2009 Global Education Digest reveals data and analysis.
The 2009 edition of UNESCO’s Global Education Digest has data and analysis on students studying outside their countries of origin.
The report, launched at a press conference on July 6, 2009 during the World Conference on Higher Education in Paris, has answers to questions such as the number of students studying outside their country of origin in 2007, the sources of students, top destinations, levels and fields of study, and the influence of gender on choices of mobility and fields of study.
UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics compiled the data which presents the most comprehensive global picture of where international students go to study and the fields of study they complete.
Ten countries – China, India, the Republic of Korea, Germany, Japan, France, the United States, Malaysia, Canada and the Russian Federation – contributed about 38 percent of the world’s mobile students, among host countries that reported data.
Destinations of students continue to diversify, although the United States continues to have the largest numbers, and percentage of, the world’s mobile students. The United States and nine other countries – the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Germany, Japan, Canada, South Africa, the Russian Federation, and Italy – are the destination for 71 percent of the world’s mobile students.
Other trends captured in this report include the increases in students staying within their regions of origin; the popularity of business and science programs as fields of study; and selected statistics on gender and regional profiles. The report also includes analysis on global trends in tertiary education participation and completion, as well as an overview of the financing of higher education.
The Global Education Digest — in English (Arabic, French and Spanish versions are forthcoming); a related UNESCO press release in English and French; and a UIS press conference presentation on New trends in International Student Mobility, and other material may be accessed at the following site: www.uis.unesco.org/publications/GED2009.