One such trend is to be found in Latin America right now.

Many Latin American countries have been sending increasing numbers of students abroad – but many are also home to important and sophisticated institutions that are competing ever more strongly for students from all over the world.

Latin American outbound

Spain is a highly popular country for Latin American students. Spanish institutions have been receiving increasing numbers of Latin American students for several years: Ecuador is the #2 market and Colombia is #4. Both are growing much faster than the remaining countries in Spain’s top 5 list.

In Portugal, where the number of international students in higher education has more than doubled in the past decade, 41% of the nearly 50,000 international students enrolled in Portuguese universities were from Brazil.

Latin America is also an increasingly important region for Canada. Canadian institutions hosted 81% more Mexican students in 2021 than 2020, while Bolivia, Chile, and Peru sent 153%, 133%, and 113% more students, respectively. In the US, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela are in the top 25 markets.

Moving to Australia, the fastest growing source region for students is Latin America. Between 2013–17, the number of Latin American students in Australian institutions , and the vocational and English-language sectors are responsible for a lot of that growth. In 2018, 40,000 Brazilian students were in Australia, making them the fourth-largest international student group. Colombia is also now in Australia’s top 10 source markets.

That’s a lot of outbound. But it’s only part of the story of Latin American internationalisation right now.

International collaborations are a top priority

In 2019, QS conducted a survey that found that fully . The strategies’ goals included:

• Comprehensive internationalisation (49%)
• Expansion and improvement of international mobility (41%)
• Development and promotion of new international partnerships (31%)
• Encouragement of international academic collaboration (26%)
• Improvement of international activities management and processes (17%)

By “comprehensive internationalisation,” respondents meant that they were committed to developing their “programmes, staff, and activities that will ultimately help to attract international talent and develop academic staff to become experts in their field of research.”

The level of development was high enough already in 2019 that Latin American countries were receiving almost as many students (137,000) as they were sending students abroad (195,400), according to UNESCO data.

Institutions responding to the QS survey painted a picture of collaboration and global-mindedness: “Most universities in the region [had] between 50 to 400 official international agreements (65%) and up to 100 unofficial collaborations (54%) with global partner institutions.”

In 2022 – despite the pandemic – Latin American universities have only upped their game. reports that at the 2022 NAFSA conference,

“Dr Rodrigo Cintra, chief international officer of Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM or Higher School of Advertising and Marketing) in São Paulo, Brazil, put the American and European universities that have dominated international education on notice, saying: ‘We are here to play with you.’”

Underpinning the confidence is the fact that Latin American universities invested heavily in technology and online platforms during the pandemic. Dr Brigitte Baptiste, rector of the Universidad Ean in BogotĂĄ, Colombia, told the NAFSA audience,

“We invested lots of money in our technological capacities. But also, in creating new languages or making virtual interaction less boring, less heavy, much more attractive for learners.”

Encouraging intra-regional mobility has been a heavier priority for Latin American countries of late. In 2019, we reported that 23 Latin American countries had signed on to a new Convention for the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Higher Education Diplomas in Latin America and the Caribbean. The agreement was born out of concern that too many Latin American students were going overseas to study rather than staying within the region. The hope attached to the agreement was that encouraging intra-regional mobility would concentrate graduate talent in Latin America rather than see too much of it migrate overseas.

The growing niche Latin American universities are carving out for high-quality online platforms and teaching is complemented by their investment in the kind of programmes the world needs most right now. Focuses include trauma-informed pedagogy, racial literacy and critical thinking (Universidad Veritas in Costa Rica) as well as sustainability, pollution, and climate change. reports that Ms Baptiste “challenged her audience to re-imagine “tourism, agricultural, food and entrepreneurship programmes from a sustainable point of view.”

A greater focus on intra-regional?

It will be interesting and exciting to see if Latin America follows a similar internationalisation trajectory as Asia has over the past few years. As we reported in 2019, Asian students have had more and more reason to stay within their region rather than study in the West. Reasons for that, we noted in 2019, included:

• “A dozen of the world’s 100 top ranked universities are now in Asia – in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. (Editor’s update: In the , the number of Asian institutions in the top 100 is now 26, meaning that a quarter of the world’s best-ranked universities are now in Asia.)

• Asia is the world’s fastest-growing regional economy; China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea are driving the most expansion. Students realise that Asian universities can help them to access industry internships and jobs in the region.

