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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On a survey-wide basis, however, there are some important global findings regarding perceptions of the US as well as potential barriers to study abroad:

• Two-thirds of prospective students surveyed said that the current political climate in the US does not have an effect on their interest in studying there, versus 26% who said they didn’t like what’s happening in the US. Nine percent said that they were more interested in studying in the US given the current political climate. As the report notes, “the US brand remains strong and students continue to apply and enrol.”
• Two key concerns for prospective students are whether an institution or school has strong student services (such as help in applying for OPT) as well whether they will be able to get a student visa to study in the US.

South America

The South American sample comprised the following countries: Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, and Bolivia.

Social media: The most likely places to reach South American prospects on social media are WhatsApp (95% are on it at least once a week), YouTube (83%), Facebook (80%), and Instagram (80%).

Concerns about studying in the US: Just over one-third of students from the region said that obtaining a visa is their biggest worry when considering study in the US. Concern is also high (31%) regarding whether there would be an opportunity for a job in the US. And a majority said that affordability is their first consideration when evaluating travelling to the US for study.

Whether US-based or not, educators are well advised to highlight career placement services, job opportunities, and graduation employment rates in communications with prospective students from the region.

Study orientation: Seven in ten South American students were in non-STEM fields, and the largest proportion of these students were interested in business studies. Of the remaining students in STEM, the largest proportion were pursuing engineering.

Most of the sample was either interested in graduate degrees (38%) or English-language studies (31%), and 19% were considering undergraduate degrees.

The report advises educators to:

“Target STEM prospects for graduate programming and non-STEM prospects for English-language programmes. Target business & management and engineering programmes across all degrees offered.”

Characteristics of select markets

Zeroing in further on leading South American markets, we can observe the following:

Brazil

Brazilians are less worried about getting a visa (19%) than about an unfavourable exchange rate (38% – twice the proportion found in Mexico and three times that in Colombia) and being able to find a job in the US (32%), suggesting that affordability is an area of intense interest for Brazilians. Only 7% said that the political climate in the US would have a negative effect on their interest in studying in the US. Close to half of Brazilians priortise affordability and the same number prioritise student services.

Colombia

Like Mexicans (see below), Colombians are most worried about obtaining a visa (46%) and being able to get a job in the US (33%). They are much less worried about exchange rate issues (12%) and like Brazilians, are not overly bothered about the political environment in the US. Colombians prioritise affordability more than most nationalities surveyed (63%) and look for evidence of strong student services (58%).

Peru

Peruvian students are more like Colombians than Brazilians or Mexicans in terms of their concerns about study in the US. They worry most about being able to obtain a visa (47%) and being able to get a job in the US (30%), and the exchange rate as well as political environment in the US are not major barriers. Proportions saying that affordability and strong student services are most influential in their study abroad decision making are almost identical to those found in Colombia.

Mexico

As in South America, Mexican students are heavy users of WhatsApp (94% are on it at least once a week). Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are also popular, and STEM graduate respondents were the most likely to favour Twitter and LinkedIn.

Mexicans are more worried than South Americans in general about obtaining a visa (40% – twice the proportion found in Brazil), and less concerned than them about getting a job once they’re there (19%). “Unfavourable political environment” rose as an issue that concerns Mexicans (18% versus 6% for South Americans in general). Affordability is most important influencer of whether Mexican students will study in the US (and where). The report naturally recommends highlighting financial aid that would be available to eligible Mexican students.

The profile of Mexican students is very similar to South American students, with a large majority in non-STEM fields and the most popular areas of study graduate and English-language programmes.

For additional information, please see:

• “Brazil’s outbound numbers surged in 2018”
• “From the field: Where are Mexican students going now?”
• “Where the students are: mobile, messaging, and apps”
• “Global survey highlights regional trends for English-language proficiency”

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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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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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• Ecuador’s real GDP growth in 2014 stands at around 4%, which puts it behind only Bolivia (5.2%) and Colombia (4.8%), and ahead of Peru (3.6%) and, notably, Brazil (0.3%). This growth rate is predicted to remain stable for 2015.
• Since the adoption of its new constitution in 2008, Ecuador has been pouring investment and brainpower into revamping its education system.

As we reported earlier this summer, the sweeping changes to the education system have included:

• Increasing investment in higher education to 1.86% of national GDP;
• The establishment of a through Consejo de Evaluacion Acreditacion y Aseguramemiento de la Calidad de la Educacion Superior (CEAASES);
• A sharp increase in the number of scholarships available through SENESCYT, a raise in university salaries, and a slashing of interest rates on student loans, pushing them from 12% down to 4.6%;
• Signing up to take part in the OECD’s international beginning in 2015;
• Dozens of new or strengthened education agreements with countries as diverse as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US;
• The establishment of four new public universities, one of which, , aspires to be an internationally recognised, city of knowledge inspired by technologically sophisticated research and business hubs in South Korea and Singapore.

