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Even though China and India are still big enough to disregard, there are other developing
nations, for which enrollment efforts should be polished and cultivated (WES, 2012).
Governments of the fastest emerging economies are intensively contributing in higher education
by investing in scholarship programmes for their students to gain the necessary skills abroad and
then bring back home that knowledge so this will help to boost competitiveness, positive impact
in incomes, as well as economic growth (British Council, 2014).
Therefore, there is a relationship between the nation’s political and economic powers and
the demand for higher education overseas (British Council, 2014). For this reason, Universities
around the world are being encouraged to broaden their international enrollments, so there must
be a shifting patterns into new sources to be considered.
In 2016, international educators have seen the significant entrance of emerging markets
like: Brazil, Nigeria, Vietnam, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia (WES, 2015). These countries have
shown an important increase in the number of outbound students as well as economic growth;
thus it is important to take a closer look to this 5 promising targets.
Nigeria
African countries still struggle to provide and meet the demand for higher education.
Even though the governments are investing in a better higher education quality, these initiatives
will take time in order to have the expected results. Meanwhile the youth population who can
afford to go abroad are choosing this way to improve their quality of life (NAFSA, 2015)
In Africa the increase in the number of outbound students is particular shown in Nigeria,
which is the most crowded nation in Africa, expected to exceed US population by 2050 (United
Nations, 2015). According to ICEF (2016) one –fifth of the 181 million people in Nigeria is
between 15 to 24 years. So it has been targeted by experts as the next big education market.
For HEI’s who are seeking to have diversify international student population, there are
plenty of reasons to consider Nigeria. Population is not the only thing boosting the country, they
also possess one of the tenth largest oil reserves worldwide and (INICEF Monitor, 2014) even
with the collapse of the oil prices, Nigeria is expected to have one of the highest GDP growth in
the world by 2050 according (ICEF MONITOR, 2016) . The merge of an increasing population
and economic growth that is allowing the middle class to have access and to create demand for
quality higher education that cannot be satisfied domestically, where around 1.7 million Nigerian
students seek for a university and only half of them are able to get it (WENR, 2013). That is the
main reason why Nigeria is now a source full of opportunities for international recruiters who are
looking to fulfil that demand.
According to ICEF (2016), there were around 50,000 Nigerian outbound students all over
the world, and only in 2014 Nigeria spent about $8 billion dollars to cover scholarships, tuition,
living expenses, health insurance, among others of their students abroad (University World
News, 2014). Currently, around 17,920 students are in United Kingdom (UK Council for
International Students Affairs, 2016) which is considered the first destination followed by 10,000
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