Despite the barriers of the past two academic years – travel restrictions, remote learning, and grounded planes to name just a few – college and university students worldwide are ready and eager to study abroad again.
That was one of the key takeaways from our recent report: Passport to Higher Education: A Global Payments Study, an independent commissioned study by Flywire that surveyed more than 1,000 college and university students in five countries around the world, to get a better understanding of what a post-pandemic global education market looks like. While responses from the US, China, Canada, the UK, and Australia differed slightly on several questions, overall results from students signaled an eagerness to pack their bags and study somewhere new.
Students are, and want to be, studying abroad
Our report found that 63% of students surveyed were planning to integrate studying abroad into their higher education experience. That figure was divided into two camps: 30% of people who were currently studying abroad, and 33% of people who were planning to in the future.
“High percentages from key regions of the world signal overall industry strength”
China was by far the leader in demand for global education experiences. A whopping 76% of students surveyed said that studying abroad was or would be a part of their higher education experience, and almost half – 47% – were already doing so, despite the ongoing pandemic.
The UK and the US slightly trailed China with 65% and 64% of students integrating global education into their curriculum, respectively. Australian and Canadian students follow at 54% each. These high percentages from key regions of the world signal overall industry strength.
An education experience like no other
Two things stood out when we asked people why they wanted to study abroad: cultural experiences and their academic reputations. Some 47% of students responded that a new cultural experience was one of the main reasons driving them to another country, and 43% said that they thought it would have a positive impact on their academics or how their education was perceived. Other reasons cited by undergraduates included the on-campus experience (38%), value for the cost (38%), and location (29%).
Chinese students, who have by far the highest demand for global education, overwhelmingly cited cultural experiences and academic reputation as their reasoning for travel, at 66% each.
In-person learning is here to stay
Despite a pandemic-induced leap into remote and online learning, all indications point to in-person learning reclaiming its prominence in higher education. When asked about which style of learning gave them the most fulfilment, 51% of students said that being in person was the most fulfilling. Another 33% said that a hybrid model was the most fulfilling, and only 16% indicated they preferred online learning. Students shared about the same preference for in-person learning in each country, at 50%, with the exception of China, where students favoured it at 63%.
All in all, students remain optimistic and eager about international education. It offers an experience like no other, and students are ready to get back onto planes and into classrooms in parts of the world they’ve never seen before.
Want to learn more?
We invite you to check out the following resources to discover why Flywire is the Trusted Choice of millions of students, thousands of institutions and hundreds of education agents and partners worldwide.
- Access our global payments study to uncover additional higher education trends
- Discover how our comprehensive receivables solution simplifies the payment process
About the author:
This is a sponsored post from Sharon Butler,Executive Vice President of Global Education at Flywire. Sharon brings over 20 years of experience in sales and customer success and currently leads the global sales and account management teams across 10 offices globally for Flywire’s Education vertical. Sharon has been a pioneer in the education payment space and helped to evangelise on a global scale the importance of the student payment experience and choice for education based payments. As Flywire’s first employee, she has not only built and scaled Flywire’s Education sales and client success teams across the globe, but also championed educational cross-border payments to lead Flywire to a presence representing more than 2,000 education clients across 240 countries and territories.
