Of all respondents, some 60% of international students said they are looking abroad to benefit from quality education at a high-ranking institution. Meanwhile, 58% said they are motivated by career development after they graduate, an insights report published by NCUK and IDP Education revealed.

The report, published on November 21, surveyed around 1,000 NCUK students from around the world in a bid to understand their study motivations.

It found that motivations varied slightly depending on students’ source country.

While Peruvian and Nigerian respondents ranked career development goals as their primary motivation for seeking international education at 75% and 68% respectively, some 74% of Ghanaian respondents said social networking opportunities motivated them most.

Andy Howells, chief marketing officer at NCUK, said: “International students… value the quality of education on offer with our university partners, including access to 19 universities in the QS World Top 200, across the top study destinations.

“They also have high confidence that our pathway program will not just prepare them for success at university, but also in terms of gaining graduate employment and enabling them to transform their futures.”

Meanwhile, with all of the ‘big four’ study destinations introducing or considering policies affecting international students – including enrolment or study permit caps, a ban on dependents and complicated visa changes – research from IDP took a deep dive on which policies affected the country in which students decided to study.

IDP’s Emerging Futures 6 report – released last month – picked up similar themes.

Director of partnerships and stakeholder engagement at IDP UK, Rachel Macsween, said these trends were evident across most major source countries. 

“We are now on the sixth iteration of our Emerging Futures research series, and we consistently see that quality of education and good employment opportunities (particularly post-graduation) are the top two primary factors determining international students’ first-choice destination. The exception here is Chinese students who place the attractiveness of institutions as their second top factor,” she said.

There is a growing trend of students, many for financial reasons, who are looking to start their studies at home
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The report found that policies affecting students’ finances hold the most sway when making a study destination decision. According to the research, 64% of international students have reconsidered the idea of studying abroad due to a stratospheric rise in the cost of living, with a perceived value for money decreasing since last year across the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

As such, NCUK noted that its in-country pathway program would offer money-conscious students a way to save cash by staying in their home countries at the beginning of their university journey rather than travelling abroad, where education is often much more costly for international students.

“There is a growing trend of students, many for financial reasons, who are looking to start their studies at home, spending less time in their destination market,” Howells added.