New trends in

international student mobility

Hendrik van der Pol
Director, UIS
July 6, 2009
 Presenting the global picture

Annual digest of education

statistics (2009 edition
focuses on higher
education

Data provided by Member

States via annual survey

Covers all levels of

education, from pre-
primary to tertiary
 Expanding tertiary systems
Tertiary enrolment grew by more than four-fold between 1970 and 2007
160

140 Sub-Saharan
ISCED97 Africa
ISCED76
Arab States
Tertiary students (millions)

120

South and West

100 Asia

East Asia and the

Pacific
80
Latin America
and the
60 Caribbean
Central Asia

40
Central and
Eastern Europe

20 North America
and Western
Europe
1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005
 Growing numbers of mobile students
Since 1975, the number of mobile students has grown by almost 3.5-fold

1995 2007
1975 1985
0.8M 1.1M 1.7M 2.8M
How do define a mobile student

…those leaving their country/territory of origin

and moving to another with the objective of
studying

In practice
 Permanent residence: If students are NOT
permanent residents of the country of study;
 Prior education: If students obtained the entry
qualification to their current level of study in
another country;
 Citizenship: If students are not citizens of the host
country.
 Number (in thousands) .

0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
China

India

Rep. of Korea

Germany

Japan

France

United States

Malaysia

Canada

Russian
Federation

Morocco

Turkey

Italy

Poland

Hong Kong SAR

of China
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16

Share of world total (%) .

Which are the major sending countries?
15 countries together account for 44% of the world’s mobile students
 Are tertiary students more mobile?
Outbound mobility ratio, 1999-2007

At the global level, the number of internationally mobile students as

% of total enrolment remains unchanged between 1999 and 2007,
despite cross-regional variations.
2007
2007 1999
6
Outbound mobility ratio (%)

World average in 2007

2

0
North Latin South / Central East Asia Western Arab Central Sub-
America America West Asia and and the Europe States Asia Saharan
and the Eastern Pacific Africa
Caribbean Europe
 Share of world's mobile students

0
5
10
15
20
25
Remaining
Remaining

22.1
countries
countries

Korea, Rep.of
Korea, Rep.of

1.1
New Zealand
New Zealand

1.2
Switzerland
Switzerland

1.4
China
China

1.5
1.5
Austria
Austria

1.6
Italy
Italy

2.1
2.1
2007

Russian Fed.
Russian Fed.
2.2
2007, with some changes since 1999

1999

South Africa
South Africa
2.2

Canada
Canada
2.5
2.5

Japan
4.5

Japan
7.4

Germany
7.4

Germany
7.6
7.6

Australia
Australia

France
8.8

France
8.8

United
United
12.6
12.6

Kingdom
Kingdom

United States
United States
21.4
21.4
The top six countries hosted 62% of the world’s mobile students in
Which are the major host countries?
Where do mobile students study?
80
Share of mobile students studying
within their region of origin
60
Share of mobile students studying
within their region of origin
40

20

0
%

20

40

60

80
Share of mobile students studying
outside their region of origin
100
Western Europe East Asia and the Pacific
Where do mobile students study?
80

60
Share of mobile students studying
within their region of origin
40

20
%

20

40

60

80
Share of mobile students studying
outside their region of origin
100
Western East Asia North Central Central Latin Sub- Arab South and
Europe and the America Asia and America Saharan States West Asia
Pacific Eastern and the Africa
Europe Caribbean
What types of programme do mobile
students choose?
Occupationally-oriented
Occupationally-oriented (5B)
(5B)
Bachelor's
Bachelor's (5A,
(5A, 1st)
1st)
Master's
Master's (5A,
(5A, 2nd)
2nd)
Advanced
Advanced research
research (6)
(6)

Mobile students 9 44 40
40 7
7

Advanced
Advanced programmes
programmes

Local students in
34 52
52 11
11 3
3
host countries

0 20 40 60
60 80
80 100
100
Tertiary graduates by programme
programme type
type (%)
(%)
 %

0
5
10
15
20
25
Business and

23
administration

17
Science

15
9
Engineering,
manufacturing

14
and
construction

10
Humanities

14
and Arts
12

Social sciences
13
Mobile students

and law
14

Health and
choose?

welfare
13

Education
9
Local students

Services
5

Agriculture
1
What fields of study do mobile students
 For more information

Global Education Digest 2009

http://www.uis.unesco.org/publications/GED2009

On-line Data Centre

http://stats.uis.unesco.org/

Requests for UIS data

datarequests@uis.unesco.org