Bis research paper number 128 The wider benefits of international higher education in the uk

2.4 Dynamics of the international HE market
Understanding the evolving dynamics of the international student market, including 
changing patterns of demand and what might influence study destination choices by 
students, is key if the UK wants to maintain its leading position as a destination of choice 
for international students.
A small number of destination countries tend to dominate the global market for 
international students. In 2010, five countries (the US, UK, Australia, France and 
Germany) accounted for nearly two thirds of all international student enrolments (OECD, 
2012). It is almost inevitable that the market share of each of these countries will decline 
over the longer term, given that increasingly other countries and their universities want to 
attract students, in some cases with strong government support to enhance their likelihood 
of success.
However, in spite of this potentially reducing global market share and sharper competition, 
given the right investment and supportive policies of government, UK universities should 
be able to continue to grow international enrolments numerically, given the overall 
expansion of the total global market (British Council & Oxford Economics, 2012). Ensuring 
that it recruits the ‘brightest and best’ will remain a challenging issue within this, and 
research is ongoing to provide some indications as to what might be needed to maintain 
the UK’s position of success. 
In similar fashion, the current pattern of ‘sending’ countries is also dominated by a few 
players. Together China (82,995 students enrolled) and India (31,595) accounted for about 
a quarter of all international enrolments in the UK in 2011/12. Other important student 
source countries for the UK, on the basis of more than 10,000 students enrolled in UK HE 
(2011/12) were Nigeria, the USA, Malaysia and Hong Kong (HESA, 2012). In addition 
there were 154,385 international students from EU member states, with over 10,000 
enrolled from each of Germany, France, Greece and Italy.
Much of international study is driven by demand for a relatively limited range of degree 
programmes including business and management, finance, hospitality and tourism 
management, electronics and computing, which together account for about 60% of globally 
mobile students. Other topics with strong international demand include many STEM
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and 
health-related subjects. This appears to be a relatively consistent pattern.
Undergraduates are the most internationally mobile amongst all students globally. 
However, the UK has very successful taught Master’s degree enrolments, particularly for 
one-year employment-related degree programmes, including the MBA which remains a 
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Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics 
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 
very highly valued degree and continues to grow in international demand. Recent trends in 
UK recruitment in terms of level of study are shown in Figure 2. In this the roughly similar 
growth rates of non-EU student enrolments to undergraduate and PG taught degree 
programmes are apparent.