Coming to those decisions is a science and an art, based on objective criteria such as market fundamentals (e.g., GDP, size of the middle class, size of the youth demographic, economic trends) as well as internal signs that a market is becoming more or less promising (e.g., increased/decreased competitor activity, high or low growth rates in various nationalities within the student body, approval rates, etc.)

Today, we’ll look at the objective side of the balance with a summary of economic and demographic trends across four major student sending markets in Asia: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, and Vietnam. Going into 2026, all four countries feature strong demand for study abroad, and many students are widening their consideration set in terms of destinations.

Bangladesh

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has for economic growth in Bangladesh in 2026 to 4.9% (compared with it prediction of 6.4% growth in April 2025). The main reasons are inflation (8.7%–8.8% in 2025/26) and a challenging global trade environment that dampens opportunities for Bangladesh’s exports. President Trump’s tariff rate for Bangladeshi garments currently stands at 20%, which may reduce Bangladesh’s export earnings from the US market by 14%.

Fortunately, Bangladesh isn’t overly reliant on export earnings (about 10% of total GDP) compared to neighbours such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia (all over 60%). At the same time, Bangladesh’s economy lacks diversification, making it vulnerable to external shocks. There is high demand for study and work abroad, as remittances are a major component of Bangladesh’s GDP and fuel domestic consumption.

• GDP growth projection: 4.9% for 2026 ()
• Proportion of population in the middle class: 33%.
• Youth population: 49% of the country’s population of 172 million is under the age of 24.
• Currency performance: As of November 2025, the taka is trading at 121–122 per US dollar and has in less than three years.
• Youth unemployment: 11.5% of those aged 15–24 are out of work, rising to of those with tertiary education.
• Outbound mobility trends: 2022 OECD data count 52,800 Bangladeshi students abroad. Top destinations are the US, UK, Canada, Malaysia, Germany, and Australia.
• Key quote: “While the UK and the US remain favourites, an increasing number of students are turning to regional options like Malaysia, China, and even Japan, which offer affordable education and government-funded scholarships.”—

Indonesia

Indonesia’s economy has been softening in the past year but not to an alarming degree. The rate of inflation has come down, but this stimulus for consumer spending is offset by high borrowing costs. Indonesia boasts the world’s fourth largest population (286 million) and 41% of it is made up of youth aged 24 and under – a major reason it is such a compelling student source market.

Youth unemployment is a major issue, so focusing on career outcomes and post-study work opportunities will resonate in this market.

• GDP growth projection: 4.7–4.9% for 2025, with a gradual increase to 5.2% by 2026 (World Bank).
• Proportion of population in the middle class: 17%.
• Youth population: 41% under the age of 24.
• Currency performance: As of November 2025, the rupiah is trading around 16,700 per US dollar, marking a depreciation of about .
• Youth unemployment: 16% of those aged 15–24 are out of work (more than twice the proportion in Thailand and Vietnam), and a high proportion of the overall population resort to informal work (56%).
• Outbound trends: There are over 62,800 Indonesian students abroad for tertiary education (as per ) – up 29% over 2017. Top destinations are Australia, Malaysia, the US, Japan, the UK, and Germany.
• Key quote: “Graduates of secondary and tertiary education do not always match the needs of the labour market, and there is also a high proportion of informality. Indonesia has a very large number of young people, so the pressure on the labour market is much higher. We also have rapidly increasing levels of secondary and higher education. Many young college graduates avoid informal or low-paid jobs, so they choose to wait for suitable jobs, which leads to unemployment. There is a lack of effective vocational training and apprenticeship programmes compared with neighbours such as Vietnam or Malaysia. In Malaysia, for example, there are more industry-university linkage schemes and graduate employability programmes.”—Deniey Adi Purwanto, a lecturer at the Department of Economics at IPB University in Bogor, as quoted in .

Nepal

There is considerable debate about prospects for Nepal’s economy in 2026. For example, the IMF expects GDP to grow by 5.2% in 2026 if political tensions ease and tourism revenue and agricultural output are robust. But the World Bank has revised its 2026 forecast to only 2.1% for reasons including civil unrest, loss of investor confidence, a drop in tourism, and poor harvests.

The wildly different forecasts underline the extreme vulnerability of Nepal to climate change and to the vicissitudes of tourism trends. If the weather is good, agriculture drives economic growth – if it not, it can result in devastating losses for the many Nepalese who work in this sector. The same is true for tourism.

A mass youth uprising in September ousted the government and left 72 people dead and more than a thousand injured across the country. Youth are fed up with corruption and economic mismanagement, and the protests were sparked by social media posts by Nepal’s elite “nepo babies” flaunting purchases of luxury brands as well as a (this ended four days later after more than 20 protesters were killed). Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, and one in three households receives remittances.

The ouster of the government has not yet returned the country to complete stability given profound political divisions and continuing frustration among youth about their lack of opportunities for upward economic mobility.

