The number of U.S. students studying abroad in Japan is continuing to increase, having recovered from a sharp decline in the 2010–20111 school year.
This is in contrast to the situation in China, which has been seeing fewer and fewer U.S. students.
I’m not sure what accounts for the sharp drop in 2010–2011. It occurred before the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
China is continuing to decline as a destination for U.S. study-abroad students, slipping from fifth place to sixth (behind Britain, Spain, Italy, France, and Germany; with Ireland, Australia, Costa Rica, and Japan completing the top ten).
This likely indicates that the craze for learning Mandarin has already peaked. Greater awareness of the unhealthy levels of pollution in China may also be a factor.
Note: The dip in the 2002–2003 school year was a result of worries about the outbreak of SARS.
Meanwhile, almost all other parts of East Asia saw increases in 2015–2016 over 2014–2015:
| Destination | Students in 2014-15 | Students in 2015-16 | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 12,790 | 11,688 | -8.6 |
| Hong Kong | 1,508 | 1,612 | 6.9 |
| Japan | 6,053 | 7,145 | 18.0 |
| Macau | 3 | 4 | 33.3 |
| Mongolia | 71 | 71 | 0.0 |
| South Korea | 3,520 | 3,622 | 2.9 |
| Taiwan | 880 | 980 | 11.4 |
sources:
Additional reading:
Rapid growth in U.S. students going to China to study has not been seen since around 2008. In fact, in the most recent school year for which we have data (2012–2013), the total fell to 14,413, down slightly from the 14,887 U.S. students studying in China during the 2011–2012 school year.
Meanwhile, the number of students from China studying in the United States is back on the rise.
Note, the chart below is not of the absolute number of Chinese students in the United States but of the ratio of Chinese students in the United States to U.S. students in China — just because I thought it might be more interesting. If you’d like to the see the numbers for the former, then check the source document.
China is the leading place of origin for students coming to the United States, with Chinese students comprising 31% of international students in the United States. They’re about evenly divided between undergrad and grad students.
Source: Open Doors Fact Sheet: China.
The top 10 destinations for U.S. students studying abroad were unchanged in the 2009–2010 school year compared to the year before. China remained in fifth place, with its numbers up only 1.7% over the previous year.
By far the largest gains of destinations in the top 25 were those by Israel (60.7% — up to 3,146 visiting students) and India (44.4% — up to 3,884). Though not in the top 25, Taiwan also experienced very strong growth at 42.4% (850 students) — far higher than any other country in East Asia.
In second place for growth in East Asia was Japan (6.6%), which will soon replace Costa Rica in the top 10 if trends continue.
For places of origin of international students studying in the United States, China was by far the leader, with 157,558 students, about 50% more than India’s 103,895 students in the States. Third and fourth places were held by South Korea and Canada, respectively. Taiwan was fifth with 24,818 students.
Source:
Previous posts on this subject:
China remained the fifth most popular destination for U.S. students studying abroad during the 2008/09 school year, and it continued to account for 5 percent of U.S. study abroad.
In the previous academic year, growth for the PRC as a destination increased 19.0 percent, while study abroad as a whole increased 8.5 percent. But for 2008/09 growth for China was a much smaller 3.9 percent, while the total worldwide figure declined -0.8 percent. Figures for the top four destinations also dropped.
The order of the top 10 remained the same as in the previous year, except Mexico and Germany switched places.
Some other figures of possible interest:
Study in Asia increased slightly.
source: Open Doors data portal
Previous posts on this subject:
In one of my posts about a year ago, China and U.S. study abroad programs (Pinyin News, Nov. 23, 2008), I noted that China had become the fifth most popular destination for U.S. students in study abroad programs.
More recent data show that the China has remained in fifth place. In fact, the order in the top ten list has not changed, though the figures for each of the countries have increased.
Growth for China as a destination, however, remained strong, at 19.0 percent, while study abroad as a whole increased 8.5 percent. Top growth, however, belonged to India, followed by Austria, then China, and Ireland. If China continues to grow at such rates as a destination, it could knock France out of fourth place in a few years, which would be a dramatic development.
China now accounts for 5 percent of U.S. study abroad, which has helped Asia’s overall growth as a destination region.
Some predictions for the next installment:
source: Open Doors Report 2009
China has become the fifth most popular destination for U.S. students in study abroad programs, according to the results of a newly released study.
It was only a few years ago that China made it into the top ten for the first time.
The trend evident by comparing the two graphs is also backed up by the numbers: There has been a tremendous increase in the number of American students receiving credit for study abroad.
This latest increase marks a decade of unprecedented growth in the number of American students receiving academic credit for their overseas academic experience, with an increase of close to 150%, from under 100,000 in 1996/97 to nearly a quarter of a million in 2006/07.
Moreover, there has been an increasing interest in non-traditional destinations. In 1996-97, Europe took in 64 percent of U.S. students studying abroad. Although it continues to attract a majority (57 percent) of such students, many other destinations are receiving more students than ever, “fueled in part by an increase in new program opportunities, partnerships between higher education institutions in the United States and abroad, and a range of fields and program durations to accommodate the needs of an increasingly diverse study abroad population.”
China’s growth as a destination has been strong this decade, other than a dip during the SARS outbreak. Note, however, that China has yet to receive even 5 percent of U.S. study abroad students in any given year, so please don’t misinterpret this post as yet more media hype proclaiming “Everyone’s going to China!” (For the 2006-2007 school year, the figure was 4.6 percent.)
The growth of interest in China has helped fuel Asia taking in greater numbers of students. Taiwan has also more than doubled the percentage of U.S. study abroad students it takes in, though the percentage remains so low that this is difficult to see on the graph.
Note that there’s no indication of just how long people stayed in given destinations. So it’s possible that students spent much more time on average in, say, England than in China — or vice versa.
Here’s the overall breakdown for the time students spent studying abroad:
source: Open Doors 2008: Report on International Educational Exchange
Further reading for students interested in study abroad: IIEPassport Study Abroad Funding.