• China, the continent’s powerhouse, invests heavily in its massive, multifaceted soft-power initiative known as One Belt, One Road, which stretches through more than a hundred countries and through South and East Asia. China is creating thousands of scholarships to attract Asian as well as African students. It is increasing higher education capacity and tempting Asian students from within the region to choose China rather than go overseas. (Editor’s update: China has closed its borders for more than two years now as a result of COVID. It will be interesting to see whether, once China opens up, international students return to the country in the same massive volumes as before the pandemic.)

• Students everywhere are gravitating towards programmes with strong and immediate employment outcomes. Asian universities are performing very well in this regard. QS’s 2019 Graduate Employability Rankings include four Asian universities – Tsinghua, Peking, Hong Kong and Tokyo – among the top 20 institutions. QS notes that “Asian universities are among the world’s best at enhancing their alumni’s job market prospects.” (Editor’s update: In QS’s , 23 Asian institutions were in the top 100).

• More than half a dozen Asian countries have national strategies aimed at making them major destinations, with several setting international student targets. China is now the world’s fourth most popular study destination after the US, Australia, and Canada. (Editor’s update: This is no longer the case given that no international students have been able to enter China for more than two years. Again, it will be interesting to see what happens when China lifts its travel restrictions).”

As it stands, six Latin American universities are in the 2022 QS World University Rankings.

For additional background, please see:

• “New scheme aims to boost student mobility within Latin America”
• “Closer to home: Intra-regional mobility in Asia“
• “șÚÁÏčÙÍű Exchange podcast: Latin America market update: agent and educator reaction to COVID-19”

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Texas, for example, is the third-ranked destination among US states, after only New York and California. There were roughly 82,000 foreign students studying in the Lone Star State in 2019, with most coming from India, China, Mexico (which of course shares a border with Texas), Vietnam, and Nepal.

is a consortium of 38 colleges and universities from across the state, and one of 32 state-level DMOs in the US. Its goal is to promote Texas as the premier study destination for international students in the US.

In a normal year, the group focuses on promotional events and recruitment activities in select target markets, and in advocacy work, especially around federal immigration guidance or other policy directions that impact international students.

This year, explains Chair Jessica Guiver, “we have moved all of our marketing efforts online, because that’s where everyone else is right now.” This has meant an increasing focus on regular online member meetings where Study Texas institutions can share information and market insights. It has led to new initiatives as well, including the video below, and to a move to virtual recruitment events online. The group is now organising the Study Texas Virtual Fair 2020, which will be held on 14 November.

Supporting agents with content

When it comes to promoting Spain’s as a study destination – and especially for Spanish language study – the region’s tourist board often focuses on raising awareness and engagement among education agencies. In previous editions of șÚÁÏčÙÍű Berlin, this has reflected in part in attention-grabbing serving stations for Spanish ham and cheese.

“Malaga [Costa del Sol] is one of the most important destinations now for language tourism in Spain,” says Executive Consultant Matthias Werner. “We try simply to bring more students and to help the agents. We provide them with content, with videos, with photos; we go to fairs. We are there to promote Costa del Sol and to help the agents in selling the destination.”

But this year, the tourism board has put the emphasis on creating new content resources targeted to agencies, including photography, video, blog posts, and of course expanded use of social channels as well.

Mr Werner explains that along with its content focus this year, the tourism board is laying plans for a three-phase marketing approach when the recovery from the pandemic begins to take hold. The first phase will focus on domestic travellers from elsewhere in Spain, and then on neighbouring markets such as Portugal, Morocco, and France. In a second phase, the board will expand its efforts to the rest of Europe, and then finally to markets overseas. “We have students from all around the world and we are getting more and more well-known especially in China and Japan,” adds Mr Werner.

Repositioning for recovery

“In many respects we are a college town,” says Undersecretary of International and Institutional Relations for Buenos Aires Francisco Resnicoff. “A big college town.”

Indeed, there are roughly 600,000 domestic and international students studying in the city’s well-regarded universities. Mr Resnicoff adds, “We are also a very exciting city to live in: the culture, the night life, good weather all year round, and we are also the safest and most liveable city in Latin America, according to The Economist.”

He explains as well that there were 90,000 international students in the city early this year. That all changed in March when the pandemic hit Argentina: the number of international students dropped dramatically, no new students were able to come, and the city has been in lockdown since.

Study Buenos Aires’s response to all that was to take the opportunity to develop a strategy for how to reposition the city as a study destination once borders open again.

The first step in the process was to look closely at market trends and to identify important target markets for Buenos Aires.

Next, Mr Resnicoff explains, the group then worked to position Buenos Aires not just as an exciting place to be but as a preferred, safe destination. This included working with other cities around the region to develop safe corridors for students to travel to Buenos Aires (most foreign students in the city come from elsewhere in Latin America).

