Unstoppable higher education

ALMOST 3.7 million tertiary students were enrolled outside their home country in 2009, the OECD has said.

This represented a 77 per cent increase in just under a decade, the multi-national agency says in last month's higher education snapshot.

"Higher education has clearly gone global,'' the OECD says.

International students make up more than 20 per cent of enrollments in advanced research programs in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US.

On current trends the OECD predicts that 59 per cent of young people in its 34 member countries will take part in "academic, largely theory-based tertiary programmes''.

"Another 19 per cent will enter shorter, largely vocational tertiary programmes,'' the report says.