• GDP growth projection: 2.1% (World Bank) to 5.2% (IMF).
• Proportion of population in the middle class: 33%.
• Youth population: 47% below the age of 24.
• Currency performance: As of November 2025, the Nepalese rupee is trading at 141.7–142.3 per US dollar marking a over the last 12 months.
• Youth unemployment: , well above the global average of 15.7%.
• Outbound mobility trends: Over , going mainly to Australia, Japan, Canada, the US, the UK, and India.
• Key quote: “To save, or even live properly, someone from the family has to go out. It’s almost like an unsaid tradition.” —Tenzin Dolker, a college student in Kathmandu who studies computer science, speaking with the .

Vietnam

Vietnam is one of Asia’s star performers in terms of its economy. Committed to diversification, the government has set a growth target of 10% for 2026, though organisations such as the World Bank and the IMF are more conservative, forecasting anywhere from 6% to 8%.

The Vietnamese government has set its ambitious growth target based on planned investments in infrastructure, the Green Economy, semiconductors, and AI, and it is determined to attract more foreign investment and to expand trade with a widened range of countries. However, a volatile global trade environment and US/China tensions pose risks.

Part of the reason for Vietnam’s economic expansion is its growing middle class, which is boosting domestic consumption. The middle class is forecast to – which will be a remarkable achievement if it happens. In addition, Vietnam is a formidable manufacturing hub, especially in the areas of garments and electronics.

Vietnamese families have always been committed to study abroad if they can afford it, and the fact that so many more families can now afford it makes Vietnam one of the most promising outbound student markets today. About are currently abroad for education.

• GDP growth projection: 6-8% in 2026
• Size of middle class: 26%, .
• Youth population: 39% under the age of 24.
• Currency performance: The dong is currently trading at about 25,300 per US dollar, but it is expected to slide about , according to BMI.
• Youth unemployment: – and all-time high. This is still low compared to the global average, however.
• Outbound mobility trends: Nearly according to the Vietnamese government, with main destinations being South Korea, Japan, Australia, the US, Taiwan, China and Canada.
• Key quote: “As other large markets like India and Nigeria face more volatility due to shifting policy or affordability concerns, Vietnam offers institutions a high-potential and reliable pathway for diversification and long-term enrolment growth.”—Meti Basiri, CEO of ApplyBoard, speaking with

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We use as our baseline, then factor in more recent data from government sources where available to determine mobility volumes in 2022. That means our outbound count is a combination of the most recent UNESCO data and more updated statistics from various government sources (Australia, Canada, UK, and United States – and sometimes other destinations). Please note: Australian, Canadian, and US data includes enrolments in other sectors as well as higher education.

In brief, outbound mobility from the five countries is up significantly since 2020 – sometimes nearly doubling. When we note increases, these represent year-over-year growth unless otherwise indicated.

Bangladesh

The most recent UNESCO data (2020) counts 49,150 Bangladeshi students abroad in higher education. In 2022, numbers grew to more than 70,000 Bangladeshi students abroad (including other sectors). Canada, the UK, and US are clearly recruiting more intensely in Bangladesh given growth over the past couple of years.

The UK, Canada, and UAE are the top three destinations at the moment for Bangladeshi students.

• UK: 12,700 in 2021/2022 (+90% y-o-y)
• Canada: 12,295 in 2022 (+24.5%)
• UAE: 11,150 in 2020 according to UNESCO
• US: 10,600 in 2021/22 (+23%) according to IIE Open Doors data
• Australia: 7,250 in 2022 (+17%)
• Malaysia: 6,600 in 2021
• Germany: 3,930 in 2020 according to UNESCO
• Japan: 2,800 in 2020
• India: 2,750 in 2020
• South Korea and Saudi Arabia: Roughly 2,500 in 2020 (combined)

Plus smaller volumes in other countries.

Nepal

The most recent UNESCO data (2020) counts 95,270 Nepalese students abroad in higher education. In 2022, Nepal was sending out at least 125,500 students (including enrolments in other sectors). A student survey conducted by Indian think tank IC3 revealed strong demand for study abroad among Nepalese high school students, and this finding seems to have been very much on point.

The top three hosts of Nepalese students are Australia, Japan, and India.

• Australia: 57,190 in 2022 (+25% y-o-y)
• Japan: 24,260 in 2022 according to JASSO (+29%)
• India: 13,575 according to UNESCO and Statista
• US: 11,780 in 2021/22 (+5.5%) according to IIE’s Open Doors data
• Canada: 7,745 in 2022 (+258%)
• UK: 4,920 in 2021/22 according to HESA
• Cyprus, South Korea, Germany: Collectively, over 6,000 in 2020 according to UNESCO

Plus smaller volumes in other countries.

Pakistan

The most recent UNESCO data (2020) counts 64,065 Pakistani students abroad in higher education. Outbound mobility from Pakistan was over 103,190 in 2022 when we consult more recent statistics published by government sources in various destinations. There have been large increases in Pakistani students recorded recently in the UK, Australia, US, Canada, and Germany.

