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Hotcourses: US most searched-for destination, UK loses share

The US was the most searched for study destination of 16 million enquiries made on the global search platform, Hotcourses, last year, according to a first-of-its kind report released by the company.

The US, UK and Australia are the three most searched for destinations. Photo: Hotcourses

In total, there were 23 million course searches on the platform last year

The report reveals enquiries for undergraduate, postgraduate and vocational courses in the US made up a third of course searches from student markets around the globe, excluding China and India.

“It’s a bit of a perfect storm of poor factors for the UK right now”

The UK was the second most searched for destination, claiming 27.2% of the searches. Australia followed with 17.2%.

The data is based on searches in student markets globally but the report released by Hotcourses highlights searches made by students in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Students from Brazil looked for US courses the most, accounting for 15.6% of all US searches. Vietnam followed with almost 10% of total searches and Thailand with 6.7%.

Comparing searches from the first half of the year to the second half, the study also found that after June, interest in the top study destination countries decreased among students in the top markets.

While the decline can be attributed to the time of year students are most likely to carry out their searches, “there is a competition from other countries that are becoming more and more appealing destinations,” Aaron Porter, Hotcourses director of insights and author of the report, told The PIE News.

Looking at autumn and winter searches to the UK alone, there was a drop of 0.6%, and searches from the UK’s top 10 countries all either flatlined or showed a decrease in the second half of the year.

The decrease in interest is also displayed when looking at Brazil as a source market.

When placed against the US, Australia and New Zealand, the UK’s demand decreased by 2.5% as the year progressed, while the other countries saw a rise during the same period.

“I think it’s more likely to be a systematic wider challenge that the UK is facing,” said Porter, noting the strength of the pound and tightening of visa regulations.

“If there’s been a concerted period of bad press between two countries, I think it’s inevitable there will be some impact”

“It’s a bit of a perfect storm of poor factors for the UK right now.”

Another outside influence that can impact study abroad searches is media coverage, added Porter.

“If there’s been a concerted period of bad press between two countries, I think it’s inevitable there will be some impact on the extent to which searches are done,” he said.

For example, searches from Indonesia, the market with the second highest number of students interested in Australia, fell by 4% in the second half of the year.

The report attributes much of this decline to news stories about asylum seekers from Indonesia being refused entry to Australia.

There were 23 million course searches on Hotcourses International websites last year. This is the first in a series of white papers from the company. It plans to releases follow up data in six months’ time to compare the first half of the year with last year.

“We know lots of institutions, not just in the UK but right across the globe are faced with some big decisions on what markets to focus in on possibly where to diversify,” Porter said.

“And hopefully this [data] will sort of aid decision making for universities about what to focus on and where to build.”

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