This is the latest in a series of Diversification Market Reports produced by Hotcourses, the UK’s leading course search company with more than 6,000 course providers.  (Hotcourses was recently acquired by IDP.)

Below are an overview, executive summary, and list of the key takeaways, the most important of which is this:  BREXIT and the US election have not had any major short-term effects on Vietnamese students interest in the two countries.  The results of this survey were presented at the NAFSA 2017 annual conference in Los Angeles.

This report captures an overview of demand from students in Vietnam, and an
examination of the destinations they are headed to, the programs they are studying,
level of study and other trends and insights. The data in this report is informed by the
Hotcourses Insights Tool which tracks searches across the global Hotcourses websites,
to which there were over 32 million visitors in the past 12 months. 

The data for this report is drawn from the time period January 1, 2016 – December 31, 2016.  The data was drawn from a sampling of 1,034,085 Vietnamese students researching 11 prospective destination markets over a 12 month period: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore,
Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States. 

Executive summary

• Vietnam is a crucial market to engage with for universities looking to diversify
  their recruitment – particularly beyond China and India – gaining increasing
  international attention.
• Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi are the two Vietnamese cities where the most searches for
  overseas study were performed.
• Vietnamese students’ top destination countries of interest were the United States
  and Australia, with 33% of Vietnamese researching universities in the United States
  and 27% in Australia.
• Business and management is the most popular program of interest among
  Vietnamese students for both undergraduate and graduate degree levels.

Key Takeaways

• BREXIT and the US election have not had any major short-term effects on
  Vietnamese students interest in the two countries.
• Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi are the two most important cities to travel to on
  international recruitment tours to Vietnam.
• Business and Management is the top program of interest for both undergraduate
  and graduate level Vietnamese students.
• Graduate programs in the UK are of high interest to Vietnamese students,
  particularly business and management.
• USA’s Health and Medicine programs, especially those focused on
  pharmacology and psychology, are of high interest within the Vietnamese
  market.
• Vietnam is a prime diversification market for Canada, as Vietnamese student
  interest there has been growing exponentially over the past year.
• While interest in Australia as a destination market appears to be on a decline, it
  is still the second most popular destination market for Vietnamese students and
  has potential to rebound in the first half of 2017.

There is one caveat to all of the above:  The results are as of the end of 2016.  A lot of water has flowed under the political bridge in the past seven (7) months in both the US and the UK.  

MAA