The top three destinations for Pakistani students currently are UAE, UK, and Australia.

• UAE: 24,865 in 2020 according to UNESCO
• UK: 23,075 in 2021/22 (+62% y-o-y)
• Australia: 15,875 in 2022 (+15%)
• US: 8,770 in 2021/22 (+17%)
• Germany: 7,115 in 2021/22 (+22%)
• Canada: 6,405 in 2022 (+38%)
• Kyrgyzstan: 6,000 in 2020 according to UNESCO
• Malaysia: 4,700 in 2021
• Turkey: 2,385 in 2020 according to UNESCO
• Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, Qatar: At least 4,000 in 2020 according to UNESCO

Plus smaller volumes in other countries.

Philippines

The most recent UNESCO data (2020) counts 26,162 Filipino students abroad in higher education. If we look at total enrolments – very important for this market because of its demand for shorter courses and vocational or college programmes – there are roughly 62,000 Filipino students abroad in 2022, particularly because of a huge flow of Filipino students to Canada.

The top three destinations for Filipino students currently are Canada, Australia, and the US.

• Canada: 32,455 in 2022 (+112%)
• Australia: 17,975 in 2022 (+25%)
• US: 3,270 in 2021/22 (+13%)
• UAE: 2,250 in 2020 according to UNESCO
• UK: 2,000 in 2020 according to UNESCO
• Japan, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Jordan: Close to 4,000 collectively according to UNESCO

Plus smaller volumes in other countries

Thailand

The most recent UNESCO data (2020) counts 32,066 Thai students abroad in higher education. The number of Thai students abroad in all sectors has grown moderately to about 40,720 in 2022.

The top three destinations for Thai students currently are Australia, UK, and US.

• Australia: 19,360 in 2022 (+78%)
• UK: 5,405 in 2022 (+21%)
• US: 5,010 in 2021/22 according to IIE’s Open Doors report
• Canada: 2,755 in 2022 (+78%)
• Egypt: 2,955 in 2020 according to UNESCO
• Japan: 2,735 in 2022 (+15% but down from a high of 3,415 in 2020)
• Germany, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand: Collectively over 2,500 in 2020

Notes on China

China’s borders were mostly closed to international students till 2023. As a result, China’s foreign enrolment dropped significantly from the start of the pandemic (2020) to 2023. Still, we will note 2018 figures given that Chinese borders are now open again and China has resumed active recruitment in its top markets – many of which are in Asia.

, there were 10,735 Bangladeshi students, 28,600 Thai students, and 28,025 Pakistani students.

Data Sources

Much of the data for this article comes from the following sources:

• Canadian immigration data (IRCC)
• US immigration data

For additional background, please see:

• “Canada’s foreign enrolment grew by more than 30% in 2022”
• “Foreign enrolment in US rebounded in 2021/22 and is approaching pre-pandemic levels”
• “UK foreign enrolment takes another leap driven by students from China, India, and Nigeria”
• “Surge in new students has ELICOS sector leading Australian growth for 2022”
• “Agent survey tracks key factors for study abroad planning in China and South Asia”

The post Outbound mobility trends for five key sending markets in Asia appeared first on şÚÁĎąŮÍř Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh is now one of the most important emerging markets for study abroad in South Asia, and it currently sends out more than 63,000 students for higher education. It is the eighth most populous country in the world, with nearly half of its 160 million citizens under the age of 24 and just over a third under 15.

The country’s middle class is expanding rapidly, and consumer confidence is rising. A recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG) survey of Bangladeshi consumers found that 60% expected their incomes to rise over the next 12 months.

A street scene in the capital city of Dhaka.

But Bangladesh is only now making it onto the radar of foreign companies and universities, a fact alluded to in the title of the BCG survey report: . Zarif Munir, a partner in BCG, says, “Companies that move now to get into position have an opportunity to build a lasting competitive advantage.”

The landscape for recruitment in Bangladesh is changing quickly. Currently, more than half of Bangladeshi tertiary students go to Malaysia, but students are also choosing China, the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia as well as an increasing range of emerging destinations in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Engineering and medical degrees are currently popular, and students are highly motivated by scholarships and affordability in general.

Nepal

Nepal’s economy is growing quickly, with GDP growth of over 7% in 2017 and projected growth of 5% in 2018 – a remarkable recovery after 2015’s devastating earthquake. But the earthquake inflicted severe damage on the country’s educational infrastructure, a further blow for young Nepalese already frustrated by a university system that many say is failing to link degrees to employment. An article in the Kathmandu Post notes that “This contributes to a bleak outlook for students who study in Nepal … many of our students obtain degrees not knowing what to do after graduation.”

