Is Africa falling off recruiters’ study destination lists?

Six of the world’s major international study destinations are leaving out Africa as a part of their target markets in their future internationalisation strategies, with only the United Kingdom (UK), Malaysia and Ireland explicitly including the continent in their plans.

France, a country that extensively draws on Africa for international students, states that it will be diversifying its target markets away from Africa and Canada, one of world’s ‘Big Four’ destinations, that also includes the United States, the UK and Australia.

France lists only Morocco in North Africa as a recruitment site – a country geopolitically considered part of the Middle East. France, which was home to about 412,000 foreign students in 2023, nearly half of them African, aims to increase the number to 500,000 by 2025.

The rest of the leading destinations either leave out Africa as a target market, or have not disclosed their target markets, an analysis by the market intelligence company for international student recruitment ICEF Monitor shows.

Australia, which is the world’s fourth-largest international education destination, Germany and Japan have not specified their target countries for recruitment, according to the organisation, with Australia stating it wants to diversify its mix of international students, while pursuing “sustainable growth”.

By 2023, about 19,000 African students were studying in the country, 9,400 of them Kenyans, according to figures from Australia’s Department of Education.

Germany, on the other hand, a country seen as an emerging market for international students, states that it wants to become the fifth-biggest study destination globally.

Although Japan, according to ICEF Monitor, did not specify countries for recruitment, the ‘Study in Japan for Africa’ programme has set targets to ensure more young Africans get trained in Japan in areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, environmental studies and information technology.

Other emerging destinations

Other emerging destinations for international students, such as New Zealand and South Korea, do not list any African country as a future source market for their international students.

However, Malaysia, also seen as a rising destination, names Iran, East Africa, China, India and Indonesia as its target destinations, as does Ireland, another emerging but relatively expensive destination which names Africa, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea and South America as its places of interest.

While Malaysia had a total of 170,000 foreign learners in 2023, with a target of increasing the number to 250,000 in 2025, Ireland, on the other hand, seen as one the best destinations internationally, had only 35,000 in 2023.

The UK, a premium education destination, and host to thousands of foreign students annually, is the only major country to include African countries as target markets, specifically listing Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

This is besides the other world source markets of China, Hong Kong, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America, and member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The analysis shows the total number of foreign students in the UK as 758,000, with a target of enrolling 600,000 annually.

“The concept of internationalisation changes over time and according to considerations that include foreign enrolment growth rates, labour market gaps, demographics, geo-politics, domestic politics, and the need to participate in global science or research projects,” states the ICEF Monitor analysis.

“The official international education strategies emphasise the great extent to which foreign students figure into larger narratives around globalisation, security and soft power. As those narratives evolve, so, too, do the strategies.”

Canada and the 'Dirty 30' approach

According to Imran Vaghoo, the founder and principal consultant of the US-based American Higher Education Consulting, a country such as Canada largely overlooks Africa in its immigration policies due to entrenched perceptions of African nations, and the “socio-economic realities” within the continent.

“This was starkly highlighted in reports revealing that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) officials referred to African countries as the ‘Dirty 30’, alongside the significantly higher rejection rates for African student visa applicants,” he noted.

“It seems evident that Canada’s immigration framework was designed to favour applicants from Asian and South American countries, which IRCC likely perceived as better immigrants due to financial and systemic considerations,” he told University World News.

The Canadian approach was not only biased but also “exploitable”, as seen in how countries like India and China took advantage of streamlined processes and established recruitment networks, Vaghoo, who initially operated from Kenya, said.

“Meanwhile, Africa, despite its rapidly growing young population, was ‘de-prioritised’, likely due to the limited purchasing power of many applicants who often rely on scholarships,” the consultant, who also specialises in the Canadian market, noted.

Africa ‘de-prioritised’

The IRCC appeared to focus on attracting applicants from countries with ‘robust’ student loan systems, such as India, or those who could self-fund their education, like China, while doing the bare minimum to engage with African nations, he added.

The only African nation they seemed to favour was Nigeria, being the only one on the continent to be granted an ‘Express Stream’, which makes it easier for the citizens of Africa’s largest student source market to access Canadian universities more easily.

For the longest time, he observed, recruitment agents sold Canada, not only as a study destination but also an ‘easy’ immigration entry country for those after education, and now that Canada had decided to clamp down on such concessions, the agents would find it even harder to sell the country.

He added: “I have always maintained to my clients that they should not make study-abroad decisions based on immigration laws, because they change all the time. I guess now other agents have to actually sell Canada for the quality education it provides and not just the easy immigration.”

In the coming days, he said, the power of study-abroad will start shifting from the Big Four to the rest of the world and, while the leading destinations will maintain their stranglehold, they are definitely seeing a shift.

Recruitment from Africa

According to Shayne Premji, co-founder of the African study-abroad platform Craydel, France was most likely diversifying away from francophone Africa in favour of other source markets.

Malaysia, he said, had good historical ties with Africa, and its universities charged affordable fees and could be attracted to the region by East Africa’s Muslim population.

Recruiters are sending students to universities in Ireland, and increasingly Turkey, Cyprus, Hungary, Georgia, Poland, Malta in Eastern Europe, and Dubai, and Malaysia and India where, besides affordability, study visa success rates are high.

“Tuition fees are generally more affordable in emerging study destinations compared to universities in the Big Four, and many of these destinations offer strong career prospects and stay-back opportunities,” said the Nairobi-based consultant.

Some universities in emerging destinations charge lower tuition fees, making the destinations irresistible for education-hungry learners from middle- and low-income source countries, including Africa.

Despite not explicitly listing Africa as part of its priority source markets, the number of African students joining universities in Australia continued to grow in 2024, said Farouk Lalji of Koala Education Consultants in Nairobi and Study Options Africa.

This was also in spite of the more than 100% hike in student visa fees last July, he said, and the numbers were anticipated to remain stable.

“Despite the changes, we have not seen a downturn in the number of students interested in studying in Australia through us. The visa application process has also been smooth so far, and the acceptance rate has remained good,” he added.

This news report was updated on 19 February.