With that in mind, we thought it was a good time to check in with Han Steen, the director general of , a prominent education agency based in Mexico City.

Our conversation opens with Mr Steen highlighting the continuing strength of Canada as a destination for Mexican students, especially those interested in language or study and work programmes. “Many Mexicans want to get work experience,” he says. “But also they want to check to see maybe if Canada might be the right place for them to emigrate to.”

In our first interview excerpt below, he expands on this point and explains how longer-term career training programmes have grown in popularity among Mexican students who would have been more likely to go abroad for shorter periods of language study in the past. This applies for those interested in study in Canada but in a number of other destinations that have also grown in popularity in recent years, including Australia, Germany, and Ireland.

Some of these same themes also feature – along with an update on Mexico’s current political climate – in our second interview excerpt below. “People are choosing more programmes through which they might emigrate,” says Mr Steen. “That is the biggest trend because those are programmes that are at least six months up to one year.”

In our final video segment below, Mr Steen provides some advice for educators planning to expand their recruitment activities in Mexico: “My advice for many language schools is to develop long-term courses, not just short courses.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Affordability a top concern for South American and Mexican students”
• “Where are Mexican students going now?”
• “The growing demand for English language learning in Mexico”

The post Immigration and work opportunities key for Mexican students appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

But those recent trends also suggest that Indonesians are considering a wider range of study abroad destinations, including Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, and China. Those regional options are now competing for a greater share of the Indonesian market alongside traditional favourites such as the United States and Australia.

Jony Liem is a Jakarta-based director with (Axel). In the following interview excerpts, he expands on some of the factors that influence destination choice for Indonesian students and sets out some of the other trends that are shaping this important Southeast Asian market.

In our second interview segment below, Mr Liem highlights the economic and political climate in the country as some of the important underlying factors that are driving demand for study abroad. Many Indonesian students, he explains, will prioritise destinations that offer opportunities for students to work during and after their studies.

Looking ahead to career concerns, he notes as well the growing influence of the Chinese economy and a corresponding increase in Chinese language studies – along with increasing scholarships for study in China – as important reasons for China’s growing popularity as a study destination.

“The most popular [programme of study for Indonesian students] actually is still in business,” says Mr Liem. “The second [most popular] is technology…everybody is now talking about artificial intelligence so [many students] want to study that too.”

In our next interview excerpt below, Mr Liem expands on the fields of study that are most in demand and some of the new programmes that are getting more attention among Indonesian students today.

Our final video segment sets out some recommended strategies for institutions and schools that are planning to begin or expand recruiting activities in Indonesia.

Keeping in mind that Indonesia is the world’s fourth most-populous country, and the largest island nation (with more than 17,000 islands all told), targeted recruitment efforts are especially key. Mr Liem recommends that educators concentrate their efforts, “Definitely in Jakarta, the second [city to target] would be Surabaya, and the third Medan. Those are the three cities that you can focus on.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Closer to home: Intra-regional mobility in Asia”
• “Recruiting from Indonesia in a context of increased competition”
• “Indonesian outbound continues to grow with emphasis on regional destinations”
• “Study finds that young Indonesians are highly motivated to study abroad”

The post Factors influencing destination choice for Indonesian students appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Even with that declining trend, there were still nearly 40,000 Saudi students in the US in 2018/19, and Saudi Arabia remained the fourth-largest sender for US higher education that year. That resilient student base reflects that no country benefited more from the landmark King Abdullah Scholarship Programme (KASP) than the United States. Indeed, KASP sent tens of thousands of students to the US, and very significant numbers to Canada, the United Kingdom, and other countries as well.

The Saudi government began to wind down the KASP scholarship programme in 2016, and Saudi numbers in all major receiving countries began to drop off almost right away. But as those recent US numbers suggest, Saudi Arabia remains a very important source market, and a key recruiting ground for agents and educators in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

We explored the current landscape for recruitment in the Kingdom recently in conversation with Arwa Due-Gundersen. Ms Due-Gundersen is based in the UK and for the past two years has been a marketing manager, with a focus on recruitment for the UK and other EU destinations, with . The education agency has offices throughout the region, including in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, and Kuwait City. Just this month, she also joined Middle East and North Africa recruitment team.

In our first interview segment below, Ms Due-Gundersen highlights the shift in the market “from mass to quality”, and the emergence of a new wave of scholarships programmes in the Kingdom. These new programmes are most often managed by individual Saudi ministries, and typically require higher qualifications of eligible students than was the case under KASP.

As Ms Due-Gundersen explains, some of this scholarship activity is directly tied to Saudi Arabia’s enormous planned-city development, Neom. Neom will be built at an estimated cost of US$500 billion, with the first phases of development to be completed by 2025. Some of the new scholarship programmes on offer in Saudi Arabia now are targeting specific fields, such as tourism, which the labour market in the new city will especially require.

In our second interview segment, Ms Due-Gundersen looks ahead at the factors that will continue to shape Saudi demand for study abroad in the coming years. She notes in particular the strengthening ties between Saudi Arabia and China, which will soon lead to Chinese being taught in Saudi schools and, she expects, growing demand (and scholarship support) for Saudi students to study in China.