Finally, and in collaboration with universities around the city, Study Buenos Aires looked at how to further improve the offer for students to make it an even more attractive destination. This has led in turn to a number of further initiatives, including: the development of safe travel/safe reception guidelines for visiting students and expanded scholarship supports for those pursuing both graduate and short-term programmes.

“Our goal is to next year recover some of the [enrolment base] that we have lost due to the pandemic,” adds Mr Resnicoff. “But by the end of the process, in 2023, to recover the entire [enrolment base to 2019 levels].”

For additional background, please see:

• “Destination marketing organisations adding new partnerships and resources for international student recruitment“
• “Where are you? The importance of location in international recruiting“
• “Leading with the destination: A case study in location-based marketing“

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As readers may be aware, șÚÁÏčÙÍű recently conducted its second online event – șÚÁÏčÙÍű Virtual Americas – which was held from the 25th to the 27th of August. The event featured a series of webinars for attendees and we are adapting one of those for today’s podcast.

Our host is Marcela Wolff-Lopez, șÚÁÏčÙÍű’s Director of Business Development for Latin America. Marcela is based in Medellin, Colombia and she is joined by a panel of experts from across the region. Their wide-ranging discussion explores how the region has responded to COVID-19 and also what opportunities are now emerging for recruitment from and among Latin markets.

You can listen to the episode in the player below, and we encourage you to subscribe via your favourite podcast app in order to receive future episodes automatically.

For additional background, please see:

• “șÚÁÏčÙÍű Exchange podcast: Building safe student corridors: A case study from Canada”

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The study is entitled , and it prompted a flurry of meetings over the summer to arrive at a strategy for boosting mobility in the region.

Most study outside of the region

The UNESCO study found that less than four in ten (38%) of the 312,000 Latin American and Caribbean students who studied abroad in 2017 remained in the region. Meanwhile, more than half (54%) chose to study in North America or Europe.

The most popular places within Latin America/Caribbean for students from the region are Argentina and Chile, which drew 84% and 87% of their foreign enrolments, respectively, from within the region.

The most attractive destinations in Latin America for international students from outside the region are Ecuador and Brazil. Just over half of international students in Brazil come from outside the region, many of them from Portugal, Spain, and the United States. Brazil also draws students from sub-Saharan Africa.

But overall, Latin America and the Caribbean are not hotspots for overseas students. In 2017, the region drew only 176,000 international students (a 3.5% share of the global total), 7 in 10 of which were from other Latin American/Caribbean countries. Another 12% came from North America and Western Europe.

New agreement

This past summer in Buenos Aires, representatives from 23 countries attended the organised by UNESCO. For three days, the delegates worked on an agreement to better harmonise education systems across Latin America and the Caribbean and thus pave the way for increased student mobility within the region. At the end of the conference, the representatives signed, on behalf of their countries, a new Convention for the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Higher Education Diplomas in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The signatory countries to the Convention are Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Granada, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The new agreement, also known as the “Buenos Aires Recognition Convention,” will commit all signatories to put “all the necessary measures” in place to allow for the recognition of various education credentials across the signatory countries. This, in turn, will make it easier for students to apply to and be accepted into other member countries’ education institutions. Smoothing such processes has been shown to be a major driver of intra-regional mobility (perhaps most notably in the EU where Erasmus+ allowed 800,000 Europeans to study, train, or volunteer in partner countries around the world in 2017).

The Buenos Aires Recognition Convention “will be implemented in synergy with the .” The secretariat for the new convention will be UNESCO’s International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO-IESALC) in Caracas, Venezuela.

After the convention is ratified, credential evaluators will need to be trained and systems put in place to allow institutions to be able to easily assess Latin American students’ academic transcripts and diplomas/degrees. This, as is the case in all mobility agreements, will be a lengthy process, but at least the stage has now been set for it to happen.

A new step in internationalisation

Latin American students are no strangers to large-scale programmes aimed to enable them to travel abroad for study. For example, Mexico launched Proyecta 100,000 in 2013, a massive project intended to increase Mexican enrolments in US English-language training programmes to 100,000 by 2018. Canada has its own version of the initiative with Mexico: Proyecta 10,000.

Another significant agreement between Latin American/Caribbean countries and the US is , the goal of which is to boost the number of American students studying in Latin America and the Caribbean to 100,000 and bring 100,000 students to the United States by 2020.

Brazil’s Science Without Borders programme is now over, but from its beginning to end, it sent a huge number of students abroad to the US, Canada, and UK.

