By Nick Clark, Editor, World Education News & Reviews

Vietnam is currently one of the fastest growing sources of international students for U.S. institutions of higher education, according to data from the Institute for International Education. In academic year 2011/12, Vietnam was the eighth largest sender of tertiary students to the United States, behind Japan in 7th and ahead of Mexico in 9th. Since the turn of the century, numbers have jumped from just over 2,000 students to more than 15,500 in 2012 – or by 675 percent – with especially significant increases in the years between 2005 and 2010.

While the pace of enrollment growth has slowed somewhat since 2010, a number of factors suggest that Vietnam will continue to be an important market for institutions looking to diversify their international student body. The primary drivers compelling Vietnamese students to look overseas for tertiary education are under-capacity and generally poor standards in domestic provision, and an economy that saw impressive growth, driven by low-cost manufacturing, prior to the global economic slowdown.

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