And so young Nepalese are going abroad; more than 44,200 Nepalese are currently enrolled in foreign higher education, with Australia, the US, and India claiming nearly two-thirds of this total. Nepal is the second-largest sending market in South Asia for the US after India, and the fastest growing market overall (20% in 2017). In Australia, Nepalese enrolments grew by 60% from 2016 to 2017. More than 23,000 Nepalese are studying in Australian institutions today.

While there are fewer Nepalese students abroad than Chinese, Indians, or Vietnamese, Nepal’s outbound mobility ratio (i.e., the proportion of international students in its overall student population) is higher than the ratios of those big sending countries.

According to the World Bank, university-aged Nepalese made up more than a third of the total population in 2016 and the British Council expects Nepal to be among the top ten countries for growth in the 18–22-year-old bracket over the next five years.

Ghana

Ghana’s GDP has risen faster than any other in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade, and analysts believe that in 2018, it may surpass even India’s growth rate. However, growth has been fuelled mostly by oil revenues and masks a history of underinvestment in the rest of the economy, including education.

Faced with a labour market in which there are an estimated 200,000 unemployed graduates but limited job opportunities beyond those in extraction industries, Ghanaian students are increasingly seeking to study abroad. Outbound students – most of whom are studying in China, the US, or the UK, with the balance distributed among institutions in Canada or Europe – number around 12,400.

As in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, cost is the most prohibitive barrier for Ghanaians with dreams of an overseas education. The US is comparatively
expensive, and universities from a growing list of countries are beginning to recruit in Ghana. The Ghanaian newspaper Joy Online recently noted that “It has become common for agents of schools in the United States, United Kingdom and other parts of the world to travel to Ghana to meet prospective students face-to-face. It is in sharp contrast to the past when people
had to struggle, either to travel abroad for admission or have relatives abroad facilitate the process for them.”

Kuwait

Newsweek Middle East recently compared the cost for Kuwaitis of higher education in Kuwait versus the cost of studying overseas. For many fields of study, it is actually more affordable for Kuwaiti students to study overseas: “The price tag for studying certain majors in Kuwait can be as much as double the price of studying the same major abroad.”

Add to that the facts that Kuwait’s major public university, the University of Kuwait, has a serious overcapacity problem, that its private universities offer limited master’s-level programmes and no PhDs, that 15–34-year-olds represent more than a third of the population, and that many Kuwaiti families are very wealthy … and you have a recipe for high demand for study abroad.

Kuwaiti government statistics show that 33,000 Kuwaitis are studying abroad today, with the bulk of students in the US (12,000), Egypt (8,500), and Jordan (6,000). The remainder are in the UK (4,000), UAE (3,000), and Bahrain (2,500), with smaller numbers in Australia, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, France, and Lebanon.

The Kuwaiti government offers thousands of scholarships per year for students wanting a foreign education. In addition, many students are self-financed through the spending power of Kuwaiti families.

Egypt

Egypt is a fascinating market in international education today: an important sender of students as well as an emerging hub for students in the region. It’s also noteworthy because of where its students choose to study abroad:everywhere.

The latest UNESCO data counts 29,000 Egyptians abroad for higher education. Here’s the spread:

• More than 5,200 in UAE;
• More than 4,800 in Saudi Arabia;
• Close to 3,000 in the US;
• Close to 2,000 in France;
• Roughly 1,700 each in Germany, Qatar, and the UK;
• More than 1,000 in Malaysia, Canada, and Jordan.

All this means that Egyptian students are considering a wide range of options for study abroad. In 2017, Egypt’s Daily News reported on a survey by , a firm that helps Egyptians choose where to study. The survey showed that the US is losing ground to other countries, and that the most preferred destinations for Egyptians now are Canada, Australia, and the UK. The US is fourth, followed by Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and New Zealand – still more evidence that the playing field is remarkably open in Egypt, a country where 40% of the population is under age 18.

For additional background, please see:

• “A roadmap for building more diversity in your international enrolment”
• “Five emerging markets to watch”
• “Megatrend: The shift to emerging markets”

The post Diversification and the next five markets appeared first on şÚÁĎąŮÍř Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

In another strong indicator of demand for study abroad, the economy, and the country’s middle class, are both expanding rapidly. Over the last decade, GDP growth has clipped along at an average of 6.5% per year, and the middle class is projected to nearly triple – to roughly 35 million people – by 2025.

As we reported last year, these are the types of factors that have led some analysts to characterise Bangladesh as “the surging consumer market nobody saw coming.”

And these are the same conditions that have driven continuing growth in outbound student mobility over the past decade. UNESCO reports that there were just over 60,000 Bangladeshi students enrolled in tertiary studies abroad in 2017. More than half of those chose to study in Malaysia. The traditional study destinations – the US, UK, Australia, and Canada – have also welcomed increasing numbers of Bangladeshi students in recent years. But so too have an increasing range of emerging destinations in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

Dr Khandker Huda has seen many of these changes firsthand as the CEO of the Dhaka-based education agency . The agency began counselling students on overseas study in 1995, and as Dr Huda explains in our first interview segment below Bangladeshi students have gone on to pursue studies in an expanding range of study destinations over the last decade in particular.

