Institutions Should Recruit These International Student Populations for Science Programs

In 2022, 1.3 million unique program searches were made on the ApplyBoard Platform.¹ On our platform, students have the ability to narrow their searches by a wide range of factors. Destination, tuition cost, program length, and subject of study are all filters students can toggle as they browse their study abroad options.

What students search for, filter, and select provides us with valuable information: Data that can help us understand what motivates student decisions. Specifically, which subjects are driving the popularity of certain fields of study? In the first of a subject filter mini-series, we’ll take a deeper look at one field of study to uncover what students are searching for and how trends differ by nationality.

We’ll find out if there are certain programs dominating the results or any outliers by nationality that institutions could target for future recruitment efforts.

First up, sciences.

Science Searches on the ApplyBoard Platform

17% of all program searches on the ApplyBoard Platform in 2022 were for programs in the sciences category, with an additional 11% being for medicine and nursing.

That made sciences the third most popular subject category behind business and management and engineering last year. Let’s break down the sub-categories that drove student interest in sciences over the last two years.

For the most part, student preferences within the science category stayed fairly consistent between 2021 and 2022. Biochemistry (+0.5%), food, nutrition, exercise (+0.3%), and mathematics (+0.2%) were all slightly more popular among students in 2022, while nearly every other sub-category received a very similar level of interest as the previous year.

The big story here is the growing popularity of computer science. Nearly 27% of students searching within the science category on the ApplyBoard Platform in 2022 looked for a computer science program. The total share of computer science searches was 1.7 percentage points higher in 2022 than in 2021. That’s an increase of nearly 15,000 searches.

Students are growing excited at the prospect of careers in computer science and our data tells us that this popularity will continue trending upwards. The terms computer science and computer ranked as the fourth and fifth most popular search terms on the ApplyBoard Platform in 2022, beating out the likes of nursing, business management, and project management.

Which Student Populations Should Institutions Recruit for Science Programs?

When we’re trying to understand the driving force behind growth trends, we look at the relative difference between a specific country and the all markets average.

When we scraped the internal data for our search filters, we were on the lookout for outliers: Figures that made a certain market stand out for its unique interest or disinterest in a particular sub-category.

First, let’s focus on the positive. We analyzed the data from the top 10 markets by search volume within the sciences subject filter in 2022 and compared each country’s market share of sub-category searches to that of all markets. Then, we ranked them by the largest disparities.

Here’s what that list looked like:

Led by computer science, this list can help institutions identify specific streams of science programs that are significantly more popular among certain nationalities of students.

In 2022, computer science was more popular among Bangladeshi students than any other nationality. Since 2021, 28% of all searches made in the sciences category were for computer science programs. Among Bangladeshi students, that figure is 53%. Pakistani students also search for computer science well above the all-market average, with 38% of their searches in 2022 coming in that sub-category.

In 2022, Filipino students expressed significantly more interest in both psychology (+11.1%) and pharmacy (+8.8%) programs compared to students from all markets. Nepal is a hotbed for biology interest, accounting for one in five Nepali student searches in the sciences last year. Nigerian students showed increased interest in both general and humanitarian sciences.

Institutions would be wise to invest in targeted recruitment efforts toward specific markets where certain subjects have strong relative popularity. For institutions looking to recruit more international students for computer science programs, our data tells us that students from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal are prime candidates for admissions teams.

These data points are great indicators of student preferences. As institutions place a bigger priority on diversifying their international student populations, understanding what students from emerging markets are interested in pursuing can give institutions a competitive edge in international recruitment.

Interest in These Science Sub-Categories is Fading

This data can also be used to understand whether interest from certain markets might be cooling on certain subjects. The following table ranks the biggest negative differences in a country’s share of searches compared to the all-market average:

While computer science is the popular choice for many students searching in the sciences category, it’s not popular among all of the most active markets on the ApplyBoard Platform. Students from Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and India all expressed less interest in computer science than the average across all markets.

Biology and chemistry were also relatively unpopular among Pakistani and Nigerian students in 2022. Just 4.6% of all Pakistani science searches were for chemistry programs last year, much lower than the 12% for students from all markets.

Targeted Recruitment Efforts Are Required to Move the Needle

Looking beneath the surface in our search data can tell us a lot about what international students want to pursue. Understanding not only which subjects are popular but also which markets they are popular in informs institutions where recruitment opportunities lie.

But it’s important to note that popularity alone is not enough to attract quality students consistently. The post-graduate job market is shaping the interest of today’s students. Institutions need to employ targeted recruitment efforts to emerging source markets, which delivers information to prospective students about what a career path in their field of study will look like.

Students who are given information about programs they’re interested in alongside clear career guidance and support will gravitate towards the schools sharing that guidance.

About the ApplyInsights Team

FOOTNOTES:

1. All data courtesy of ApplyBoard, unless otherwise noted.