There has also been a project called CAMINOS (scheduled to end this October), an umbrella project designed to leverage existing mobility schemes between European and Latin American countries. CAMINOS was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and implemented through a consortium of 28 partners from Europe and Latin America.

For additional background, please see:

• “Southeast Asia trading and mobility bloc continues to take shape”
• “Mongolian outbound higher than estimated, most of it going to Asian powerhouses”
• “Top Asian institutions form new universities alliance”
• “Erasmus+ supported nearly 800,000 international placements in 2017”

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The students, more than half of whom studied at the graduate and post-graduate levels, were asked 14 questions, many of which focused on how changing economic conditions would affect their plans for study abroad.

Know your markets

The presentation in Denver drew in part on a previous FPP/Intead study, “Know Your Neighborhood: International Recruiting Fuelled by Regional Insights,” that illustrates how different students in various markets are in their attitudes and behaviours related to study abroad.

For example, while it is common for international educators to promote popular programmes such as general business or computer science, this wouldn’t resonate as well in Thailand as it would in other countries. That’s because Thais turn out to be most interested in studying the arts, education, human rights, international business, and medicine.

Students also differ in their hopes upon graduation: for example, Argentinians and Panamanians are more interested in bringing their newly acquired skills back home, while Malaysians, Indians, and Venezuelans are interested in staying abroad after their studies.

As international education markets continue to mature worldwide, knowing these tendencies should influence how you position your institution or school for prospective students. For example, if your country has attractive post-graduation work rights available to international students, that might play very well in Malaysia – but it would be less crucial to mention in Argentina. Intead CEO Benjamin Waxman noted how important it is to consider what makes your school unique in a given market, asking, “What can you say about your school that will make students think it is the best choice for them?”

The issue of affordability and the importance of scholarships

The latest Intead/FPP EDU research shows that in certain markets, large proportions of students are better able to afford studying abroad than they were two years ago. These include Algeria (where 81% indicated they could more easily afford to go abroad today), Vietnam (80%), and Colombia (75%). By contrast, only 40% of Italian respondents and 33% of Venezuelans felt that they could more readily afford to study abroad today compared to 2014.

Across the board, Mr Waxman said, students are attracted to the possibility of scholarships. He noted that especially on social media, students are very likely to click on any mention of scholarships, and concluded: “To the extent that you can use scholarships in your marketing tools, you should.” The research shows that in some markets – Venezuela, Brazil, and Malaysia – students are particularly influenced by a lack of scholarships for a given school or destination.

Unfavourable shifts in currency exchange rates can also have a profound effect on students in some markets. In Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, and Indonesia, large proportions have postponed plans to study abroad for this reason, while in Venezuela and Argentina, many students said they would abandon plans to go abroad altogether.

Meanwhile, significant numbers of students in Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, and Malaysia said they are considering countries other than the US as their currency depreciates against the US dollar. Overall, nearly three in ten survey respondents (27%) indicated that they are planning on studying in a country other than the US “where my funds have more value.”

These currency effects open up an opportunity for schools from other English-speaking destination markets, and last year for example, we saw destinations such as Canada, Malta, South Africa, and Ireland gain traction in Brazil as the real declined sharply relative to other major world currencies.

This is not to say, however, that providers in more expensive destinations don’t have strategic options as well. US schools, for example, could adapt to sharper currency devaluations in some sending markets by offering tuition discounts, rebates, or more flexible payment schedules, or by targeting scholarships or other financial aid to students in those countries.

Tuition discounting, while widespread in some market segments, is often criticised as a short-sighted choice. We do, however, tend to see a spike in discounting activity in response to global economic pressures; in fall 2015, for example, there were reports of some language programme providers aggressively discounting in order to attract students in markets affected by currency devaluations.

Accept that economic crises are normal, and adapt strategies when necessary

The audience listening to the FPP/Intead presentation at NAFSA also heard that economic crises, or other significant market disruptions, are a constant factor in international education, and looked at a slide deck that outlined dozens of economic downturns that have occurred since the 1970s.

The reality, conference attendees were advised, is that “crisis is normal,” and international educators must be prepared for the eventuality that important sending markets will at one point or another will enter difficult times.

Rather than stepping back from troubled markets in those moments, the presenters urged calm and suggested instead that recruiters adopt a more balanced and adaptive approach:

1. Think in a different way: change your approach – the current one probably won’t be as effective as it has been, but another strategy might be;
2. Collect information – don’t rely on external media only, as such media is often overly dramatic, so make sure to get information from trusted local partners and other sources to get a real feeling for what’s going on;
3. Look for opportunities: A markets may shrink during crisis but this doesn’t mean that the right idea is to abandon the market.