Dr Huda expands on this point in our second interview segment below. “Things are changing every year,” he says, in commenting on the destination preferences of Bangladeshi students. “China is getting lots of students,” he adds, “especially in medical sciences and IT. And students are also going to Malaysia – Malaysia has become like a second home for Bangladeshis.”

When it comes to the major decision factors for Bangladeshi students when choosing a study destination, Dr Huda puts the focus on budget and affordability. Then, he adds, “students look for community – for whether or not there are other Bangladeshis [already studying in the destination]”.

And, he highlights as well, students value certainty and a clear process when planning for study abroad. “People now want hassle-free applications,” he says, including a reasonable prospect of obtaining a visa and being able to travel easily from Bangladesh to the study destination overseas.

In our final segment below, Dr Huda offers some advice as to how educators can approach the Bangladeshi market, including the selection of quality agents in the country.

As we noted in an earlier report, Bangladesh has a tremendous opportunity to realise the full benefits of the so-called “demographic dividend” from its youthful population – but only if it can provide education and training to the millions of students who need it.

Higher education participation continues to expand rapidly, and total tertiary enrolment within Bangladesh expanded by nearly a third between 2012 and 2016 alone, with current estimates placing the population of higher education students in the country at about 2.7 million. The forecast now is for continued steady growth going forward and that this rising demand for higher education will continue to fuel outbound numbers as well.

For additional background, please see:

• “Bangladesh: Middle class growth helping to drive demand for study abroad”
• “Bangladesh struggling to keep up with demand for higher education”

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With that burgeoning college-aged population, it is no surprise that tertiary enrolment in the country has also been booming. More than three million Bangladeshis are now enrolled in higher education, and the country’s University Grants Commission projects that that total will climb to 4.6 million by 2026. Even so, tertiary participation rates have lagged behind regional leaders, such as India and China, and the domestic system has struggled to keep pace with demand, in terms of the number of available spaces, the quality of education, and employment outcomes for graduates.

As we noted in an earlier report, private providers have come to play an increasingly important role in expanding domestic access to higher education. New legislation, first brought forward in May 2014, has also opened the door to foreign universities setting up joint ventures in Bangladesh with local partners. Nearly three years on, however, there has been little progress in this respect and recent reports indicate that Bangladesh’s Education Ministry has moved to block University Grant Commission-backed branch campus applications from British and Australian universities.

“Private university owners have routinely opposed government moves to allow foreign universities to open branches in Bangladesh, and have been influential,” reports . “Sources suggested lobbying by these groups may have been behind the refusal by the ministry to grant approval to foreign branch campuses.”

A big bump in outbound

As domestic capacity continues to lag behind demand, growing numbers of Bangladeshi students are pursuing post-secondary education abroad. The latest data from UNESCO indicates that nearly 31,000 Bangladeshis were enrolled abroad in 2015, a 33% increase over the two years from 2013.

The leading destination, Malaysia, received about 20% of those students in 2015, with other major receiving countries, including the US, the UK, Australia, and Germany rounding out the top five destinations for Bangladeshi students.

A surging middle class

A recent report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) describes Bangladesh as “.” On the strength of steady economic growth, stable inflation, low public debt levels, and growing remittance inflows, the population of “middle and affluent consumers” (or MACs) has grown to about 12 million people, or about 7% of the population.

This is still small compared to more advanced economies in the region, such as Vietnam (21% MACs) or Indonesia (38%). But, as the following chart reflects, that middle class base is growing quickly in Bangladesh, at around 10% or 11% per year, and at a pace that outstrips many other Asian markets. “If Bangladesh can maintain this pace, its MAC population will grow by 65% over the next five years,” says BCG. “By 2025, it is expected to nearly triple, to about 34 million.”

The current and project proportion of middle-class and affluent consumers in Bangladesh and other selected markets. Source: Boston Consulting Group

The other notable characteristic of Bangladesh’s middle class is just how concentrated it is geographically. While this will change over the next decade, as reflected in the illustrations below, Bangladeshi MACs are heavily concentrated in two urban areas today.

The geographic concentration of MAC consumers in Bangladesh, 2015-2015. Source: Boston Consulting Group

“Currently, around 80% of Bangladesh’s MAC population is concentrated in two cities: Dhaka and the eastern port city of Chittagong,” adds BCG. “We see the dispersion of wealth unfolding in two waves. In the first wave, most of the MAC population growth will occur in Dhaka and Chittagong and will begin to take off in smaller cities in the eastern half of Bangladesh.”

The BCG report concludes that, “Very few global companies saw this market coming, so market leadership is very much up for grabs.” It cautions that the market is very value-conscious and that any marketing effort should stress both quality and value-for-money, or ROI. It notes as well that mobile technologies are being widely and rapidly adopted by Bangladeshi consumers and that digital marketing programmes must be well-optimised for mobile.

