Study Abroad Market
Oct 05, 2010
Market characteristics
According to the Chinese Ministry of Education, over 130,000 Chinese students departed for overseas study in 2007. Chinese students are the second largest single overseas student group in the Netherlands. In the 2006-2007 academic year 3,493 Chinese students were enrolled in Dutch publicly funded higher education. The downward trend for enrolment as well as visa applications (1,270 in 2006) from China has stabilized [1]. The reason for the drop in recent years lay in part with China itself (capacity expansion of the education system within China) and in part with the Netherlands (emphasis on quality requirements through the introduction of the Neso certificate, the attempt to realize a heterogeneous composition of the student population and the increase in tuition fees).
In general, it is expected that China will continue to be a major contributor to international student mobility developments in the next few years. A report by IDP suggests that by 2025, when India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation, only about 300,00 Indian students are likely to be going outside their homeland to enrol at foreign universities. The number of Chinese students to be studying abroad for degrees at overseas universities is predicted to rise from currently 300,00 to 645,00 within 20 years [2]. All major international education providers as well as dozens of smaller countries are active in the Chinese education sector. Competition is fierce. Traditional foreign providers such as the US, Australia and the UK must now compete with the enormous expansion of local providers and all types of new-kids-on-the-block, such as schools from Cyprus, Malta, Argentina and Brazil.
The times that Chinese students would flood in with only the slightest marketing effort have long passed. The Chinese education market is becoming more mature. To ensure sustainable market growth serious and systematic positioning is required. Also, niche marketing is becoming more important. One has to establish a brand footprint to be successful. And one should only go in for the long haul.
[1] Nuffic Monitor International Mobility in Education in the Netherlands (2006), http://www.nuffic.nl/international-organizations/information/mobility-statistics
[2] Goeff Maslen, Chinese students to dominate the world, in University World News, November 2007, http://www.universityworldnews.com