Implicit in these suggestions is the idea that when a market is affected by an economic downturn, some institutions will pull back and this can reduce the competition for students – which can in turn open up potential market share gains for those who stay the course. Eventually of course the crisis will pass. And maintaining or expanding a presence in a market when it is going through tough times can be a strategic choice that will pay off over the long term once a recovery is underway and the underlying strengths that drew you to the market in the first place – economic fundamentals, demographics, supply-demand dynamics – begin to assert themselves again.

The FPP/Intead presentation underlined both (1) the profound effect that currency rates can have on international student mobility, and (2) the reality that schools have tools at their disposal to adapt to an economic crisis – and even to use it to deepen branding and long-term enrolments. The key is to understand the effect an economic crisis is having on students, and then to use data – and local sources – to develop strategies to maintain, or increase, market share.

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These are some of the key linkages advanced in the , the 5th annual edition of the EPI released earlier this month by Education First (). “English proficiency is less associated with the elite, and it is not as closely tied to the United States or the United Kingdom as it once was,” notes this year’s survey report.

“Instead, English is becoming a basic skill for the entire global workforce, in the same way that literacy has been transformed in the last two centuries from an elite privilege into a basic requirement for informed citizenship.”

This year’s EPI ranking includes 70 countries (up from 63 last year) and is based on online language tests undertaken by 910,000 adult English language learners over 2014. EF began gathering and analysing large volumes of data in 2007 and so this year’s report has the advantage of being able to look back and track trends over several years.

As we have noted of the EPI in the past, however, one necessary caution when looking at the rankings is that the EPI is not a statistically controlled study. The test subjects complete a free test online on a voluntary basis and as such, may not entirely reflect the overall English proficiency of a given country.

The EPI results are therefore best understood as directional indicators of proficiency in a given country or region, but they have a number of important findings to offer in that respect. The report also makes the interesting point that, “Regions are still the strongest predictor of English ability. This ‘neighborhood’ effect is particularly strong in parts of Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.”

The 2015 round-up of global “neighbourhoods” finds that:

• Europe continues to lead the world in terms of English proficiency, particularly countries in Northern and Central Europe that have seen steady gains over the past five years;
• Latin America continues to be a low proficiency region but on average English skills have improved this year;
• Asia, the world’s most populous region, shows greater variability with countries at both the high and low end of the proficiency spectrum;
• The Middle East and North Africa demonstrates low levels of English ability overall and was the only region to register declining proficiency this year.

Placement of Asian countries by EF band for 2015, where the dark green at the left of the range indicates the Very High Proficiency band and the orange on the far right indicates the Very Low Proficiency band.

In terms of demographic variations, the 2015 survey finds that women generally speak better English than men in every country. However, this gender gap also tends to narrow in the higher proficiency countries.

The report notes as well that, “Worldwide, English proficiency levels are highest among young adults aged 18-20. However, on a global level, the difference in English ability between age cohorts is extremely small for adults under 30. On a national level, the story is quite different, with some countries showing stark generational differences and others almost none.”

China and Latin America changing places

Much has been made this year of China’s move down the rankings, and the fact that a number of Latin American countries – including Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and Brazil – have moved past China on the global proficiency tables.

As in 2014, China remains in the “Low Proficiency” band again this year but it has fallen down the ranking table, from 37th place last year to 47th for 2015. EF is quick to point out that the longer-term trends clearly indicate that China has made considerable progress in building English proficiency over the past decade. The 2015 results, therefore, may reflect more a temporary slowdown in that progress than anything else. The report adds however that, “Despite China’s investments in English training, it remains stagnant in the Low Proficiency band. With a massive population spread across urban and rural areas, it struggles to significantly improve overall English proficiency.”

Within China, students in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai had the highest test scores. Interestingly, EF also found that the proficiency of Chinese students aged 21 to 25 is lower than those aged 18 to 20 or 26 to 30.

Christopher McCormick, EF’s Senior Vice-President for academic affairs, recently explained to China Daily that . “More young working professionals in China are using English than ever before and this experience is giving them a higher level,” he said. “By comparison, university students have less exposure or practice, which led to a relatively lower proficiency either than younger students or working professionals.”

He added that for students aged between 18 and 20, their most recent experience of English is intensive English training for exams including gaokao. But once they are in university in China, they will be focusing on their academic studies and English is less of a priority at that point.

