Vietnam currently tops the Southeast Asian region in the number of students studying abroad, according to the Southeast Asia Key Trends Report 2024 by Acumen, an international education consulting organisation.

Demographics, income growth, supply-side constraints, as well as relentless demand from parents for high-quality education are all factors meaning that Southeast Asia will continue to loom large as an important diversification market for international institutions, it wrote.

Acumen cited UNESCO statistics saying during the 2021 – 2022 period, Vietnam saw more than 132,000 students head abroad, followed by Malaysia and Indonesia (over 56,000 each) and Thailand (32,000).

The top two destinations for Vietnamese students were Japan with 44,100 students and the Republic of Korea with nearly 25,000. Meanwhile, Indonesians, Malaysians, and Thais travelled most to either the UK and Australia.

In the United States market alone, the number of Vietnamese students topped Southeast Asia with more than 23,100 students.

According to Nikkei Asia, Vietnam has been among the top 10 sources of international students for more than a decade in the US. In 2022 alone, Vietnamese students constituted the fifth largest group of foreign students in this market.

Meanwhile, ICEF Monitor, the leading institution in international education, reported that Vietnam is one of the top 10 markets in the world in terms of students heading abroad. Indeed, it is placed among the top five in the US, second in Japan, sixth in Australia, and first in Taiwan (China).

Source: VOV