THE NUMBER of Filipinos opting to study abroad has increased to 53,000, with most students going to Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand or Ireland, global education experts said on Wednesday.
“In terms of growth, the market [of Filipino students growing abroad] is growing between 8% to 13% every year,” said IDP Philippines country director Jojo Habana in a press briefing, citing that in their firm alone, the number of students applying for overseas education jumped to 56% year on year.
Maria Cecilia Mundo, IDP Philippines head of sales and operation, said Filipinos are most inclined to college programs related to business management, health, information and technology, analytics, hospitality, tourism, and engineering.
Hannah Jodeza Esguerra said Filipino students are likely to get accepted abroad with their generally high scores in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).
Ms. Esguerra said the average IELTS score for Filipino students pursuing academic studies abroad is 6.8 on a 0 to 9 scale. She said Filipinos also have a competitive listening skills score of 7.2 by the average.
Mr. Habana added that their records show that Filipinos studying abroad come from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to enter their desired college programs not available in the Philippines and to land a job abroad.
The country director added that scholarships for students would be significant as school fees abroad would range from P1.8 million to P2.5 million per year, excluding living expenses.
To gear up for the increase in demand for overseas education, IDP Philippines, an Australian-listed company, opened its eighth student placement office and 15th IELTS computer test center in Quezon City. — Jomel R. Paguian