All that said, it is important to point out as well that China’s overall proficiency score declined by less than a single point (-.74) between 2014 and 2015. The change in ranking this year may have more to do with the fact that several new countries have been added to the survey and several others, notably in Latin America, have demonstrated higher proficiency scores for 2015.

EF says of the region, “Latin America has been on a positive trajectory since 2007
Of the 14 Latin American countries featured in this index, all but one has improved since last year
In recent years, policymakers and economists in Latin America have made education reform a top priority for advancing economic development. In 2014, several countries launched national initiatives for improving English language teaching in public schools.”

Placement of Latin American countries by EF band for 2015, where the dark green at the left of the range indicates the Very High Proficiency band and the orange on the far right indicates the Very Low Proficiency band.

Overall, Latin America is the most improved region in this year’s index. Panama demonstrated the greatest gains of any country in 2015 (moving up 5.07 points over its 2014 index rating), and all but one country in the region (Colombia) has either held steady or improved in 2015.

Argentina is the region’s sole entry in the Very High Proficiency band this year, and only three (Colombia, El Salvador, and Venezuela) remain in the Very Low Proficiency band.

Most of the gains in the region are attributed to large-scale education reforms and investment in either mobility or language learning. Most of these initiatives have only been enacted in the last few years and, while their sustainability and long-term impact remains to be seen, this also suggests the region may be poised for further gains in English proficiency in the years ahead.

Indeed, EF points to such investments as key, long-term contributors to greater English proficiency. “Unlike consumables like flipflops or computer chips, a rising demand for English skills does not guarantee a greater supply,” concludes the report. “Mastery of a language is difficult and expensive. Adult skill sets, particularly for complex tasks like speaking a language, have built-in inertia. In addition, adult English skills are largely determined by public school systems, not often known for their agility. Inertia and stability are not inherently negative, however. They also underlie consistently high adult English proficiency levels in some parts of the world.”

While English proficiency is not developing at the same rate in regions or countries around the world, the demand (and opportunities) for English speakers in the workforce remains strong. The same is true for the linkages between skills – language skills included – and economic and social development, all of which will continue to make EF’s global proficiency index worth watching closely in the years ahead.

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Leading the region

Despite the fact that English is a foreign language in Argentina, it has long been prevalent within the Argentine upper classes as well as some sections of the middle class. This is mainly due to immigration from England that began around 1800 and picked up steam after Argentina achieved independence in 1825.

Today English is widely used in business and media and has left its stamp on the education system, which features numerous bilingual and English-only schools. Argentina ranks 15th in the world in English proficiency according to the most recent English Proficiency Index released by Education First (EF). Moreover, the country has by far the highest level of English proficiency in Latin America, as shown in the graphic below.

English proficiency in Latin America as indicated by the EF English Proficiency Index. Source: EF

It is no surprise, then, that Argentine TOEFL scores are also among the highest in Latin America. In 2013 the average score was 93, with listening skills rated “high” and reading and writing both rated “fair.” IELTS scores in 2014 for general training candidates were 6.6, which ranked between “competent” and “good,” and 7.0 for “academic” candidates, which ranked as “good.”

The British Council’s asked those who had not learned English what would motivate them to do so, and 65% answered that they would do it to improve their employment prospects, reflecting a widespread understanding that English proficiency is closely tied to employability. However, affordability was the biggest barrier – in the same survey those who had not learned English cited prohibitive cost more often than any other factor.

English in schools

English became part of the public school curriculum during the early 1900s. Since 2006 learning a foreign language has been compulsory in all primary and secondary schools, with different provinces determining which languages are taught. English is the most common choice, but French, Portuguese, Italian, and German are also widely taught.

Public universities, which account for about 80% of undergraduate enrolments, set their own policies with regard to language learning. Many of those that feature English use exit requirements for proficiency, rather than entrance requirements. Classes tend to focus on reading comprehension and vocabulary, placing less emphasis on spoken English.

The private English-language teaching market is varied and competitive. The most established companies include , Instituto Cultural Argentino Norteamericano (), and AsociaciĂłn Argentina de Cultura Inglesa (). Some universities also run private ELT courses, both free and for profit, that are open to the public and often focus on exam preparation for international certificates. In addition to these there are also small schools run by teachers, as well as numerous private tutors.

The British Council has also found informal English learning to be a popular trend.

Two-and-a-half million Argentines find their own ways to learn English, mostly relying upon textbooks, television, radio, and online products.

