My Article on Leading Global Study Destinations
Leading Global Study Destinations – Anwar Rizvi
Choosing the right study destination for pursuing higher education is very important. Many
prospective students and their parents/guardians face this problem. A large number of options to
choose from only adds to the challenge. They seek advice from anyone they feel can help. Getting
the right and informed advice helps in arriving at the correct decision. Pursuing education outside
their country is an important and life-changing decision for prospective students. Getting the facts
right is very important for deciding on the study destination.
Getting reliable information on the leading countries for pursuing higher education is not easy. Very
few independent agencies provide this information. The criterion for ranking study destinations is
not very well defined. Ranking agencies themselves devise a mechanism for assigning the rank.
These agencies explain how they have gone about choosing the top countries.
The 2021 results published by some agencies and the mechanism adopted by them are:
1) QS Quacquarelli Symonds
Quacaquarelli Symonds (QS) is a leading international organization dealing in higher education for
international students. QS provides rankings on a lot of higher education parameters. QS Research,
analytics, and insight in the area of global higher education are widely respected. QS ranking of study
destinations consider:
System Strength: The number of higher education institutions in a country that figures in the
top 700 global institutions decide the system strength
Access: The population of a country and the number of places available in educational
institutions in that country that figure in the list of top 500 global institutions
Flagship Institution: This is the position of the country’s leading Institution in the global
rankings
Economic Context: This assesses the impact of the country’s investment in higher education.
The country’s financial situation and the number of its Institutions in the list of top-ranking
global institutions gives the economic context
The 2021 QS research has ranked the top 20 countries to study based on their rating parameters
2) US News
US News & World Report is a multi-platform publisher of news and information. US News comes out
with annual e-book and print versions of its rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools, and
Best Hospitals in the world. Their education rankings also give the best countries in the world for
higher education.
The US News recommends the best higher education study destinations based on a global
perception survey. The three equally weighted attributes considered for this survey are a)
Very high development level of the public education system in the country, b) Preference of
international students to study in that country, and c) High quality of education in the
country
Based on the perception-based survey US News has published its 2021 list of best countries
for pursuing higher education
3) Education Media Group
Education Media Group is a Swedish organization with 19 national sites in Europe and the USA. This
organization assigns study destination ranking for countries based on student surveys. Their 2021
study destination ranking was arrived at based on a survey of 20,000 international students from
192 countries.
The survey resulted in these seven factors considered important for deciding the study destination:
To access higher-quality teaching
To achieve my career goals
To develop myself personally
To experience a new culture or lifestyle
To have an adventure
To learn a new language
To make new friends or widen my professional network
Based on its survey findings, EMG has come up with the 2021 list of the top 10 places to study
globally.
4) Studyportals
Studyportals, headquartered in the Netherlands, publishes study portals for Bachelor's studies,
Masters’ Studies, Ph.D. studies, short-term courses, and preparation courses. This organization ranks
the countries based on their investment in University education. The underlying belief is that higher
investment in education results in an improved quality of education. International students in any
country for pursuing education bring money for that country. The money that international students
spend on education in a country is a benchmark for the value of the educational system in that
country. The higher the number of international students in a country, the higher is its ranking.
After assessing the spending by international students in each country, Studyportals has prepared a
list of the top 9 study destination countries in 2021 for higher education.
Leading Study Destinations
The top five leading study destinations as per these rating agencies are:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
The United States
The United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
Germany
Besides these five leading study destinations that figure consistently in the list of the ranking
agencies, there are a few other countries that are sought after by international students to
pursue higher studies. The list of other leading study destinations figuring in the list of these
rating agencies are The Netherlands, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Japan,
China, New Zealand, and South Korea