By Richard Adams. Vince Cable, business secretary, appears to support campaign to revise definition of migration to exclude those on student visas. Britain's attempts to restrain immigration has caused serious problems for student recruitment in countries such as India, and led to a "substantial" reduction in the number of applicants from the subcontinent, the business secretary said on Wednesday. Read more...

Recent changes in Cuba could result in a shift in student mobility patterns related to the island, and today on ICEF Monitor we’ll look at some of the new regulations, take a snapshot of the country’s education system, and try to determine what the future holds.
More mobility to and from Cuba
Perhaps the most important change, one impacting the mobility of all Cubans, has been the rescinding of the permiso de salida stating that citizens could not freely leave the country. Previously, Cubans had to go through a long, expensive process to obtain permission to travel, but as of mid January 2013 most will need only a Cuban passport and a visa from the destination country.
Cubans may now remain abroad for up to 24 months without having to renew their papers. But while movement off the island will involve jumping through fewer bureaucratic hoops, this does not mean explosive growth for Cuba’s sending market, as travel remains economically impossible for the vast majority of the population.
As an example of how thin the trickle of students from Cuba is nowadays, consider what has happened with Russia. Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, tens of thousands of Cubans studied in Soviet universities, but in 2012-13 only four Cubans studied in Russia due to the high cost of air travel. Read more...

Where do students go to study? Where do they come from? UIS data on the mobility of students shed light on the shifting demand for higher education, particularly in the developing world.
To explore the data select a country from the menu, or click on the map.
More students pursuing higher education abroad
According to the latest UIS data, at least 3.6 million students in 2010 were enrolled in tertiary education abroad, up from 2 million in 2000.  The surge in internationally mobile students* reflects the rapid expansion of enrolment in higher education globally, which has grown by 78% in a decade.
East Asia and the Pacific is the largest source of international students, representing 28% of the global total. Students from China make up one-half of this figure, or 17% of the total. The United States, Australia, and Japan are their main destinations for study.
North America and Western Europe follows, accounting for 15% of those going abroad.
In relative terms, students from Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are the most mobile in the world. About 6 out of 100 tertiary students from Central Asia, and 5 out of 100 from sub-Saharan Africa go away to study.
Education hubs are developing in the regions and attracting growing concentrations of mobile students. South Africa, for example, received 17% of mobile students from sub-Saharan Africa in 2010. Nonetheless, France remains the region's top destination, receiving 19% of students.
The Arab States has also seen a steady rise in outbound students over the past ten years, accounting for 7% of the global total. France, the United States and the United Kingdom absorb most of these students; however, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) are also popular destinations for high-level studies.
Several countries have more students studying abroad than at home. In São Tomé and Principe, for example, fewer than 1,000 students were enrolled in domestic higher education institutions, representing 4% of its tertiary-age population; whereas approximately 2,500 students studied abroad, or 14% of tertiary-age population. In  other words, 18% of the population of university age were enrolled in higher education programmes. 
For more statistics on students flows into and out of more than 100 countries, please visit the UIS Centre de données.
* The term “internationally mobile students” refers to students who have crossed a national border to study, or are enrolled in a distance learning programme abroad. These students are not residents or citizens of the country where they study. Internationally mobile students are a sub-group of “foreign students,” a category that includes those who have permanent residency in the host country.  For this reason, the number of foreign students, globally, tends to be higher.
Additional resources:

• Learn more about student mobility in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The UIS produces a range of indicators to track trends in higher education.
• Chiao-Ling Chien, a UIS data analyst, outlines the major trends in women’s pursuit of higher education.