The forecasting international student mobility project was launched by the British Council in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in May 2008. It aims to develop predictions on international student demand for education. The predictions will be:

			country specific
			short- to mid-term.

This project revisits Vision 2020 (a British Council report from 2004 forecasting the global demand for international student places in English speaking destination countries) and builds on its strengths.

The executive summary of the project is available:

Forecasting international student mobility - Executive summary (245KB)

The model was piloted in China and the full report is available:

Forecasting international student mobility - China report (577KB)

We have been working with the EIU to apply the model to both India and Nigeria, with fascinating results. The executive summaries of both the India and Nigeria reports are available:

Forecasting international student mobility - India executive summary (160KB)
Forecasting international student mobility - Nigeria executive summary (160KB)

The full reports will be made available alongside access to the forecasting model, presented in a bespoke on-line application, by the end of summer 2009.

A comparative analysis of the original China study and subsequent India and Nigeria forecasts, with a look at the macroeconomic data and their impact on international student mobility, is also available:

Forecasting growth - three key emerging economies: China, India and Nigeria (56KB)

Work on applying the methodology to the USA and Malaysia has already started and the results will be published soon.

If you have any queries about this project, please contact the Education Market Intelligence team.