since 2020, despite a slight recovery following the reopening of China's borders in 2022. While there were around 800,000 Chinese students studying abroad previously, the current number is just over 600,000. Some of the Chinese students who have been put off by the hostile climate in the US seem to have gone to the UKand Australia instead. Many are also choosing to study at home rather than go abroad.
What are Chinese students studying when they go abroad?
Data shows that their enrollment in STEM (especially mathematics, computer science and engineering) and business courses remains strong. Like among Indian international students, there is growing interest among Chinese international students in studying the creative arts. In the UK, for instance, the creative arts are now the fourth most popular field among Chinese students.
What motivates Chinese students to study abroad?
In 2023, Pearson and UCAS carried out a study in the UK exploring the reasons Chinese students choose to pursue education overseas. Times Higher Education also conducted similar research. Both sources highlight that a key factor is the desire to bypass the "gaokao," China's highly competitive and stressful university entrance exam. Like in India, the job market in China is very competitive, which makes students seek the prestige and international exposure associated with studying abroad to give themselves an edge in the job market. Other reasons are to gain cultural exposure and become fluent in English.
Emerging sources countries and diversifying markets
While India and China lead in the number of international students, other countries are also sending a growing number of students studying abroad. According to ICEF's data, among them are Korean, Vietnamese and Canadian students in the US; Nigerian, Pakistani and American students in the UK; Filippino, Nigerian and French students in Canada; and Filipino, Nepali and Colombian students in Australia.
Numerous universities and governments are working to diversify the range of countries they attract international students from. Overdependence on Chinese and Indian students poses a risk, as events like the Covid-19 pandemic or political tensions (such as the current strain between China and the US) can lead to a significant drop in student numbers from these countries. This could have devastating effects on the education sector, which heavily depends on international tuition fees from these students.
What is motivating students from these backgrounds to pursue education abroad?
According to the International Development Program Philippines, Filipino students see studying abroad as a pathway to immigration. They study in countries with higher salaries and standards of living than the Philippines so that they might remain there to work after graduating. In Canada, for example, the number of older Filipino students in their 30s has soared in recent years, indicating that they are often mature students with work experience who are looking to advance their careers. Many are moving to rural areas of the Prairies, where labor shortages are more common.
Among Nigerian international students, push factors play a big role in their decision to study abroad. Youth unemployment and poverty are high in Nigeria, and so are crime and terrorism rates. They seek a more peaceful and stable life by studying and then working abroad. They also find Nigerian universities to be underfunded as compared to universities abroad. Most of them head for the UK, given the historical relationship between the two countries, and favor STEM subjects, especially medicine. However, the rate of enrolment of Nigerian students in British universities suffered from a drop this year after it was announced that international students can no longer bring their families with them.
Canada is currently the top destination for French international students. Why is it so? With French having equal status to English as an official language and the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick being predominantly francophone, studying in Canada removes the language barrier that French students may face in other countries. CIDJ reports that many French students find Canada to have a quintessentially North American dynamism and sense of innovation that attracts them. Many who feel like they are stagnating in France, which has a highly bureaucratic system, choose to go to graduate school in Canada.