For additional background on this important emerging marketing, please see:

• “Bangladesh struggling to keep up with demand for higher education”
• “Survey reveals motivations of postgraduate students in emerging markets”

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We say “slice” because the report essentially parses selected emerging market responses to the QS World Grad School Tour Applicant Survey gathered between June 2014 and June 2016. At 2,096 emerging market respondents, the sample size is small (especially on a per country basis) but nevertheless provides some interesting directional indicators for recruiters. All of those responding to the survey were in the process of applying for admission to postgraduate degree programmes abroad.

The survey zeroes in on four countries that are increasingly seen as significant emerging markets for international recruitment: Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, and Turkey. In most cases, QS has paired these priority targets with other promising markets from the same region: Brazil with Mexico and Colombia, Nigeria with Ghana and Kenya, and Indonesia with the Philippines.

Bangladesh and Pakistan round out an 11-country sample of markets that share some common characteristics: booming youth populations, significant issues with domestic higher education, and, in some cases, national scholarship schemes to support study abroad.

Why study abroad?

Consistent with other surveys in the field, QS finds that employability is a major driver of demand for postgraduate studies abroad.

Most emerging market respondents indicated more specifically that their primary motivation for study abroad was to progress in their current career path. Bangladesh and Pakistan were the exceptions here: most applicants from those countries said they wanted to pursue postgraduate degrees abroad in order to progress to higher-level academic qualifications (that is, doctoral studies).

Where to study?

Not surprisingly, the US and UK were the two most-preferred destinations among emerging market respondents, with Canada, Australia, and Germany rounding out the top five choices.

Some interesting regional variations were noted, with the US and Canada more prominent in the preferences of students in Nigeria and Ghana, for example, and Germany and Australia more strongly preferred by Bangladeshi and Pakistani students. In contrast, the US and UK were consistently the number one and number two choices (respectively) of emerging market respondents in Latin America.

The main factor behind destination preferences appears to be “international recognition of qualifications,” which QS interprets as the students’ interest in ensuring that their foreign degrees will be valued at home and abroad.

Broadly speaking, African and South Asian students gave even greater weight to the availability of scholarships or other financial aid. And respondents from Latin America, along with their interest in international recognition of qualifications earned abroad, put a high priority on cultural and lifestyle factors.

The importance of subject rankings

When it comes down to choosing an institution, most respondents (47% of master’s applicants, 49% of doctoral applicants) put the highest priority on the institution’s reputation or ranking with respect to their intended field of study.

For master’s applicants, and reflecting the overarching importance of recognition of qualifications earned abroad, this was closely followed by institutional reputation (45%), employment prospects (40%), and funding (34%). Funding was the second-ranked factor for PhD applicants (42%) followed by overall institutional reputation (36%).

QS concludes that framing postgraduate study as a stepping stone to career advancement is likely to have the widest appeal, except for students in Pakistan and Bangladesh who are more strongly inclined to see master’s-level study as a path to a more advanced degree.

The report authors also suggest highlighting both subject-specific and institutional reputation for prospective postgraduate students, with a greater emphasis on subject-specific strengths when recruiting in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey.

On the key question of post-study work, the report concludes, “While post-study work opportunities are considered by a significant proportion of applicants in all profiled markets, this appears to have a particularly strong impact on the destination choices of those in the Philippines, Brazil and Turkey, while carrying less weight for those in Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Indonesia.”

For additional background on the motivations and key decision factors for international postgraduate students, please see:

• “Survey says employment prospects the key for postgraduate applicants”
• “When it comes to rankings, students really want to know about employment”

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Previously a province of Pakistan, Bangladesh is a relatively new country that secured its independence in 1971. Most Bangladeshis are Muslims and the official language is Bengali. The unofficial second language, however, is English, and it is widely used in higher education as the language of instruction at both private and public institutions.

Just over half of the country’s GDP is generated by the service sector, but even so, nearly half of its people are employed in agriculture. Poverty remains a massive issue in Bangladesh, with nearly a third of the population (31.5%) at or below the national poverty line.

However, the Bangladeshi economy has begun to transform itself over the past decade or more, and has clearly established a pattern of strong and steady growth over the period. “For the last 20 years at the rate of 5% on average,” says Shamsul Haque, the vice-chancellor of Northern University Bangladesh. “This growth has been witnessed by the changing composition of GDP in the major sectors. Currently over 50% of GDP comes from the service sector and about 30% from manufacturing industries, and agriculture contributing to just under 20%. This transformation in the economy created demand for higher education in the country.”

Burgeoning demand for higher education

Bangladesh shares the same challenges of many of its South Asian neighbours: its economy is growing quickly as is its large, youthful population. 34% of Bangladeshis are aged 15 or younger, and the country has an opportunity to realise the full benefit of this “demographic dividend” in the years ahead – but only if it can provide education and training to the millions of students who need it.

