Executive summary (342KB)
Desk research (883KB)
Case studies (717KB)
Qualitative focus group in Malaysia (60KB)
Qualitative focus group in Singapore (53KB)

The student mobility in East Asia report represents the culmination of a significant research project. The research was commissioned by the British Council under the second Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education (PMI2), and was undertaken by JWT Education.

In 2006, the UK Prime Minister renewed his commitment to internationalising UK education and the development of mutually beneficial education partnerships with other countries through a second ‘Prime Minister’s Initiative’ (PMI2). A key strand of this initiative is the strengthening of strategic collaboration at policy and institutional level in the East Asia region.

At policy level, these include dialogues on:

			the role of education in developing workforces for the 21st century (international education and employability)
			how to strengthen trans-national education delivery between the UK and East Asian partners in order to meet the challenges of increasing global student mobility
			collaboration to build world-class education systems and institutions.

This report was commissioned to co-incide with a policy dialogue which took place in Bangkok, Thailand, in February 2008, on the theme of student mobility within East Asia.

The intention in commissioning this research was to build a picture of student mobility between countries in East Asia through desk research, case studies and focus groups. Seventy-eight institutions in the region provided case studies for this research and we would like to thank all those who took part. These responses gave us a unique insight into patterns of student mobility and the benefits that mobility brings to institutions in the region.

This report will equip institutions with the information they need to assess emerging trends in international student mobility in East Asia, and assess the potential impact on their own course provision, whether in the region or in the UK.

The British Council would like to thank Allison Doorbar and Fiona Morris, and their colleagues at JWT, for their hard work and dedication to this project.

The report was introduced at two workshops that took place in May 2008. A presentation given at the workshops about the report is available.

Notes on report formats
This publication comprises a number of separate reports, finalised between December 2007 and February 2008, which analyse international student mobility in East Asia from a variety of perspectives. The executive summary brings together the key issues arising from all the reports.

The desk research identifies patterns and measurements of international student mobility within East Asia. The case studies report analyses the responses to the questionnaires distributed to leading higher education institutions in major East Asian countries.

The final two reports present the findings from qualitative focus groups which were held to investigate key factors influencing study decisions, motivations, information sources, and outcomes for students travelling to a third country – in this instance, Malaysia and Singapore – whom are currently undertaking an English language education at the British Council.

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