Why do South East Asian students favor UK and US over Europe?

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Por most students in South East Asia, the dream is to study at a British or American university. Japanese graduate schools are also gaining popularity in the region. But European establishments are lagging behind.

For many young Asians, the opportunity to study at a faculty in mainland Europe never really stands out.

Last month, the European Union decided to extend its scholarship program for South East Asia until the end of 2022. With the allocation of an additional 5 million euros, 300 additional scholarships will be awarded to students in the region.

Faced with the lucrative Asian market, universities in EU member states are still trying to catch up with their British, American and, increasingly, Japanese counterparts.

According to the latest report on the situation in Southeast Asia, published annually by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, some 12.2% of opinion makers in the region said in 2020 that a member state of the The EU would be their preferred destination if offered a university scholarship. This figure rose to 13% in 2021.

EU universities are catching up

Still, EU states are still far behind the US (29,7 %) and the United Kingdom (19,9 %) among the preferred destinations for higher education. The popularity of Japanese universities is also growing faster than that of institutions in the EU, according to the report.

“Anglophone universities have the undeniable advantage of the language. The use of the English language remains the main decision factor for many Asian students ”, says Igor Driesmans, the EU ambassador to the ASEAN bloc, at DW.

However, Mr Driesman adds that EU universities are gradually catching up – not only by producing more academic content in English, but also by offering more courses in the global lingua franca.

One of the main drivers of this shift towards learning in English has been the European Higher Education Area. (EHEA). This collaboration was formed in 2010 between the universities of the EU and those of certain regions of Eurasia.

The number of English-taught bachelor’s degrees offered by institutions in EHEA countries was almost zero in 2009 and reached nearly 3,000 in 2017, according to an EHEA study carried out that year. For postgraduate programs given in English, it increased from 725 in 2001 to over 8,000 in 2014.

In total, the number of first residence permits issued to non-EU citizens for educational purposes in the bloc rose from 235,000 in 2009 to nearly 400,000 in 2019, according to Eurostat data.

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The popularity of Japanese schools in Southeast Asia

Although young people in Southeast Asia prefer to study in English-speaking countries, an increasing number of them also want to go to Japan, despite the language barrier, says Kimkong Heng, co-founder of the Cambodian Education Forum. , a newly created think tank to promote educational research.

This is because some Southeast Asians have studied in Japan before and recommend the academies to friends, family and other back home students, Heng said. Some even help to establish a more formal link between their relatives and Japanese universities.

Heng said Japan similarly offers significant government scholarships to the region every year. “The European Union should offer more scholarships to students from South East Asia”, he comments. “The allowances for students should also be increased, in order to make their scholarships more attractive. “

However, the EU does not fail to provide this kind of assistance. It launched the EU’s support program for higher education in the ASEAN region in 2015 alongside the UK, a member of the EU at the time. In 2020, it awarded some 176 students from across Southeast Asia an Erasmus scholarship for a joint master’s degree, says Driesman.

Retain international students

At the end of April, the EU extended its support for higher education in the ASEAN region until the end of 2022, which provides financial assistance for intraregional scholarships and scholarships in the Member States. ‘EU.

However, there are still clear limits on what the EU can do in the field of higher education, “Which remains in the hands of the Member States and the universities which are autonomous”, says Meng-Hsuan Chou, associate professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Some EU countries are keen to emphasize relations with their former colonies. Thus, according to a study, 1,402 Indonesian nationals were enrolled in Dutch universities during the year 2018/2019.

Uni-Italia, an organization that aims to promote Italian higher education institutions, has relays in Indonesia and Vietnam, where it often works alongside Italian embassies. The government agency Campus France and the education aid offices in the Netherlands, with almost all EU states with similar outreach structures, are also competing to appeal to foreign students.

However, a European Commission research on this issue, published in mid-2019 and titled “Attract and retain international students in the EU”, emphasizes that the problem is not to bring the students, but to keep them, whether for postgraduate programs or for work.

The teaching of degrees in English is showing positive results in attracting them to EU member states, the report notes. However, it does not promote student loyalty. “It can hinder the long-term integration of international students into the labor market, unless language learning and other accommodation takes place during the study period. “

But one of the main problems, according to Ms Chou, from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, is that universities in EU member states have yet to “Project a clear image” of themselves to Southeast Asian students, unlike American and British institutes.

When choosing a foreign university, she continues, students in Southeast Asia look at two things: the value of the money invested and the image of the study experience – that is, say the diplomas offered and the living environment.

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Value of money invested

Firstly, many European universities offer courses that are cheaper than their British or American competitors.

The initial cost per year of an undergraduate degree for non-European students was € 2,770 in France, € 4,175 in Belgium and between € 6,000 and € 15,000 in the Netherlands. By comparison, it was around € 12,000 in the UK, according to data collected by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a global higher education analysis company.

In some EU states, such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the cost of postgraduate degrees is roughly the same for EU learners and non-EU learners. Although these degrees come with some local language requirements.

On the other hand, British and American establishments are frequently better referenced than European ones. They therefore appear potentially more advantageous for foreign students.

According to the Times Higher Education 2021 International University Rankings, all but three of the world’s universities – ETH Zurich in Switzerland, the University of Toronto in Canada, and Tsinghua University in China – are located in the United States or UK. The first European on the list is LMU Munich, Germany, in 32nd position.

“The combination of these two images promotes the sustainability of American and British universities and contributes to the growing appeal of Japanese universities in the eyes of students from South East Asia”, emphasizes Ms. Chou.

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