Apinya Kik Ungjaroensap

Mr. Abel Cadias

English 10 / 1010

June 5, 2019

The Decreasing Number of Thai Students Who Study Abroad

To fulfill the knowledge and experiences in today’s world is not about going to a normal

school and wait until the end, but also exploring trails and errors along the way. Another choice

becoming popular in many Thai students’ mind is to study abroad as it allows them to take a path

pursuing the type of passions they crave for and provide them the opportunity to gain practical

life lessons. Although, there is a great number of Thai students who wish to go overseas to study

universities, sometimes they are obstructed due to various reasons. Why does the number of Thai

students studying abroad continue to decrease in the past few years? What exactly are the

obstacles influencing them to choose their own study choices? One of the reasons why there is a

decreasing number of Thai students going abroad is due to financial problem.

The purpose of this research report is to find out the factors affecting the number of Thai

students who went abroad each year and see whether it is increasing or decreasing by

consolidating the data. The importance of the report is to instruct students in the next generations

making the decisions to go overseas. The author uses five academic articles from different

sources to relate the results to other research studies.

The graph below shows the work of the International Institute of Education (2015) about

the number of Thai students going to foreign countries each year from 2014 to 2018. It is

presented as 7341, 7217, 7113, 6839 and 6636 respectively. According to the result, it can be
obviously seen that the rate has decreased by 9.3 percent in five years. Reference to the WENR

(World Education News + Reviews), the amount of Thai students going abroad is lower than

other Asian countries (Michael, 2018). In 2001, Thailand was ranked as the 10th leading country

in sending 11,606 students overseas but it is currently marked as the 27th leading country in

2018 due to various obstacles​.

Figure 1 Number of students going abroad each year

The dominant factors affecting Thai students in taking decision to go overseas to study

universities consist of lack of family support, visa refusal, fear of safety or racism, etc.

Lertjanyakit (2015) has drawn attention to the fact that sending their kids abroad once in their

lives is a must for some parents, however; some are still struggling with the lack of financial

assistance. Turning to the goabroad writing team (2019), one finds that the overall average

semester cost around the world is $14,295 per semester or $28,590 a year. At the same time, the

average annual salary of Thai people is only $5,640 (Supataravanich, 2018). It can be considered
that the cost of the program seems to be expensive for most of the Thai families. Thus, there are

scholarships offered for the students who have the ability to pursue their studies but may not able

to spend the large amount of money.

This research report concludes that the number of Thai students going abroad has

decreased every year because of many different causes. The biggest obstacle that plays a

significant role while making decisions to go overseas is the program cost. In order to travel to a

foreign country and get a higher education, a large amount of money is required. As studying

abroad becomes more crucial in today’s world, scholarships are needed for the ones who can not

afford.

References

GoAbroad Writing Team (2019, May 15). The Average Cost of Study Abroad Programs Around
the World. Retrieved May 24, 2019 from
https://www.goabroad.com/articles/study-abroad/average-cost-study-abroad-programs

Institute of International Education (2019). Open Doors Data. Retrieved May 21, 2019 from
https://www.iie.org/Research-and-Insights/Open-Doors/Data/International-Students/Place
s-of-Origin

Lertjanyakit, H. (2015). The Determinants of Thai Students Decision-Making to study abroad.

Retrieved May 23, 2019 from
https://www.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/Veridian-E-Journal/article/download/40058/33059/

Michael, R. (2018, February 6). Education in Thailand. Retrieved May 22, 2019 from
https://wenr.wes.org/2018/02/education-in-thailand-2

Supataravanich, P. (2018, January 20). What is Thailand’s average income per month? Retrieved
May 25, 2019 from
https://www.quora.com/What-is-Thailands-average-income-per-month