Chinese go study abroad
According to a market research in China, at the end of 2010, more than 1.27 million Chinese students study overseas. And the ‘Open Doors’ from Institute of International Education in the U.S. unveiled that, within the 2011-2012 school year, the total number of international students of American colleges and universities increased by 6% and reached 764,495 people, including 194,029 Chinese students, accounting for 25.4% international students in the United States, which means that each of four there is a Chinese international students.
Reasons to study abroad
This market is growing at a high speed, compared to the graduate program in China, why do more and more students prefer to study abroad? When it comes to the reason to choose to study abroad, a market study shows that 76.7% students want to improve language skills, 74.1% prefer to gain advanced professional knowledge abroad, 52.6% want to know the foreign society better, and 36.4% are willing to build connections with foreigners. Therefore, Chinese international students put language, profession and the experience at the first place.
The market of educational institution (a market study in China)
With a growing number of students turning towards internatioal studies, education agents get more and more numerous in response to this opportunity. In China, the most famous agent is New Oriental School (新东方). As the first listed Chinese education institution in the U.S., XDF provides students with not only the training of exams such as GRE, GMAT, SAT, TOEFL and IELTS, but also the full-service for students to study abroad. Professionals will help students prepare essays, personal statements, interviews and also the VISA. Given the country, university and major students have chosen, the price is 20,000 to 60,000 yuan per student. At the same time, you can see other competitors thrive just as bamboo shoots after a spring rain, such as Touchdown, EIC, Bailitop, Taisha. They are trying to share a piece of the market.
Prediction
On present trends, in 2014, Chinese international students are expected to meet or exceed 450,000. As the market grows, there will be more forms of services, for instance, DIY workshop BeBeyond, TopU, and BOOST, online consulting service on Taobao (淘宝), and so on.
Edited by Jasmine Wang from Daxue Consulting China
Picture source: Baidu Picture