More than 200,000 Argentines are estimated to use television as a learning tool, and among those who rated their English skills as advanced, 25% credited television with helping them reach that level. This was a higher percentage than those saying fluency had been achieved “at work,” via social interactions “with friends,” and even due to having “good teachers.”

The wide availability of English-language media from the US may contribute to the preference young Argentines have for the North American English dialect. When the British Council asked those who had not yet learned English which type they preferred, twice as many chose “American English” as did “British English.” But among those who already were in English classes, the British variety was preferred.

A new approach

In the last few years, teaching strategy in much of Argentina has shifted toward an intercultural and multilingual approach designed to recognise global linguistic diversity and treat English as one language among many, with no more value than other foreign or indigenous languages. The aim is not to diminish English, but to give it a global context and make it about more than students’ future job prospects. The hope is that this will better engage students and allow them to consider their own language and culture in the same light.

This is a bold approach in a country that ranks as – on the level of Haiti, Rwanda, and the Dominican Republic, according to Pew Research data collected in 2013. While Argentina boasts cultural influences from a few European countries, Spanish remains nearly universally spoken, 97% of the population self-identifies as Caucasian, and more than 90% are at least nominally Roman Catholic.

Factors affecting the sector

According to the British Council report, the main factors negatively affecting the Argentine ELT sector include:

• a lack of qualified teachers to meet demand;
• varying training standards from province to province;
• teachers lacking qualifications to teach learners in different age groups;
• a large number of teachers working outside their area of expertise.

Furthermore, a lack of a national English-language learning policy has contributed to the persistence of such problems.

The report also notes: “Inclusive entrance requirements mean that trainee English-language teachers are coming increasingly from lower socio-economic groups, which generally receive lower-quality teaching and demonstrate weaker English and academic skills. Often, trainee teachers don’t complete their studies and yet still go on to teach, perpetuating the cycle of poorly qualified teachers and inadequately taught students.”

However, Education First offers a sunnier assessment. Argentina is the first Latin American country to achieve high proficiency in EF’s EPI rankings. Minh Ngan Tran, co-author and editor of the 2014 EPI report, commented that Argentina’s ranking was achieved through improvements to the education system. “The government has invested in public education and in training English teachers to ensure a solid language level,” he explained to the website ArgenconNews.

While teacher quality is a subject of debate, one challenge that is generally agreed upon is Argentina’s economy.

Growth has been minimal in recent years. Coupled with high inflation that has hurt the peso’s value against foreign currencies, the impact on incomes has been considerable. This has also placed a drag on outbound mobility, whereas the number of foreign students flowing into Argentine universities has more than doubled since 2006.

The affordability of tertiary education is a factor as well. Many students improve their English proficiency at university, but even free education cannot put schooling within reach for lower-income Argentines due to associated costs such as transportation, study materials, and accommodation. There aren’t many scholarships, leaving such students little means to bridge the financial gap.

For those who do enter university, the dropout rate is high. It has risen in tandem with the introduction of foundation programmes in some provinces that add a year to schooling, and economic difficulties that force students to leave school in an effort to earn extra family income. However, the unemployment rate – especially for youth – has also risen sharply, placing young Argentines in the situation of seeking work in a shrinking job market.

These problems are all well known. How they are tackled depends in part on national politics, and A national election last week could have addressed doubts, but it instead left the future cloudy when it failed to produce a winner, requiring a 22 November run-off between two candidates with potentially opposing education agendas.

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King Felipe VI of Spain, who was in Mexico presiding over the unveiling of the test along with his wife Queen Letizia, said, “We were missing a flexible, highly respected certificate of proficiency in Spanish as a foreign language along the lines of those offered for the English language.”

Called the Servicio Internacional de Evaluación de la Lengua Española, or SIELE, the test is modeled on English exams such as the TOEFL and IELTS, and debuts in 2016. According to an estimate provided by officials at the , 300,000 people will take the test in its first year, with that number rising to 750,000 by 2021.

The SIELE differs from the well-established Diplomas de Español como Lengua Extranjera (DELE) exam in a couple of important ways. A DELE certificate does not expire, for example, whereas the SIELE is valid for two years, and the DELE has more levels than the SIELE. However, the two exams are not meant to be competitive, but rather complementary, and the DELE will continue to be offered alongside the new test.

The SIELE examination will cover the four core communication skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The reading and listening sections will be scored immediately, with the others assessed by accredited examiners within a target three-week turnaround for results. The test will be computer based, and administered year-round at a network of global test centres.