“Rising demand in South Asia for higher education is currently not being met,” reports the British Council. “As South Asian countries forge a path towards growth of their industry and services sectors, the role of the higher education sector in facilitating a skilled, knowledgeable workforce has become critical.”

Indeed, Bangladesh has seen a tremendous increase in enrolment over the last decade or so. Total tertiary enrolment has nearly tripled since 2000 and surpassed two million students in 2012. But even with that growth, overall participation ratios are quite low, to the point that only 13.23% of college-age students were enrolled in higher education in 2012, as compared to 24.80% in India or 26.70% in China for that same year.

The overall enrolment growth since 2000, however, is an important indicator of a dramatic spike in demand for higher education. Looking ahead, the British Council counts Bangladesh – along with Nigeria, the Philippines, Turkey, and Ethiopia – among the for the next decade.

Domestic tertiary enrolment is forecast to increase by another 700,000 students through 2022, meaning that the total number enrolled in higher education will approach three million by that point.

Tertiary school populations in South Asia, 2010. Source: UNESCO, UN World Population Prospects

Outbound keeping pace

Just as the increase in domestic tertiary enrolment reflects an underlying surge in demand over the last ten to 15 years, Bangladeshi outbound mobility has also grown over this period. Just over 7,900 Bangladeshis pursued higher education abroad in the year 2000, but that number had tripled by 2013.

UNESCO tells us that an estimated went abroad that year, with a fairly balanced distribution among major study destinations.

Interestingly, most students pursue their studies outside of the region. The UK was the leading choice among Bangladeshi students in 2013 (4,204, or 17.44% of the total), followed by the US with 3,664 students (15.20%), Australia with 3,603 (14.94%), Malaysia with 2,003 (8.31%), and Canada with 1,530 students (6.35%). Add Japan and the 1,364 Bangladeshi students that it hosted in 2013, and those top six destinations together account for just over two-thirds of all outbound mobility from the country.

Demand for an overseas education is being fueled by a supply-demand gap at home, but also by persistent quality issues in Bangladeshi higher education and by corresponding issues of employability.

makes the following general observation of education outcomes in the region: “An unfortunate by-product of the low quality of higher education – both for the economies of the region and the students themselves – is the low employability of graduates who emerge from the universities. Though there are notable exceptions, as a general rule, employers in South Asia are more inclined towards graduates from the large public universities.”

Growing role of private providers

Study abroad is one solution to a capacity crunch at home. But an expansion of the system through growing participation of private-sector providers is another. With the country’s independence in the early 1970s, many schools and institutions in Bangladesh were brought under state control. The National University was established in 1992 and functions as an umbrella institution to administer exams and award credentials for a large network of affiliated colleges delivering both undergraduate and graduate degree programmes.

The National University remains the premiere higher education institution in the country today, and competition for entry – in part because of the heavy state subsidies for tuition – is fierce. But the expansion of private universities has been an important part of the expansion of Bangladeshi higher education over the last decade, and increasingly it is the private sector that is expected to shoulder the load of the country’s growing demand for advanced education. As the British Council has observed, “Rocketing demand for higher education has facilitated the growth of private provision as a strategy to absorb pressure on public sector places, shifting the costs of tuition away from the state, onto students and their families.”

There are 31 public universities in Bangladesh today but the number of private institutions is growing quickly. Estimates vary, in part due to how private institutions are counted, but there are as many as 84 private universities operating currently – the vast majority of which have been established since 2000.

, or roughly a quarter of the total tertiary enrolment in the country. The growing influence of the universities and their burgeoning student body was recently felt when the government was forced to abruptly alter plans to impose a 7.5% VAT (value added tax) levy on private university fees.

In the face of mounting student protests, the government changed its policy so that university fees would be inclusive of the VAT, in effect meaning that the tax burden has shifted (at least for the moment) to the institutions themselves rather than the students.

Up until last year, the growing influence of private university operators had also kept at bay new legislation that sought to open the Bangladeshi market to foreign providers. However, after a delay of several months, a new law was brought forward on 31 May 2014 to allow foreign universities to establish joint ventures with local partners and operate branch campuses or study centres in Bangladesh. Any such branch operations are subject to the approval and oversight of Bangladesh’s University Grants Commission () and must comply with a regulatory and licensing structure set out in the new legislation.

The move remains controversial, at least within the educator sector in Bangladesh. Private providers charge that allowing foreign providers to set up local operations will weaken higher education in the country. The government for its part is confident of the quality controls in place and of the level of oversight provided for by the new law. “We will exercise caution so that no one can deceive students and no one can do business in the name of providing an education,” said Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid.

