April 2024
Welcome to the third edition of Studyportals Higher Ed Data into Insights - data and market insights for international higher education professionals.
In this month's edition:
Spotlight on South Africa
What do students from South Africa want to study abroad?
What do international students want to study in South Africa?
By Damaris Clark
Did you know that there are more international students studying in South Africa than there are South Africans studying abroad? South Africa attracts a diverse audience 35 countries across different continents accounts for 80% of student interest for SA, with substantial growth from India and the US.
South Africa ranks in the top 10 most popular destinations globally for Medicine and Health programmes. For Bachelor's programmes in SA, Medicine & Health is not only the discipline with the highest volume of interest but also the only one to show growth (16.7%)
Within the discipline of Medicine & Health, the most popular sub-disciplines for Bachelor's are Health Sciences, Public Health, Medicine and Nutrition & Dietetics.
Top origin countries for growth disciplines in Destination South Africa
Student interest in Destination Canada more than halves since new restrictions announced
In late January, Canada announced a cap on international undergraduate students and a review of post-graduation work visas.
In the above chart, we see the effect of Canada's policy changes in real time as weekly pageviews on Studyportals slumped. Student search behavior is strongly correlated to actual enrolments 12 to 18 months later.
While much of the news around restrictions has been focused on the Bachelor's level visa caps, uncertainty around post-graduation work visas is taking its toll. The drop in student interest for Canada is actually slightly more dramatic at Master's level. 70% of Canada's subdisciplines (academic subjects) on Studyportals (190 out of 271 subdisciplines) show a year-on-year decline at Master's level.
The origin countries shifting away from Canada, such as India, Nigeria and Pakistan, seem to be driving increased interest in destinations in Europe.
领英推荐
If you missed last month's newsletter, you can read more about the implications of restrictions here.
Finding the best programme names, using data
By Karl Baldacchino
Finding the right name for a study programme at a university can be a challenging task. Many points of view come to the drawing board: the opinion of an influential academic, the professors who helped designing the programme, the “buzz” of some terms in the industry.
Yet, all this feedback has little to do with how students search for programmes. Here are some important indicators you want to check:
·???????Are students interested in this programme?
·???????Are other universities offering a similar programme?
·???????Which data can be used to choose the programme name?
What to consider when launching a new programme
This month, the University of Bristol's International Insight Manager Bupie Busier joined us for a webinar on how universities can use subject trends data. Here he explains what to think about, when putting together a business case for a new programme.
More data insights
Which origin countries have a preference for Russell Group universities in the UK?
Thank you for reading! Let us know which data insights you'd like us to explore by emailing [email protected]
Studyportals is the world’s most comprehensive study choice platform. With our portals and data insights, we help universities diversify their student population and optimise their recruitment and marketing efforts.