Today, we are pleased to present an interview with Mr Ricardo Dávila, Managing Director of World Education Access (WEA). Mr Dávila confirms the growing sense of optimism in Ecuador about the country’s stability and an increasing trend of parents investing in their children’s education, an important indicator for the future.

Stability is key

In the first segment of our two-part video interview with Mr DĂĄvila, he emphasises the importance of the political and financial stability ushered in via the presidency of Rafael Correa. President Correa was first elected in 2006 and his re-election in 2013 will see him hold the presidency until 2017.

Mr Correa’s government has significantly increased the proportion of the country’s total budget allocated to education (as well as health), and Mr Dávila notes that it has also created many new scholarships for study abroad under its Ministry of Science and Education, SENESCYT.

As a result, says Mr Dávila, investing in education is becoming part of the culture of the country, and students and parents are growing increasingly interested in study abroad ESL programmes, short-duration and summer programmes, and one-year study programmes for high school students. He sees such types of courses as jumping off points for longer programmes such as bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

One reason ESL studies are so popular and important, says Mr DĂĄvila, is low English proficiency among many Ecuadorian students, especially those studying in public schools. Mr DĂĄvila sees a current trend where private school students can usually progress to university studies at a foreign institution after about three months of ESL studies, while public school students need on average nine months.

Study abroad interests are diversifying

Ecuadorians are going abroad to study in growing numbers. The most recent UNESCO figures show 10,926 Ecuadorians study abroad, with Spain, the US, and Cuba as the largest recipients of students (3,609, 2,092, and 1,557 respectively).

Mr Dávila notes that students’ interests are now expanding to include countries such as Argentina, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Malta, Russia, and the UK. However, he says, Spain remains particularly interesting because of its Spanish-language courses, which of course do not pose the same challenge of developing English language skills to the level required for advanced study.

Whereas business courses used to be the main study area of interest for Ecuadorian students, Mr DĂĄvila adds there is now demand for everything from architecture to civil engineering.

A greater emphasis on quality at home

Before 2008, as the Pulitzer Centre explains, Ecuador’s higher education sector “
focused on ensuring that students received a degree, no matter their actual abilities. Every high school student was able to attend university if he or she wanted to, .”

This has changed significantly since the election of President Correa and the 2008 constitution. The constitution allowed President Correa to progress rapidly at overhauling the culture of education in Ecuador, so that an old notion of “paying” for a degree was replaced by a new one of “earning” a degree.

The transition to a new education ethos was abrupt: in 2012 the government shut down 14 universities because they did not meet the academic standards determined by CEAACES, the country’s accrediting agency. The move was controversial, as about 40,000 students then had to figure out how to complete their education.

To this day, there are still protests about the dramatic reforms of the education sector, as well as others. But overall, the reforms to the education sector are increasing the degree of oversight at universities as well as creating more consistency in the quality and level of students. Students now have to pass an aptitude test to get into public universities, and as time passes, the students graduating from public universities should be more able to enter the economy on solid footing – alongside their peers from private universities.

Scholarships focused on “brain gain”

Key to Ecuador’s future, according to President Correa, is the development of a knowledge economy. He has said:

“Without human talent, Ecuador won’t advance. We lack the minimum critical mass of top-flight professionals needed to spur the country’s development.”

For this reason, many of the new government scholarships for study abroad that have been introduced in recent years come with the requirement that recipients come home upon graduating to enrich their home economy.

One example of this is the Open Call programme, a generous postgraduate scholarship that offers US$250,000 for flights, tuition, and living costs so long as students work in Ecuador for two years for every year of study abroad. Students studying in science and technology fields get priority given the Ecuadorian government’s goal of developing this area of the economy (the economy is still mostly based around raw materials).

Speaking to Fox News Latino, Allan Goodman, president of the New York-based Institute of International Education (IIE), says of the programme:

“There’s real integration between education and labour in ways that I don’t see in a lot of countries. It seems to me they read the playbook for best practices to make this work and they’ve adopted all of them.”

The Ecuadorean government is focused on the intended outcomes of the programme: to reverse a potential brain drain associated with study abroad and to attract more talent home. Fox News Latino adds, “In order to ensure that beneficiaries honour the agreement to return, they or relatives must sign contracts promising to repay if a student doesn’t come back, or drops out, and putting up collateral such as a home. When students return home, they will be placed in jobs in universities and state institutions, generally teaching and doing research.”

For additional background on scholarship programmes, please see our earlier Market Snapshot on Ecuador.

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While the documents outlined an immediate shift in policy, in practice many changes were designed to be gradual in order to minimise disruption to school operations. But as time has passed, the effects of the overhaul are solidifying. Today șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor looks at the rapidly evolving Ecuadorian education sector, its students, and the country’s ambitious plans for the future.

Education basics

Ecuadorian education begins with a pre-school period called educaciĂłn inicial, which can start anywhere from age three to five. At five years old students enter educaciĂłn general bĂĄsica, which is mandatory and lasts until age fifteen. Afterward students can continue into educaciĂłn bachillerato, an interdisciplinary approach divided into sciences/humanities or agriculture/business/industry/arts.

