OECD (2000)

Foreign Students in Tertiary Education
in reporting OECD countries into account. The absolute balance of countries
that accept a significant number of students from non-OECD countries or send
students to Non-OECD countries may be quite different.
Luxembourg is a special case, since students can only study there at the
non-university tertiary level or take the first year at the university level. Further
studies have to be taken abroad. Consequently, the number of students from
Luxembourg studying abroad is far larger than the number of students enrolled
in Luxembourg.
DEFINITIONS
Students are classified as foreign students if they do not hold the citizenship
of the country for which the data are collected. The data are collected
through the host countries, not through the sending countries, and therefore
relate to incoming students to a particular country, rather than to students from
that country going abroad. Students studying in countries which did not report
to the OECD are not included in this indicator. As a consequence, all statements
on students studying abroad underestimate the real number of
students abroad, since non-OECD countries and non-reporting countries are
excluded. The number of foreign students is obtained following the same
method as the data on total enrolment. Normally, domestic and foreign
students are counted on a specific day or period of the year. This procedure
measures the proportion of foreign enrolment in an education system, but the
actual number of individuals involved in foreign exchange might be much
higher, since many students study abroad for shorter periods than a full
academic year.
Tables C5.1, C5.2 and C5.3 show foreign enrolment as a proportion of the
total enrolment in the host country or country of origin (the sending country).
The total enrolment, used as a denominator, includes all foreign students in
the country and excludes all students from that country studying abroad. The
proportions of students abroad given in Table C5.2 do not show the proportion
of all students of a certain nationality who are studying abroad, but express the
numbers of students of a given nationality as a proportion of the total domestic
and foreign enrolment at the tertiary level in the relevant country, excluding
the students who are nationals of that country but are not studying in their
home country.
Bilateral comparisons of the data on foreign students should be made with
caution, since some countries differ in the definition of foreign students (see
Annex 3).
Data refer to the
academic year 1997/98
and are based on
the UOE data collection
on education statistics,
administered
in 1999 (for details
see Annex 3).
C5
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