Joining the Dots RESEARCH BRIEFING Volume 1 Number 8 December 2011 International Introduction This is the final briefing for the 2011 Joining the Dots series. It is necessarily concise and is designed students to offer an entrée into the 2012 series. It does this by presenting a snapshot of statistics relating to international students in higher education. Rather than snapshot simply focusing on the ebbs and flows of international students in the Australian higher education sector, A global picture the briefing provides a global picture, contextualising the broader market forces which impact Australian institutions. The briefing assumes that readers already have some knowledge of the international student market in Australia and does not therefore present an introduction to the topic. Those who would like further details should instead refer to the plethora of academic resources already available (Marginson, 2011; Ziguras & McBurnie, 2011, particularly in relation to the Asia- Pacific region) and consult the Australian Government’s IN THIS ISSUE international education arm, Australian Education International [AEI], at http://www.aei.gov.au. P3 The wide distribution of This briefing draws exclusively on data from the international students UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), which provides Almost every way the data on international student a rich data resource, one that is freely available and yet mobility is cut … can be overlooked in discussions of Australian higher education policy (see http://www.uis.unesco.org/ P5 International student distribution Education/ for access to this data). The international in context student snapshot is presented in order to highlight The UIS data for international students in the value of this data and to show the relative global higher education provides an interesting tool for presence of Australia in the international student contextualising the in-flow and out-flow of students … market. The most recently available and internationally comparable data from the UIS are for 2009, and this is P6 International student movement presented here. in our region The figures here are not analysed in depth, but rather Analysis of Australia’s international student cohort … presented to subscribers as a means of exploring the global flows of international students. The analysis highlights the relative place which Australia plays as Australian Council for Educational Research 2 International students snapshot a provider of international education, particularly to students from the Asia-Pacific region. It also provides an indication of the increasing competition for international students which Australia is facing, as places traditionally considered ‘source countries’ develop their capacity as destinations for international study. This briefing examines: • international student numbers in Australia relative to other nations; • UNESCO net flow indicators from a comparative and global perspective; and • detailed information on the origins of international students coming to Australia and to our neighbours. The main findings shown here are: UNESCO data confirm that Australia is a key power in the world of international student provision. There are more than 100 nations hosting international students around the globe – while not at the same volume of the largest few providers, many countries host substantial numbers of international students. Australia’s net flow of international students is one of the highest in the world, even when calculated in the context of the total size of the higher education sector. Australia’s international student market is heavily reliant on Asia and the Pacific – accounting for nearly 80 per cent of the cohort in Australia. Students from Asia travel in substantial numbers to a large variety of different countries for higher education, meaning that the scope of competition for students in this region now and in the future is significant. Joining the Dots • Research Briefing • Volume 1 Number 8 December 2011 N UNESCOInstituteof Statistics(UIS)andhttp://www.gunn.co.nz/map/ Source: F provider globally. provider Australia isthethird largest As thegraph shows, nationalfiguresfor109countries. the individual on international studentnumbers,incorporating data 1presentstheraw Figure education provision. forinternational educationinhigher powers world asoneofthe Australia emerges mobility iscut, thedataoninternational student way Almost every The widedistributionofinternationalstudents Source: UNESCOInstituteofStatistics(UIS) Source: 5,000 studentslisted) F igure 2: igure igure 1: igure ote: Number of international students studying in country 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000 700,000 countries ingreyeither donothostinternational studentsintertiary education ordonot 0 Countries which host international students by number of international students, tertiary Countries 2009 whichhostinternationalof number studentsby students, (ISCED5and 6), education provision Number of international students by host country, tertiary 2009(countries hostingmorethan Numberofinternational hostcountry, studentsby (ISCED5and6), educationprovision USA UK Australia France Germany Russia Japan Canada Italy China South Africa Austria Republic of Korea Spain Malaysia Singapore New Zealand Ukraine Egypt Switerland United Arab Emirates Belgium Cuba Czech Republic Sweden Joining the Dots • Research Briefing • Volume 1 Number 8 December 2011 Joining the Dots•Research Briefing • Jordan Netherlands Host Country Lebanon Greece countries ornotrecordedintheUNESCOdata. Countriesshadedgrey areeithernothost in thelegend. thecolours number ofstudentshostedisindicatedby The are equippedtoenrolinternational students. which ofcountriesacrosstheworld number andextent of international students.Itillustratestheremarkable mapofthespread aworld 2provides 2009. Figure students pursuingtertiary educationqualificationsin hostinginternational across theglobethatwere In total,theUNESCOdatarecords109countries Kyrgyzstan Turkey Saudi Arabia Norway Poland Thailand Brazil Hungry have dataavailable. have China, Macao SAR Ireland International studentssnapshot Finland Denmark Chile Kazakhstan Serbia Romania Cyprus Bulgaria China, Hong Kong SAR Portugal Bahrain Kuwait Morocco Fiji Yemen Azerbaijan Slovakia Algeria Belarus Other countries 3 4 International students snapshot Table 1 provides further detail on the size of the international student cohorts hosted by particular countries. It shows that 13 countries host at least 50,000 international students, with a further 32 hosting between 10,000 and 50,000. Of the 109 countries recorded in the data only a marginal number of these (25) have provision numbers smaller than 1,000 students. In all, the data in Figure 1, Figure 2 and Table 1 help to highlight two key points – first, that Australia is a key player in the global market for international students; and second, that despite the large share a few nations have in this market, there are a substantial number of countries that host large groups of international students within their higher education systems. Table 1: Countries hosting international students by size of international student cohort, tertiary education (ISCED 5 and 6), 2009 Number of international students (range) Number of countries more than 100,000 7 50,000 to 99,000 6 25,000 to 49,000 13 10,000 to 24,900 19 5,000 to 10,000 13 1,000 to 4,999 26 500 to 999 7 30 to 499 18 Source: UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) Joining the Dots • Research Briefing • Volume 1 Number 8 December 2011 International students snapshot 5 International student distribution in context The UIS data for international students in The net flow ratio for 27 countries, all hosting more higher education provides an interesting tool for than 10,000 international students is displayed in contextualising the in-flow and out-flow of students Figure 3. It shows that apart from the Chinese Special while keeping the overall size of the system in Administrative Region of Macao, Australia has perspective. The ‘net flow ratio’ provides a measure the largest net flow ratio of the large international of the balance between incoming international host countries. This highlights the importance of students that the country hosts and outgoing domestic international students to Australian higher education students (i.e. students leaving the country to become in terms of relative size of the sector. It also provides an international student elsewhere), expressed as some perspective on the relatively small proportion of a percentage of all tertiary education students in students in Australia who undertake study abroad. the country. 50.0 40.0 30.0 20.0 Net flow ratio (%) Net flow 10.0 0.0 -10.0 UK Italy USA Chile Japan Spain Brazil Cuba China France Ireland Finland Austria Greece Belguim Sweden Norway Malaysia Thailand Australia Denmark Singapore Switzerland Netherlands New Zealand Republic of Korea Republic China, Macao SAR China, Figure 3: Net flow ratio of international tertiary education students (ISCED level 5 and 6) by selected countries, 2009 Note: Net flow ratio is the number of tertiary education students from abroad (inbound students) studying in a given country minus the number of students of the same level of education from that country studying abroad (outbound students) expressed as a percentage of the total number of tertiary enrolments in that country. Countries hosting more than 10,000 international students. Only countries with available data for calculating net flow ratio included. Source: