This edition explores the changing patterns in higher education worldwide. The 2009 Global Education Digest (GED) presents the latest education statistics from primary to tertiary education levels for more than 200 countries. Data are provided for the school year ending in 2007 or the latest year available, as well as for 2008 for a small number of countries. The wide range of education indicators presented in the report helps assess progress towards Education for All and Millennium Development Goals. The analytical chapter explores the changing patterns in global higher education. It analyses the rising demand for higher education, represented by an explosive growth in tertiary students worldwide since 1999. Moreover, this edition presents a unique picture of the landscape of international student mobility.Beyond the global set of education indicators, the GED continues to report more in-depth education data for a group of 62 countries, including those that are members of the World Education Indicators (WEI) programme, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat. This data set offers cross-national comparisons of more detailed information on tertiary educational programmes, as well as on the sources and flows of tertiary education funding. The 2009 GED introduces additional time series data on tertiary education to assess progress since 1970, highlighting the rapid growth of tertiary education systems, changing patterns in tertiary education graduates by field of study, and in particular, the shift in global trends for international student mobility. It also expands reporting on upper secondary education graduates to 70 countries, which helps forecast the number of potential entrants into tertiary programmes.
The Digest is available in English, French and Spanish (Arabic version is forthcoming).