“Business and engineering are always the top programmes that are in demand,” she explains as our conversation continues below. “But there are now new sponsorship programmes. For example, from the Ministry of Health for health science programmes and they are accrediting more universities to help the students have a greater variety of options.”

Those planning to establish or expand recruitment activities in the Kingdom should pay close attention to Ms Due-Gundersen’s tips for educators in the following segment.

In the final excerpt from our interview, Ms Due-Gundersen also highlights the two major segments in the Saudi market: Saudi nationals, many of whom will go abroad with scholarship support and the expat market, most of whom will self-fund their programmes abroad. The factors driving demand for study abroad, the means of funding, and even choice of destination all vary, she explains, “by which client you are serving.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Saudi Arabia’s expanding higher education capacity”
• “Adapting to the new realities of the Saudi Arabian market”
• “Using social media to reach students in the Middle East and North Africa”
• “English skills a key for mobility and employment in the Middle East and North Africa”

The post The new student recruitment landscape in Saudi Arabia appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Canada is a notable example in this regard. In 2018, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) moved to introduce a streamlined student visa process in four Asian markets, including Philippines. The Student Direct Stream, or SDS, allows qualified students to obtain a Canadian study permit more quickly and the speed and relative certainty of the process has led to a marked increase in Filipino enrolments in Canada.

There were slightly more than 5,000 Filipino students in Canada last year, an increase of 29% over the year before and enough to position Philippines as the 14th-largest sending market for Canadian institutions and schools. This compares to 7.3% growth in the US (3,225 students in 2018 as reported by the Institute of International Education), and 18% growth in Australia (nearly 13,000 students as reported by the Department of Education and Training).

A discussion with Ben Ryan Ybanez, the president and chairman of the Philippines-based agency Wise Immigration, gave us a chance to learn more about outbound mobility from the important emerging market. In our first interview segment below, Mr Ybanez begins by highlighting the impact of the Canadian SDS programme.

In our second interview segment, Mr Ybanez points out that demand is shifting in the Philippines. In large part because of the adoption of a complete K-12 curriculum, the market is now becoming more of a source for higher education students. “Normally, the Philippines is an important sending market for health care programmes,” he adds. “But we are seeing are interest in other sectors, like hospitality, business, and trades.”

Our final segment explores market entry strategies for educators who are new to the Philippines, or planning to expand their recruitment efforts there. Looking ahead, Mr Ybanez anticipates a lot of growth in outbound.

“I’m seeing that Philippines is the next Vietnam in Southeast Asia. People are becoming more global. After graduating from secondary [school], they are thinking of countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Final stages of K-12 transition underway in the Philippines”
• “Canada moves to speed student visa processing for selected Asian markets”
• “Southeast Asia trading and mobility bloc continues to take shape”

The post Recruiting in the Philippines appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

In Australia, for example, where Nepal is now the third-largest sending market (after only China and India), student numbers increased by 51% year-over-year from 2017 and total Nepalese enrolment in Australia is now approaching 50,000 students.

Japan saw strong growth last year as well. Nepal is also the third-ranked sending market for Japan (after only China and Vietnam), and the country’s institutions welcomed a 13% increase in Nepalese numbers last year – for a total enrolment of 24,300 in 2018 – which followed a 10% increase the year before.

And colleges and schools in the US saw their Nepalese enrolments increase by more than 14% last year to surpass 13,000 students. Nepal held its position last year as the US’s second-largest sending market in South and Central Asia, after only India.

As even these three examples reflect, the number of outbound students from Nepal now certainly exceeds 80,000. There are no reliable figures as to the total number of Nepalese students abroad, but even just working backwards from the data reported by a few top study destinations paints a picture of a rapidly growing market and one of the most important South Asian source countries for international students.

We recently sat down with Manish Dahal, the director of the Kathmandu-based education agency May Education Consultancy for his insights on this rapidly growing market. As he notes in our opening interview segment below, “The driving factors behind the high demand is that international degrees matter in Nepal. [Employers] give the first priority to people educated abroad.”

Mr Dahal explains that Nepalese students are considering a wider range of study destinations these days, including those within the region, notably India, where Nepalese students do not require a study visa.

Even so, the success rate of Nepalese students in obtaining student visas for other major host countries, such as Australia and the US, remains a major factor in the appeal of those destinations as well.

In our final interview segment below, Mr Dahal recommends that educators visit Nepal to build their local networks and learn about the market firsthand. Looking ahead, he sees continued growth for the future because of the very high value that the country’s students, parents, and employers place on international degrees.

For additional background, please see:

• “Signs of growth in Nepal”
• “Nepal emerging as an important growth market for international education”

The post An agent’s perspective on recruiting in Nepal appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

It also remains one of the most popular choices among language learners, preceded only by English and French, with an estimated 22 million students enrolled in Spanish as a foreign language programmes in 2018. This standing is born out by data from online language learning platforms and more targeted surveys of aspiring language learners that routinely place Spanish among the most in-demand foreign languages.

