Why are they leaving? Premier South American countries report highest rates of students studying abroad

Rio de Janeiro

South American economic growth has created a new wave of students looking to study abroad. There appears to be a correlation between South American countries with high rates of study abroad participation and that country’s friendliness towards business. The top 5 South American countries exporting students according to University World News are:

Brazil

Brazil has the sixth largest economy by gross domestic product in the world. Of the 191 million people in Brazil, 33% are under the age of 19, Zaveri said.

This is also a diverse population, including the largest population of Germans outside of Germany and large populations of people of Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Lebanese descent.

Additionally, Zaveri said, the Brazilian currency, the real, doubled in value, from 3.5 to the US dollar in 2002 to 1.7 in February 2012, reducing the price of international education for Brazilians. Meanwhile, there has been considerable upward mobility.

The demand for higher education is now higher than the supply, and the cost of a good high-school education is going up, as the middle-class is moving increasingly to private education. Consumer expenditure for education rose 133% between 2006 and 2010. A private education costs about the same in Brazil as it does abroad.

Agencies expected more than 300,000 Brazilian students to travel abroad this year, with numbers rising by 30% next year.

The United Kingdom attracts the most Brazilian students. Also popular are Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. More than 90% take language courses, 56.6% are in undergraduate programmes and 62.3% are involved in postgraduate studies.

Chile

In 2008 Chile announced a US$6 billion scholarship programme, which aimed to send 30,000 students overseas between 2009 and 2018. ‘BECAS Chile is the largest scholarship programme in the world after Saudi Arabia,’ Zaveri said. Through to 2011, 5,809 scholarships had been awarded. The numbers are expected to go up.

Colombia

International education is highly valued in Colombia, which is enjoying an improved image internationally. A recent survey of employers found that 58% preferred to hire those who had earned advanced degrees abroad, Zaveri said.

Ecuador

Three years ago, the government in Ecuador launched scholarships for masters, doctoral and postdoctoral studies in science and technology. Since then, more than 6,000 scholarships have been awarded. The programme has recently been expanded to areas related to business.

Ecuador’s Institute of Educational Credit and Scholarship also awards US$20,000 loans to those wishing to study domestically or abroad.

Venezuela

Claudia Gonzales, executive director of the Venezuelan American Friendship Association in Venezuela, said that the financial and economic instability of the current government coupled with a decline in the quality of education inside the country have prompted more than 12,000 Venezuelans to study elsewhere.

‘That is expected to double,’ she said, noting that the Venezuelan government has fostered a distrust of the middle-class.

Some 4,600 Venezuelans are studying in the United States, the most popular destination, followed by Cuba, Spain, France and Germany. However, when asked where they would like to study, Venezuelans ranked the US first, followed by Canada, Australia, Europe, Colombia and Panama.”

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