Where Are the Opportunities for International Postgraduate Recruitment Right Now? | FindAUniversity.com

Written by Mark Bennett | Dec 7, 2023 11:00:00 AM

Where Are the Opportunities for International Postgraduate Recruitment Right Now?

Overall international PGT interest in the UK is down again in November, but PGR interest is up
Indian, Nigerian and Pakistani Masters audiences are the worst affected
EU audiences are much more robust, with some growth in UK interest from France, Germany and Italy

October saw a dramatic shift in our Share of Search data for international students interested in UK postgraduate opportunities. The obvious questions are: 'what are we seeing in November?' And 'how universal is this?'

This is a quick attempt to answer both – looking at what we're seeing, one month on in November, and highlighting some more robust audiences (including a few that have been growing).

You may also be aware of the other big news for postgraduate recruitment, with a future review of the Graduate Route announced this week. I've taken a look at the potential impact of that, elsewhere on the site.

PGT interest is down for non-EU; PGR is more positive

The chart below plots the relative Share of Search for UK PG opportunities amongst international audiences in 2023 so far. I've split by level of study and into EU and non-EU as we see some quite different trends for these:

Bear in mind that the UK is over-represented in FindAMasters listings compared to some other international study destinations...

Where are the opportunities?

In the charts below, I've represented Share of Search in November for the top 20 international PGT and PGR audiences for UK study (based on our data).

PGT

As expected, the biggest drops here are for India, Pakistan and Nigeria...

PGR

The drops are fewer and smaller for prospective doctoral students...

Conclusions?

The simplest takeaway from this data, I think, is the need and potential to diversify...

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