Perhaps it is not surprising then that Spain also remains one of the most important study destinations in Europe. It is a natural choice for language students to have an immersion experience, and reliably a top destination for Erasmus+ exchange as well.

Pablo Sampere is the director of operations for , a leading independent Spanish language school with centres in Spain, Ecuador, and Cuba. We visited with him recently for his perspective on current trends in language learning in Spain.

In our first interview segment below, Mr Sampere notes the importance of the Italian, French, German, and British markets as key sending markets for language programmes in Spain.

He highlights as well a trend to shorter stays on the part of visiting students, driven in part by a growing number of short-term group programmes.

In our second interview segment below, Mr Sampere comments on some of the major recruitment channels for Spanish language centres. Agents, he explains, continue to play a key role but “the Internet is coming to us, and it is coming to stay.” Mr Sampere observes a difference between long-established language schools and newer centres in Spain. “Old schools are depending a lot on agencies and newer schools are doing their business on the web,” he says.

Looking ahead, Mr Sampere feels that the intensive Spanish language course – as a core product – will remain the focus for most language centres going forward. He believes as well that a focus on quality will remain the most important point of differentiation for schools, noting that, “If you go to quality, you will have your client satisfied.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Spain: Survey shows four-year growth trend for language enrolment”
• “Study reveals shifting motivations for language travel and changes in how students book courses”

The post The market for language studies in Spain appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

But more than eight in ten outbound students (83%) opt to study in Russia or in another CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) country. Maksim Kostiuchenko is a director with TravelWorks, an education agency with offices in Russia and Kazakhstan, and an authority on the Kazakhstan market. In our first video excerpt below he affirms that “Country number one is still Russia, country number two would be China, and country number three is Kyrgyzstan.” He notes as well that a majority of Kazakhstani students (up to 70%) return to their home country immediately following graduation from their programmes abroad.

In our next interview segment below, Mr Kostiuchenko provides some helpful tips for market entry. He points out that the Kazakhstan market is developing quickly and that, “We see a big potential for education providers [from additional destinations outside of Central Asia] to recruit students.”

In our final interview segment, the conversation turns to the readiness of Kazakhstani students to study abroad, with respect to language skills in particular. “Most students would require some kind of preparation in terms of language skills,” says Mr Kostiuchenko. “We are seeing a growth in the number of students who are choosing pathway programmes. Which means they are either not well prepared in terms of language our they want to immerse themselves into a new culture step-by-step – or maybe both!”

For additional background, please see:

• “Outbound mobility from Kazakhstan up 140% over past decade”
• “Kazakhstan economy driving both reforms and demand for higher education”
• “Market Snapshot: Kazakhstan”

The post Recruiting in Kazakhstan appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

In our first video excerpt below, Mr Pasquet explains that the key to his agency’s success today is that they work hard at figuring out how to add extra value to their clients. For example, he notes that La Route des Langues agents always offer a chaperone service for their youngest clients aged eight and nine. It costs the agency money, but Mr Pasquet says it pays off in the long term: “We will keep this client forever.”

Young travellers – including students going abroad for language study – are increasingly booking their trips online. The WYSE Travel Confederation reports that as of 2007, around 50% of millennial travel bookings were made online, and most often via a desktop computer. In the association’s 2017 survey, however, respondents reported that 80% of their travel bookings were made online. The growth in online bookings underlines Mr Pasquet’s point that personalisation and adding extra value is key to competing in this changed travel marketplace.

In our second video segment, Mr Pasquet speaks about the way the Internet has produced a new type of client: one who is always connected and also more demanding because digital technology has conditioned them to expect immediate results. He has even had instances in which parents have asked to track their children in real time.” He smiles, saying,

“Fortunately, up to now we have not been putting bar codes on our clients and schools are not scanning them when they arrive at the airport, but that’s what customers are expecting because they are used to following their ‘parcel’.”

Young clients’ attachment to their smartphones and cellphones has also created a real challenge for the agency’s partners (schools and host families). If students feel upset about even a minor problem, for example, “they will text message or call their parents right away.”

And it has changed the dynamics of the intensive cultural and language experience that is a hallmark of the language-learning experience in France. Mr Pasquet notes that it is harder for partners to keep young students engaged in activities, and he’s even heard of instances where host families have had to turn the wifi off in their homes because students were not interacting with the family, instead shutting themselves in their rooms to Snapchat and Facebook with their friends.

When considering what the Internet has offered in terms of the agency’s ability to recruit, Mr Pasquet says that it’s not about “selling,” but rather the ability to attract clients and to provide more information to them. He estimates that 20–30% of their business comes in through digital channels, a proportion in line with trends across the agency landscape, according to ���Ϲ��� i-graduate Agent Barometer research.

The ability to support clients with further and comprehensive information – e.g., programme information, advice about what to pack – has been a major benefit for the agency. The agency points clients to web-based resources during or after their discussion to provide the best possible orientation for students coming to study in France.

For additional background, please see:

• “The new rules of digital marketing”
• “Where the students are: Mobile, messaging, and apps”
• “Global study highlights a jump in online bookings for under-30 travellers”

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