Viet Nam leads ASEAN in sending students abroad

Many high-tech and innovative companies are returning to Viet Nam, largely thanks to the country's recognition of the advantages and competitive edges of sending students abroad, particularly to prestigious universities, to enhance its resources.

Recent Google research data on six major countries in Southeast Asia predict that Viet Nam will post the highest growth rate regionally in terms of digital economy scale by 2025, according to SBM News.

UNESCO's data, meanwhile, indicates that the number of students sent overseas by the Vietnamese government amounts to tens of thousands. More importantly, an increasing number of Vietnamese students are choosing to return to live and work in their home country after graduation.

The 2024 Key Trends in Southeast Asia report by Acumen, an international education consultant, showed that more than 350,000 students from Southeast Asia were studying abroad in 2022, making it the third largest region globally for outbound student mobility after China and India.

Within the region, Viet Nam had by far the largest number of outbound students with 132,000.

The top two destinations for Vietnamese students were Japan with over 44,100 and the Republic of Korea with nearly 25,000, the report said.

In the U.S. too, Vietnamese students led Southeast Asia at over 23,100.

Other top countries for Vietnamese studying abroad were Australia (14,100) and Canada (9,000).

ICEF Monitor, an international education information site, said Viet Nam is among the top 10 countries in terms of student mobility.

Vietnamese rank among the top five international students in the U.S., top two in Japan, and top six in Australia, it said./.