UNDERSTANDING INTERNATIONAL STUDENT MOBILITY FROM A DEVELOPING NATION’S PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The international student mobility sector has expanded into a significant financial enterprise, producing more than USD 500 billion globally each year. Students from emerging economies are increasingly preferring to study abroad, as the global higher education sector has developed considerably. Asian students make for most of the worldwide demand for international higher education. With over one million international students enrolled, China is the largest source market and has been a market leader for the greater part of two decades. With student enrollments expected to expand at an 8.5 percent compound annual rate from 2019 to 2030, India is the second-fastest growing source market. Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Indonesia are among the other quickly rising Asian economies. By 2025, there will be around twenty-five million foreign students studying outside of their home countries, based on current yearly growth rates. The vast majority of overseas students’ study in anglophone countries. The United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, for example, welcome more than 40% of all international students worldwide. Several factors, such as demographic shifts, rising affordability and family incomes, poor quality of local education provision, increased access to global education, higher salaries for international graduates, and a strong proclivity to seek a better life in Anglophone countries, are all contributing to this impressive growth. From a Sri Lankan viewpoint, this essay will examine student migration data and driving forces.