The Cover
Leaving on a jetplane
Closing the inbound/outbound gap
International education is back. But educators are careful that some of the same problems from the pre-pandemic period don’t return with it, namely a predominantly one-way flow of student into major destination countries but not out.
By Eugenia Lim, Contributing Writer
Share this page
Despite leading the world in student recruitment, the top international education destinations share a common problem. Millions of students are coming in; hundreds of thousands are going out.
Four out of the top five host countries for international students in UNESCO’s 2022 data regard English as its official language, and a majority of its population speak English. While these nations are major receivers of international students for higher education, they are not sending as many to study abroad.
Inbound/ outbound student numbers (2020)
US
UK
Australia
Germany
Canada
Inbound
Outbound
The US, UK, Australia and Canada hosted 36 percent of international students in 2020, but their outbound students were a fraction of that, totalling just 3.3 percent globally. UNESCO's statistics has come under scrutiny from academics such as Professor Ulrich Teichler. The former Director of the International Centre for Higher Education Research(INCHER-Kassel), who has spent decades studying student mobility says such statistics on international students have “drastic weaknesses”. For one, such data may not take into account foreign students that have immigrated prior to enrolling in a university and excludes students on exchange or short-term programmes as well.
Even with its limitations, however, Professor Teichler tells QS Insights Magazine that the UNESCO data highlights a prevailing issue with respect to student mobility in English-speaking countries. More needs to be done to encourage students from these nations to go abroad, be it for a semester, or even a short-term programme, says Professor Teichler, who has spent decades studying student mobility.
Advisory bodies such as Universities UK (UUK), the US’ Institute of International Education (IIE) and the Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE) also tout the benefits of studying abroad. Studies across a range of countries confirm that learning abroad positively affects the development of participants’ intercultural competence and boosts one's employability in the global workforce.
Examining pull and push factors
The draw for students to study in English-speaking countries, can be rooted to the large number of highly ranked institutions in such locations, as well as the fact that the English language continues to hold a prominent role in global communication, according to experts
“The pull factors that are taking US students abroad are quite different from the students that are coming to the US,” says Dr Mirka Martel, Head of Research, Evaluation & Learning at IIE, a Washington-based non-profit organisation that creates and facilitates international education programmes for US students.
She highlights that US students who are studying abroad are often already pursuing a degree and are looking for short term opportunities to go abroad. The ease of course credit transfers and the presence of study abroad providers that can provide assistance also plays a part, she explains.
US
Inbound
Outbound
UK
Inbound
Outbound
Australia
Inbound
Outbound
Germany
Inbound
Outbound
Canada
Inbound
Outbound
“The pull factors that are taking US students abroad are quite different from the students that are coming to the US."
Melissa Payne, Director, Membership, Research and Learning at CBIE, also cites complexities surrounding credit transfers as a challenge for Canadian students looking to go overseas.
“Students often speak about the lack of awareness or information about learning abroad opportunities,” says Payne, underscoring a nonchalant attitude that may be persistent.
Meanwhile, the push factors for inbound students are far more pressing, namely the quality of education and the higher education capacity which may not be available to them in their home environment.
“That’s why we see a large number of students from China, India and Nigeria who are coming to the US or UK for a higher education opportunity because they might not get one in their country because there isn’t enough capacity,” says Dr Martel.
Geopolitical & language concerns
Across the Atlantic, language continues to shape the UK’s outward student mobility trends. Coupled with the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit, “outward student mobility has suffered and remains a minority experience for UK students”, according to a 2023 UUK report.
“The main reason is linguistic for the UK students,” says Marialuisa Restaino, Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Salerno, referring to the UK’s low outward student mobility numbers compared to the rest of Europe.
“UK students speak the lingua franca, English, while European students have to learn English during their studies in order to go abroad,” says Restaino. “Therefore, European students may choose to go abroad for learning and improving their linguistic knowledge.”
Restaino notes that the UK government does not promote the teaching of particular languages, and that language competency beyond English remains comparatively lower than the rest of Europe. She cites a 2022 House of Commons research briefing which highlighted that only 32 percent of 15–30-year-olds in the UK felt confident reading and writing in two or more languages, compared to an average of 80 percent across EU member states.
Since its departure from the European bloc, the UK has been effectively excluded from the EU’s ERASMUS+ program, which is widely regarded as a success in providing funding and support for Europeans to study and work abroad. Filling that void for British students is the Turing Scheme which was launched in 2021.
While there is still insufficient data to measure the success of the Turing scheme, it has notably provided funding for mobilities for up to nearly 29,000 students in 2021-22. Almost half of the students are from disadvantaged backgrounds, ensuring that the study abroad experience is not just for the privileged few. However, some limitations are apparent, particularly with language concerns.
The flow of students under the program have been mainly to other English-speaking countries such as the US, Canada and Australia, observes Giancarlo Ragozini, Professor of Social Statistics at the University of Naples Federico II.
“The language barrier seems to be very strong. UK people don’t seem very interested in learning another language,” says Ragozini, who co-authored a 2023 paper analysing countries’ performances within the international student mobility with Restaino.
“The UK should invest not only into going into English speaking countries, but in stimulating curiosity in other cultures,” he adds.
"Students often speak about the lack of awareness or information about learning abroad opportunities."
Diversity & inclusivity
Most of the most recent data is influenced by the pandemic. In 2019, Australia was leading the English-speaking world in learning abroad with almost one in four (23 percent) Australian undergraduate students having participated in learning abroad, according to a Australian University International Directors’ Forum (AUDIF) report.
At the time, it outpaced the 7.4 percent of comparable students in the UK in 2018–19, 16 percent in the US in 2018–19 and 11 percent in Canada in 2017.
In a separate blog from 2022 focussing on restoring mobility post-pandemic, the International Education Association of Australia attributes the country’s success to its New Colombo plan, launched in 2014, which “transformed learning abroad opportunities for Australian students in the Indo-Pacific region”. By diversifying the study abroad destinations, more opportunities were created for students.
By 2019, nearly half of all learning abroad experiences undertaken by Australian undergraduate students were in the Indo-Pacific, and outbound mobility increased by more than 50 percent in a mere five years of its introduction.
Increasing diversity and inclusivity will likely pave the way for more students to study abroad. Canadian institutions are actively working to broaden their offerings so that learning abroad should be an opportunity available to all, says Melissa Payne from the Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE).
“In Canada, there is a growing trend in learning abroad programming towards intentional inclusivity, ensuring that non-traditional student groups, diverse program types, locations, and durations are considered to enhance accessibility,” says Payne.
The same is taking place in the US, despite the initial draw to traditional European destinations immediately after the pandemic. US students looking to go abroad are increasingly looking to places that are beyond traditional study abroad destinations such as Europe and “that may not be Anglophone or that might not be traditional tourist destinations”, says Martel, explaining that eight of the top 20 destinations for outbound US students are now outside of Europe.
“We are seeing greater diversity in terms of the types of students who are going to study abroad, and also the destinations,” says Martel. IIE projects that US study abroad will likely continue to rebound with 82 percent of institutions expecting growth in study abroad numbers in the coming year.
