Study abroad

More students are looking beyond their borders to give their education a competitive edge.
Despite shrinking support for scholarships and tightening travel budgets, 177 million students left their home countries in 2012 to pursue formal tertiary education, an increase of 77 million students since 2000.
With the exception of the US, which suffered a considerable drop in the number of foreign students it received, young scholars appear to be flocking mostly to English-speaking countries. Australia, New Zealand and the UK have the highest percentage of international students among their tertiary students, and have seen noticeable boosts in their popularity as educational destinations in the past decade.
Tuition policies also play a large role in destination choices for foreign students: among most EU contries such as Austria, Italy and Spain, international students from other EU countries are treated as domestic students with respect to tuition fee charges, which are relatively low in these countries.
Korea, where most international students pay tuition fees that are somewhat lower than those paid by domestic students, has transformed in recent years to become a more popular study abroad destination than Sweden (which charges no tuition fees for either international or domestic students) or the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Korea joins China and India in boasting the largest numbers of students studying abroad.