The Latin American education system has gone through major reforms recently. The region is one of the world’s most important markets for outbound student mobility, and is expected to become the third largest global region for international higher education recruitment by 2035.
The landscape of education has been changing tremendously over the past five to ten years and those involved in the process of student recruitment have come to recognise the necessity to adapt quickly in order to stay relevant to this growing market.
Latin America is developing as one of the strongest sources of diversity for international student recruiters around the world. The past several years have shown a growing interest of Latin American students to study abroad. The number of students from the region interested in obtaining a postgraduate degree has increased substantially, resulting in more and more students to leave their homes in order to pursue education abroad.
According to recent studies, more than 71,000 students from Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico are currently studying abroad.
ETN Focus – a smart network of international student professionals with extensive expertise in the global education and student mobility industry – have produced a handy infographic that outlines international student recruitment opportunities on 4 strategic markets in the Latin American region.
Latin American Region Snapshot
Chile
As one of the wealthiest, most stable and fastest growing economies in the whole of Latin America, Chile is a place where you can expect to see a more internationally oriented mindset. The country has survived economic and political turmoil over the last decade and has even managed to grow in prosperity thanks to smart foreign investment and positive measures to transform and diversify the local industry. Chile is notorious for being one of the most expensive countries in the world to obtain an undergraduate degree, so it is no surprise that almost 10,000 local students enrol in universities around the world each year.
Scholarship opportunities
Over the last 10 years, the number of Chilean students interested in obtaining a postgraduate degree has increased 4 times. As local supply does not meet the demand for such programs, the Government of Chile, through CONICYT – The National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research, provides scholarships that pay for the pursuit of postgraduate degrees in countries other than Chile.
Established in 2008, the Becas Chile program offers funding for masters, PhD, postdoctoral, and technical studies in energy, biotechnology, IT, environment, health, education, science, and engineering
Ecuador
As Ecuador’s education sector has been evolving rapidly in recent years and costs for studying in Ecuador and abroad have become almost the same, a wider and growing population of local students and their families are exploring opportunities for studying abroad. According to latest UNESCO data, there are nearly 14,000 Ecuadorian students enrolled worldwide in tertiary programs alone, and 67% of those mobile students are interested in pursuing an advanced degree.
Scholarship opportunities
SENESCYT offers three major international scholarship programs – Open Call, Universities of Excellence and Common Globe. All of those provide funding to Ecuadorian citizens who wish to be trained in tertiary, fourth-level and professional training programs at over 1000 recognized universities, higher education institutions and training providers all over the world.
Mexico
According to recent studies, there are 24 million people in Mexico who chose to study English these days. The country is among the biggest markets in the world for studying English abroad. There are various programs that Mexican outbound students go for, and these are language courses, high schools, undergraduate, master, doctorate, career and vocational programs, as well as graduate and postgraduate certificates. The number of Mexican students who have decided to study abroad has increased by 35% for the past few years, and the majority of the outbound students are leaving the country to do their Bachelor’s degrees or to pursue English learning programs. The main demand, however, remains for long-term academic programs.
Scholarship opportunities
For more than 40 years, CONACYT has been operating within the most significant Postgraduate Scholarship Program in Mexico. It is known and recognized both nationwide and internationally. The program provides access to the population to carry out postgraduate studies for master’s and doctoral degree. It also aims at promoting improvement and quality assurance of the national postgraduate course, which would ultimately support the country’s scientific, technological, social, humanistic and innovation capacities.
Peru
One of the fastest growing sources of international students in Latin America. Almost 19% of the Peruvian population or nearly 6 million people are between 15-24 years old, while the Peruvian middle class has more spending power than that in many other Latin American countries. These factors show the expanding potential for international student recruitment in Peru across all sectors and level of education. Each year, nearly 17,000 Peruvian students enroll in higher education institutions abroad with very strong demand for Master Degree programs including MBA, Engineering and other STEM disciplines.
Scholarship opportunities
PRONABEC is in charge of designing, implementing and managing national and international scholarship programs for the training and specialization of human talent in the country and abroad, with strong focus on social inclusion. Currently, PRONABEC offers 5 undergraduate, 13 special and 6 postgraduate scholarships.
Want to learn more?
If you want to receive more information on the key facts and numbers about intraregional and worldwide mobility of outbound Latin American students, major scholarship awarding bodies and other funding opportunities for study abroad, ETN Focus have prepared fully-equipped e-guides with all you need to know about the Latin American student recruitment markets. To read the e-guides, simply follow the links below.
