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Competition for Talents

The War without Gunfire, Is USA Still Winning?

The War without Gunfire, Is USA Still Winning?

Source:Mingtang Huang

Take a small quiz and look into what the statistics of international student mobility are telling us.

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The War without Gunfire, Is USA Still Winning?

By Sharon Tseng
web only

In 2015, what country hosted the most international students?
Correct answer: USA

According to UNESCO, international students in higher education around the globe have reached over 4.6 million in 2015, a number that has doubled within the past 13 years. Among the 4.6 million students, nearly 20% are studying in the US. The rocketing number of international students reveals the general thirst for high-quality tertiary education that can drive students to leave their comfort zones and travel overseas for further studies.

In a research based on the data from UNESCO, Mary Kirtz compares the statistics of in/outbound internationally mobile students of 190 countries, with the average income per capita, population size, higher education accessibility, national development, and literacy rate of the country. Results show that many structural aspects affect the number of students studying abroad, such as the size of the country, GDP, per capita GDP, urbanization, and the supply and demand of higher education within the country. 

In 2015, what country has sent the most students abroad for tertiary education?
Correct answer: China

Take 2015 for example. In the United States, Argentina, and Philippines, less than 4 out of 1,000 college students study abroad. On the other hand, in Albania, Morocco, and Senegal, over 100 out of 1,000 college students chose to travel overseas for education. China and India send the most students abroad, but given their population eligible for higher education, outbound students only make up 1.9% in China and 0.7% in India, indicating that most Chinese and Indian students still prefer staying in their own country. Nevertheless, as the two most populated countries in the world, China and India are still the largest potential source of international students. (Read: China's Leadership Factory)

If a country hits high in GDP, normally it also hits high in its rate of urbanization and number of middle class families, which are more likely to be financially-sufficient to send their children abroad.

In fact, the affordability of a family is a deciding factor for students’ study plans. After all, opportunities for scholarship are limited. This also explains why China, India, and other Global South Countries with a skyrocketing growth of affordability per family unit, can be sending streams of students abroad.

In some developing countries, expansion in population boosts demands for higher education. Early in the 60s, to cope with overpopulation, South Korea had not only carried out birth control measurements, but also active investment policies in education, while other developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America had not yet put emphasis on improving education. Investment in education became one of the key causes that led to a widened disparity in development among the countries. In the 60s, South Korea had a population growth rate of 2.9%, which was similar to Kenya’s 3.1%. Last year, Kenya kept a flat 2.7%, while South Korea dropped to 0.4%. As for education indicators, the enrollment rate of higher education students in South Korea has grown from 5% in the 70s, to 98% today, while Kenya stagnated at 5%. Moreover, only 1.7 % of the population eligible for higher education in South Korea chose to go abroad, while Kenya has a rate of 11.8% of students looking for higher education elsewhere.

Though the average income per capita of South Koreans had started from the same level as the Kenyans in the 60s, the average income of South Koreans became 20 times that of Kenyans in 2014. According to analysts, the successful development of South Korea should be credited to its massive investments in education, research, and innovation.

Which region (other than Asia) sends the most international students to East Asia?
Correct answer: Africa

As the second largest and the second-most populous continent on earth, Africa accounts for about 15% of the world's population. As educational attainment levels have begun to creep up across the continent, so has the number of African students seeking higher education abroad. For the African youths, their second-most preferred destination continent after Europe, is East Asia. In fact, since China is playing a crucial role in Africa's return to the international stage, even the average street vendor in Africa knows the Chinese president by name. African students studying in China has grown from under 2,000 in 2003, to almost 50,000 in 2015, taking up 13% of international students in China. (Read: China's Scramble for African Resources)

Taiwan's Position in the Competition for Talents

Though Mary Kirtz stresses that low income and lack of resources in higher education mainly accounts for the 'push' of students to go abroad, in Taiwan, it’s a different case.

Which country has the highest average rate of highly-educated people among ages from 25-64?
Correct answer: Taiwan

Over the past 20 years, university departments have been expanding at such a rapid rate that college diplomas are now seen as high school diplomas and master's and doctoral degrees are now equated with bachelor's degrees. According to a CommonWealth’s Magazine’s Survey on National Taiwan University Graduates’ Intentions and Motivation in Going Abroad, of the nearly half that wanted to pursue a higher degree, only about 37% were interested in graduate programs in Taiwan, with the rest wanting to go overseas. 

For Taiwanese students, what is the second-most preferred country, after USA, for tertiary education?
Correct answer: Australia

According to The Ministry of Education, though the United Sates still tops the list of the most preferred destination for Taiwanese students, its number of enrolled Taiwanese students dropped about a third over the past 10 years. On the other hand, the number of students that chose Australia has increased by 65% over the past 2 years, adding about 3,000 each year.

In fact, though Australia and Taiwan has nearly the same population, last year, international students in Australia have reached over 554,000, more than 5 times the number of international students in Taiwan. "With record student numbers and record student satisfaction, 2016 was a gangbuster year for international education in Australia and the vital role it plays in our national economic and social prosperity," said Australia’s Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham in February 2017. For students in Taiwan, their anxiety over low wages and long working hours has been pushing them to Australia, the nearest English-speaking country where opportunities for high-paying jobs are more accessible. According to Jessy Kang, NTU’s deputy vice president for academic affairs, these outbound students are probably the most likely to cut off contacts with Taiwan in the future, because it’s when they go to college that people start building important connections to professions and the workplace. If the universities are overseas, those connections are developed overseas; returning to Taiwan might mean career isolation. (Read: Time for Homecomings)

On the other hand, China has recently taken on a more active role in the world's competition for students. With the implement of Project 985 and Project 211, China has been investing heavily in higher education, striving to build more world-class universities. The academic qualifications granted by Chinese universities are now recognized by most developed countries, as agreements on mutual recognition of academic qualifications were made with a number of countries including the United States, Britain, France, Japan and 65 other countries and region. With relatively low tuition and fast-growing potential, universities in China have witnessed a growth of 35% in international student enrollments over the past 5 years. Since universities in China opened their gates to Taiwanese students in 2011, the number of Taiwanese students leaving for China surged to over 10,000 this year, more than those who chose to study in Japan, which was about 9,600.

In this global war for talent, perhaps the most urgent for the countries at the losing end is to strengthen their higher education system in funding, quality, and innovation, but not in the number of universities.

(Source: UNESCO, Ministry of Education, The Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States)
 


Additional Reading

International Education in China
Higher Education Traps, and How to Steer Clear
The Secret of the World’s Most Competitive Nation
♦ Sending Children Abroad to Help Them Grow Up
Hot Topic Series: Brain Drain

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