Peruvian students, seeking new cultural experiences and academic prestige, are eager to study abroad, and are as interested in hybrid learning experiences as they are in studying fully in-person.
Those are some of the key findings from continuing research on the study preferences of international students. In total, we’ve polled more than 1,800 higher ed students, recently gathering data from Mexico and Peru, in addition to surveying students from Australia, Canada, China, India, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. in 2021, to better understand their attitudes coming out of the first phase of the pandemic. The study highlights students’ international education aspirations, the impact of the rising cost of education, and the need for simpler and more flexible payment processes.
Here’s what we learned from students in Peru:
Interest in international education is very high in Peru
According to educationfair.nl, a total of 33,837 students from Peru are studying abroad for a degree in higher education. The most popular destination by far is Argentina, followed by the U.S., Spain, Chile, Brazil, Germany and France.
Some 78% of the Peruvian students we surveyed plan to study internationally, or are already doing so. This is higher than any other country except Spain (86%).
Like Mexico, international study for students in Peru is more in the ‘planning’ than ‘doing’ stage. The country has the highest percentage of students planning to study internationally (73%) vs. those already studying abroad (5%). This compares with 42% and 27% respectively for students across all nine countries in the survey.
New cultural opportunities and academic reputations matter most
The opportunity for new cultural experiences and schools’ academic reputations were the primary drivers for their interest in studying internationally. This was largely consistent with students in the eight other countries surveyed. Conversely, ‘value for cost’ (9%) and location (8%) were the least influential reasons for Peruvian students to study internationally — dramatically less important than they were to students surveyed overall – 31% and 24% respectively.
Peru also represents an outlier when it comes to preferred learning methods. More students in Peru indicated hybrid learning (47%) as their method of choice than any other country except China (63%). No others were even close. Hybrid learning was selected by 1% more Peruvian students than those citing a preference for in-person learning (46%).
Students in Peru are not immune to financial pressures
While students in Peru did not view ‘value for cost’ as a big decision driver on international education, they do stress about the financial requirements that come with higher education. 77% reported that the process of making tuition payments was a significant cause of stress. This is roughly the same percentage of respondents as the entire survey population (76%).
More than half (51%) of the students we surveyed in Peru considered delaying their higher education due to difficulties from the pandemic – just slightly less than the overall average (57%).
Students are still looking for ways to ease the pressure too:
- 80% feel that access to a simplified payment process, i.e., digital payments, local currencies, flexible payment methods, would improve their education experience.
- 80% believe installment payment options would make their education more affordable.
Want to learn more?
View the complete results of our survey in Peru and the rest of the world.
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