Postgraduate Research Global Update as of July 2025

Our unique Pulse trackers and Share of Search data provide insights on thousands of prospective students interested in Global PhD opportunities. As of July 2025, we’re seeing that:

• Interest in US research continues to fall from all tracked audiences. It had now dropped to the 5 most popular destination for African audiences, and 4 for Europeans whose interest is roughly half the level we saw in July 2024.
  
  
• Australian research appears to be a major beneficiary of these shifts in interest, seeing growth from North American, Asian and African audiences. Similar trends are present for German and Irish study, if to a lesser extent.
  
  
• We see a significant shift with regards to entry point interest in July. Spring 2026 has now overtaken Autumn 2025 as the most popular starting point for all tracked destinations except Italy. Interest also continues to grow for the 2026/27 academic year, with around
  40% of audiences for US study now targeting this.
  
  
• Large growth for AI research sees it enter the top 5 specialisms in Ireland and vault right to the top of the list in Australia.