English instruction is mandatory during educaciĂłn bachillerato, but . The government has made a change to address this problem, requiring public school teachers of English to take the TOEFL test as an evaluation measure. The goal is for them to reach a B2 level, better equipping them to instruct Ecuadorian students, in turn better preparing those students for university.

In the past, all high school students were able to enter university regardless of academic performance, and gaining access to certain schools sometimes depended on personal connections. Now students take an entrance exam created by the National Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation (SENESCYT) that measures basic learning skills and suggests a career path.

Some say the results are more than just suggestions. Fernando Mino-Garces, of the Andean Center for Latin American Studies, told Pulitzer Center . However, that has been denied by SENESCYT Secretary René Ramírez, who said misinformation had been spread by opposition presidential candidates.

UNESCO data, below, shows that social sciences/business/law programmes are the most common fields in which Ecuadorians graduate, with just under 50% of all students opting for those paths. That group is followed by education in a distant second place at about 23%. UNESCO’s most recent information on this subject dates from 2008.

Percentage of tertiary graduates in social sciences, business, law, education, and science. Source UNESCO

Mobility from Ecuador

In recent years, more and more students have been leaving Ecuador for studies abroad. UNESCO tracks international outbound mobility through its Institute for Statistics, and its most recent data on Ecuador, from 2010, shows slightly more than 10,000 Ecuadorians attending university outside the country – a marked increase since 2006.

Number of Ecuadorians attending university outside the country. Source:

The sharp upward trend is likely to continue as the Ecuadorian government pumps more cash into the education system, including into various scholarship funds. Right now, students eyeing overseas studies have more financial options than in the past, with several new offerings from SENESCYT. Among those are:

• Programa Convocatoria Abierta (Open Call) – funds one to five years of master’s, doctorate, postdoctorate, or medical specialisation studies, on the condition that the recipient returns to Ecuador for twice the duration of the award;
• Universidades de Excelencia (Universities of Excellence) – awarded to students wishing to seek a degree overseas in various life sciences, natural sciences, and social science fields.
• Enseña InglĂ©s (Teach English) programme – offers funding for English training overseas on the condition of returning to Ecuador to teach in the public school system.

For educators and agents, a good starting point for making contact in Ecuador is the confederation COICEC, an association of ten established agencies. Several of the members have been involved in the educational market for many years.

In addition, readers might like to review our recent article on the ALFA PUENTES project, which discusses the increasing collaboration of more than 20 national and international university associations from across Latin America and Europe.

Quality and reforms

Those looking to partner in Ecuador will find an education landscape markedly . Change was assured by the 2008 constitution, and gained momentum in 2009 when a nationwide evaluation revealed that one in three universities was of poor quality.

In 2010 President Rafael Correa pushed through the new higher education law, and in April 2012 the government shut down 14 universities that did not meet basic academic standards, required professors at the remaining schools to possess advanced degrees by 2017, and enacted admissions tests for prospective college students.

Mr Correa recently touted these moves: “In Ecuador, education had been converted into another commodity. Those who could pay could be better educated than in Switzerland, and those who could not pay didn’t go to school because there were barriers to access. But they have been removed [and now] .”

The government’s moves have been broader than merely removing barriers. The changes have been sweeping. Some of the reforms from the last several years include:

• Increasing investment in higher education to 1.86% of national GDP;
• through Consejo de Evaluacion Acreditacion y Aseguramemiento de la Calidad de la Educacion Superior (CEAASES);
• A sharp increase in the number of scholarships available through SENESCYT, a raise in university salaries, and a slashing of interest rates on student loans, pushing them from 12% down to 4.6%;
• Signing up to take part in the OECD’s international for student assessment beginning in 2015;
• Dozens of new or strengthened education agreements with countries as diverse as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US;
• The establishment of four new public universities, with an accompanying plan to use one of those schools to anchor an internationally recognised city of knowledge in the Ecuadorian highlands.

is the key element of a carefully planned pivot away from a mining and banana exportation economy to . The school there is called Yachay, and its focus is in five high growth areas – life sciences, IT, nanotechnology, energy, and petrochemicals – with is that it can one day innovate alongside other global knowledge centres such as Silicon Valley.

with three new degrees. The government hopes to see 23% of Ecuadorian students electing to pursue technical education in disciplines such as fishing, transport, and tourism by 2016. In order to reach this percentage, the government will spend US$308 million building or improving 40 technical institutes across the country.

President Correa has explained that Ecuador is basing its future development , which he says are the only two sources of potential growth that cannot be limited by outside powers. All the moves made by his administration are designed to “promote the development of science, technology, and innovation in which the universities play a fundamental role.”

It has been a rocky road for Ecuador, whose 2008 constitution was its twentieth. The Correa government hopes education can be the key to long term stability, and the administration’s approval ratings at least suggest that the majority of the population is willing to show patience as current plans move forward. For educators and agents, this new stability represents the opportunity to form lasting partnerships in the country.

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