As opposed to the English exams it is patterned after, the SIELE will take into account different linguistic varieties of Spanish. For example, where the TOEFL tests only in American English, and Cambridge Exams test in British English, the SIELE will incorporate within a single exam the many different geographical variations of Spanish, a language that differs greatly from nation to nation.

King Felipe described the test as “pan-hispanic” in character. He added the new certificate would extend the global reach of Spanish, which he described to the audience as a heritage that “we must all look after, disseminate, and promote.”

Victor Garcia de la Concha, Director of the Cervantes Institute, voiced similar sentiments, saying SIELE was not merely a screening test, but also a means of promoting all forms of Spanish.

Spanish on the global scene

The stature of the three partners-in-development for the exam gives an indication of the expectations for its success. The National Autonomous University of Mexico and the 13th century-established are respectively the largest and oldest universities in the Spanish-speaking world, while the Cervantes Institute operates in 44 countries. With these institutions reaching out to the 550 million Spanish speakers around the world, the impact of the SIELE should be profound.

The initial test centres will be opened in three nations:

• China, with 60 centres covering 61% of the country;
• Brazil, with 120 centres reaching 81% of the country;
• USA, with 100 testing centres and a national penetration of 70%.

Moving forward, demand for the SIELE should be high in other countries with large numbers of Spanish learners such as France, Italy, Germany, and the West African nations.

In 2015, an estimated 21 million people are studying Spanish as a foreign language at all levels of education – an increase of 1.5 million from 2014, according to figures provided by the Spanish Federation of Associations of Schools of Spanish as a Foreign Language (FEDELE). However, the Cervantes Institute notes that because of incomplete data, the actual amount could be 25% higher. The Cervantes Institute indicates that the top countries for the study of Spanish include:

• USA (7,820,000 students);
• Brazil (6,120,000);
• France (2,589,717);
• Italy (687,152);
• Germany (554,423).

By the year 2030, Spanish speakers are projected to constitute 7.5% of the global population, and that percentage will increase to 10% within a maximum of four generations. In the United States, where there are already more than 50 million Spanish speakers, the usage of the language is expected to increase by 2050 to a level that will make America the top Spanish-speaking country in the world, surpassing even Mexico.

Spanish is also more prominent in the UK today than it was in the past. The British Council’s report identifies Spanish as the most important of all global tongues for Great Britain due to, among other factors, its usage in high-growth export markets. According to Goldman Sachs, three of “Next 11” – that is, the 11 fastest-growing markets in the developing world – are Spanish-speaking countries, while no other language is represented on the list more than once.

In yet another indication of the perceived importance of the language, across the globe in South Asia the government of the Philippines has expanded Spanish instruction in public secondary schools in an effort to restore the four-centuries-old cultural and economic ties between the Philippines and Spain. The Filipino government considers Spanish proficiency one of the key assets its citizens can use to leverage future employment and trade opportunities.

Furthermore, the chart below shows the top languages used on the Internet. Spanish ranks third, with an 8% share of a medium expected to reach three billion users this year.

Internet use by language. Source: Internet World Stats and British Council

Spanish plays an important role in global industries such as tourism and media, but is also growing within the realm of science. According to the Cervantes Institute, the number of scientific journals using Spanish constitutes 5% of the total, which represents a 130% increase since 2001. In addition, the number of Spanish journals included in Thomson Reuters’ annual publication Journal Citation Reports has increased fivefold since 1998.

Part of the language’s heightened stature may have to do with its mother country. Spain’s status in a number of scientific disciplines has improved in recent years, with 235,228 scientific documents produced between 2006 and 2010 by at least one author residing in Spain. Data from the National Evaluation and Foresight Agency shows high representation for Spain in scientific articles concerning space sciences, medicine, agricultural sciences, energy, physics, zoology, botany, and ecology.

Demand for Spanish language studies has been strong and growing over the past decade and current trends suggest that interest in learning the language will continue to strengthen in the years ahead.

An opportune moment

At a time of demographic growth and increasing importance in key areas of commerce and science for Spanish, the timing for the launch of the new SIELE is strong. King Felipe explained during the unveiling that, “If we want our language to reaffirm itself as the world’s second language of communication, we have to move beyond a short-term, self-absorbed vision, and pool everyone’s resources to achieve a goal that will benefit us all.”

But in addition to helping consolidate Spanish as one of the key languages of the future, the new proficiency certification offered by the SIELE is also well-timed for students. Globally recognised Spanish proficiency may lead students to new educational options in low-tuition countries such as Spain and Mexico, while later opening doors to employment opportunities in high-growth nations, as well as in more established markets, such as the United States, where Spanish continues to play an important role.

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