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These are some of the findings of the Pew Research Center’s . The study updates a similar effort from 2013, which highlighted the strong levels of web usage and engagement for social and mobile users. The findings for the 2014 edition are drawn from in-person interviews with 36,619 people across 32 emerging and developing countries conducted from March 17 to June 5, 2014. The results for those 32 countries – including significant education markets such as China, India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, and Mexico – have been benchmarked against a related Pew Center telephone survey of 1,002 Americans, also conducted in 2014.

The study’s high-level findings provide a compact overview of Internet access in developing and emerging economies, along with important insights as to how people access and use the Internet in each country.

For example, the following graphic illustrates the percentage of the population in each country who access the Internet at least occasionally or own a smartphone (as smartphone users, practically speaking, are also Internet users).

Those who access the Internet at least occasionally or own a smartphone within the 32 countries in the 2014 Global Attitudes study. Source: Pew Research Center

Do some of those numbers look lower than you would expect? If so, it is probably because you spend a lot of time talking to students. The Pew study points out that Internet usage is highly concentrated within younger demographics in developing and emerging economies, particularly among those with a high school education or higher and particularly among those who can speak or read English.

The following table summarises the variances in Internet usage for these factors, and, as you will see, they are quite striking in some cases. (Please note that some table cells are left empty for some countries due to insufficient sample size for the characteristic in question.)

Internet usage by age, education, and English ability among the 32 countries in the 2014 Global Attitudes study. Source: Pew Research Center

These findings make intuitive sense in that the 18-to-34-year-old demographic came of age during a period of dramatic technological change, including the emergence of the Internet and the widespread adoption of mobile devices. In addition to these factors, and, as was the case in last year’s global survey, the 2014 study also finds a close correlation between Internet usage and income. Simply put, “Richer countries in terms of gross domestic product per capita have more Internet users among the adult population compared with poorer nations.”

Also echoing last year’s study, Pew finds that Internet users in developing and emerging economies are highly engaged socially. Staying in touch with friends and family and engagement with social media remain the leading ways in which they like to use the Internet.

This point reinforces an important aspect of communicating with secondary school and college-age Internet users: they are highly engaged socially and those social channels in turn are an important source of information and product or service recommendations. A recent post from NewBrand Analytics makes the point concisely:

“A study of millennials [that is, those born between 1980 and 2000] states that 95% of respondents say friends are their most credible source for information when making a purchase. Additionally, 98% are more likely to engage with posts by friends about a brand versus a post by the brand itself. Therefore, an effective method to get millennials loyal to your brand is to get other millennials talking online.”

Following on from the importance of this highly socialised exchange, Pew also finds that searching for more practical news and information is the next major category of Internet usage in developing and emerging economies. “For Internet users in emerging and developing nations, social relationships are a fundamental aspect of their interaction with the virtual world,” says the study. “Getting various types of information, such as political news, health information and government services, is the next tier of Internet use.”

What’s in your pocket?

The Pew report also has some important observations in terms of how users in developing and emerging economies access the Internet. It tracks usage and ownership of desktop computers from country to country but also smartphone and cell phone penetration as well.

The report notes, “Overall, a median of 38% across the 32 nations surveyed say they have a working computer in their household. In 11 countries, half or more own computers, including 78% in Russia – comparable to the 80% of Americans who say they have a computer in their household. Computer ownership is relatively high in a number of Latin American nations. Majorities in Chile (72%), Venezuela (61%), Argentina (58%) and Brazil (55%) have computers in their homes. Computer ownership rates are lowest in sub-Saharan African nations.”

The extent to which users in each country have reliable access to computers outside the home (e.g., at school or at work) is less clear. Leaving this aspect aside for a moment, we can see that computer ownership broadly correlates to national income levels and explains at least part of the relationship between Internet usage and income that we noted earlier.

Along that same line, cell phone ownership is much more common in the emerging and developing countries in the Pew survey. A median of 84% (across all 32 countries) own a cell phone of some kind. This compares to the US benchmark of 90% for cell phone ownership, and the survey finds a marked difference still between the penetration of more basic cell phones as opposed to smartphones. “Smartphones – and the mobile access to the Internet that they make possible in some locations – are not nearly as common as conventional cell phones. A median of only 24% say they own a cell phone that can access the Internet and applications.”

Percentage of 2014 Global Attitude respondents who own a smartphone or cell phone. Source: Pew Research Center

However, phone ownership again underscores the relationship between age and Internet usage. As with the broader correlation the study observes between these factors, smartphone ownership is also highly concentrated among younger users. “Young people (those under 35) are significantly more likely than their older counterparts to own an iPhone, BlackBerry, Android or other Internet-capable mobile phone,” says Pew.

Overall, the study makes an important point that broader statistics of Internet penetration and usage in developing and emerging economies have to be interpreted via some important filters, including age, education, English ability, and income. In an international education context, the high school and college-age prospects that educators and agents are mainly trying to reach are among the heaviest users of web and mobile technologies. In this sense, the findings of the 2014 Pew study will only reinforce the importance of the Internet, and the social and mobile web in particular, as a key channel for reaching and engaging prospective students.

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