Southeast Asian students eye study destinations within Asia

Southeast Asian students aiming to study abroad are increasingly looking at countries within Asia and their own region, according to a new study of post-pandemic student mobility trends.

Japan and South Korea are now among the top five destinations for outbound students from Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Competition for Southeast Asian students from within the region is set to increase, with “more active engagement” to attract foreign students by Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan providing a strong focus on employment outcomes, according to the Key Trends in Southeast Asia 2024 report released recently by international education consultancy Acumen.

The report is a “bird’s-eye view” of developments in the region, with a particular focus on student trends in Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. “By covering those three markets we provide good coverage of many of the themes that cover the whole [SE Asian] region,” Haike Manning, executive director for Southeast Asia at Acumen, told University World News.

Within Southeast Asia, Vietnam is by far the largest source country for outbound students, with Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines also major outbound markets.

In 2022, more than 350,000 students from Southeast Asia were studying abroad, making the region the third largest globally for outbound student mobility after China and India, according to the report.

Economic and demographic factors, the growth of international schools in the region, and increased TNE (transnational education) are all key factors behind the increase in demand for international education, but attractive work-study programmes and job opportunities mean that other Asian countries are becoming more attractive.

Push and pull factors

The youth bulge in much of Southeast Asia is fuelling increased demand for higher education, while a rising middle class has the financial means to pursue international higher education, including TNE programmes offered by foreign institutions, the report noted.

Healthy economic growth of around 5% to 6% in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam has increased the size of the disposable income of the middle class, according to Manning. “You see that reflected in the growth in private schools and international schools, which have pretty hefty price tags. You see that people are willing to invest in education, and invest at an early age, as a launch pad for higher education,” he said.

Manning noted that the establishment of international universities in Indonesia spearheaded by Australia’s Monash University in 2020, followed by other Australian universities, offers new opportunities and will “shift perceptions of international education as well”.

At the same time, the Acumen report notes that some local education systems in Southeast Asia face both capacity and quality constraints, opening up further opportunities for international education providers. For example, in 2021 to 2022 only 550,000 places were available for new enrolments at Vietnamese universities which received 795,000 applicants – a shortfall of almost 250,000 places.

Another key driver is future jobs. For students from Vietnam or the Philippines, the growing interest in international higher education “may be employability related”, Manning said, adding that families are “looking for return on their investment in education in terms of getting a job somewhere else at the end of it”.

For example, the large numbers of Vietnamese students heading for Japan or South Korea “are very much tied to employment outcomes”, Manning said.

Countries such as Japan and South Korea are more directly linking study-to-work opportunities as a response to labour market shortages as their populations age, so students can see a clear path to employment, he added.

“Some may also be looking for residence pathways,” Manning noted, though this was less the case for students from Indonesia. “In Indonesia it seems more related to accessing quality education and getting a credential that has some status, or helps them get a job,” he said.

Manning also pointed to Vietnam where “the education system is pretty good, given the level of income and GDP per capita, but the ability of many universities to adjust their programmes and adapt quickly to the needs of industry, is not quite there”.

As a result, families look to international education “to bridge that gap”, he said.

“People also see a growing opportunity in Vietnam itself, spurred by the ‘China plus one’ strategy that governments and industry are beginning to employ to de-risk out of China,” Manning said, referring to trade and technology restrictions imposed by the US and Europe on China. He added that South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore are all huge investors in Vietnam and their companies, providing a potential source of future jobs.

Transnational education

While traditional English-speaking destinations are still popular, Acumen’s data shows that destinations within Asia such as Korea, Japan and Malaysia are increasing in popularity, while “a noticeable uptick” towards in-country provision is driven by international branch campuses and the expansion of Transnational Education (TNE) or degrees delivered by overseas institutions in Asian countries, offering a more cost-efficient alternative than overseas study.

“In the last three years there has been growth in the ‘campus within a campus’ model in Vietnam, and the establishment of four branch campuses in Indonesia: three from Australia, and one a joint venture between Lancaster University and Deakin University,” the report noted.

The growth of TNE international degree qualifications from countries like the United Kingdom and Australia delivered within these countries as well as dual degrees involving a local and international university has also meant an increase in students staying within the Southeast Asian region, if not their own countries.

“Two of the UK’s top 10 TNE markets globally are in Southeast Asia, while Vietnam has been the UK’s fastest growing TNE market globally in recent years and is now the UK’s third largest TNE market in the region,” the report said. In 2021, more than 53,000 students were studying Australian TNE programmes in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Growth of international schools

The growth of international schools in the region is another indicator of a desire for international education and the ability to pay for it.

In 2022 there were 1,905 international schools in Southeast Asia, up nearly 25% from 2017, catering for nearly 600,000 students across the region. They offer a fully international curriculum in English or a dual curriculum alongside the local high school diploma.

As of 2021, there were more than 100 international schools across Vietnam, with both local and international students enrolled. Student numbers have grown 56% in the last five years to July 2023.

In October 2023, the Indonesian government reported more than 900 registered ‘Joint Cooperative Schools’, known as SPK, which implement dual curricula, mainly enrolling local Indonesian students.

In the five years between July 2018 and July 2023, the number of international schools in Singapore grew by 34% and student enrolments by 19% according to ISC Research, mainly driven by expat families, including from mainland China and Hong Kong.

Many of these students use Singapore’s international schooling options as a stepping stone to higher education in English-speaking destinations such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Shifting patterns in Malaysia

Malaysia remains the third most important market for outbound higher education students from the region after Vietnam and Indonesia and has been an important source of international students for Australia, New Zealand and the UK for many years.

“Malaysians’ North Star has been the UK and, and the South Star has been Australia and that has not changed,” said Manning. However, the total number of Malaysian students going abroad for study has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Malaysian students pursuing undergraduate studies in the US dropped significantly between 2018 and 2022; recovery of these numbers is currently hampered by a strong US dollar against the Malaysian currency, the Ringgit, he said.

“The Malaysian market remains overwhelmingly an undergraduate market for outbound students, although we are seeing an increase in the proportion of Malaysian students undertaking postgraduate studies abroad,” the report said.

The proportion of Malaysian students undertaking postgraduate studies in the UK increased from 12% to 19% in the five years from 2017 to 2022.

“The widespread availability of quality international undergraduate degrees in Malaysia (via branch campuses and other forms of TNE) may be stimulating a tendency towards postgraduate study abroad,” the report said. Within Malaysia itself there is increasing recognition of the importance of postgraduate studies for employment.

Malaysia is itself an established international education hub in the region, attracting large numbers of international students from China, particularly into higher education TNE options. “We are also now seeing increasing numbers of South Korean and Japanese students,” Kenny Choo, senior manager for customer experience at Acumen Malaysia, was quoted as saying.