Education Industry – Recession Proof

As most of the global recession, everyone has been witnessing with China the recent one from Asian tigers to face downturn recently indicates the global population are looking for other alternatives. There are some industry verticals that are recession proof, though and we will focus here how across the continents education industry is thriving and booming each year. We all know that Government jobs, healthcare, food and agriculture are some of the main drivers of every economy while even in weak economic times, or at war, the media seems to be active.

According to estimates, the breadth of education sector can be judged by the expenditure, which is around USD 5.5 trillion in 2014-15 alone, after health care. The growth is compounding YoY (year on year) and is around 8-11% that makes the total global education market at staggering USD 6.9 trillion by the end of 2016. The key drivers are English as a language which is spreading into non English speaking countries, IT enables education in spreading a wider net of opportunities.

The UK in particular education is contribution is close to 19 billion in exports in 2013-14 shows that 75% of export earnings of an economy is for international students who view UK as one of the premier destinations of the UK. That makes it a popular destination for studying English globally and outside their home country with ELT (English Language Teaching) totalling to around 2.5 Billion making it 35% of the global education market value. So this is evident that this sector is booming and is typically affected by many global and political factors.

Some of the challenges we need to understand is the migration policy of the UK which the Govt. Has tweaked on adding some conditions on visa will have a negative impact on this sector, especially HE (higher education). Their coordination of sector in export is a missed opportunity, while competition from new types of education providers like MOOCs is a changing the game. There is increasing amount of country to country competition factor when we analyse externally while there are lesser amounts of barriers to market entry into education as IT is a enabler function. Around 7.6 billion population will be added by 2020 who will study in different streams and indicates a demographic change. Increasing income from developing countries like BRICS, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Gulf that is attractive education markets.  So FE (further education) attracts around 35000 student visas as per Home Office data, and have contributed over 375million in tuition fees in 2013-14.

Education Industry

The Higher Education sector is more lucrative has 4.5 million in 2013-14 that is contributing substantial foreign exchange with China, India, Nigeria vying for undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Most popular subject choices being Business administration, engineering, medical, technology and social studies. So the above table and the attractiveness factor of the UK as a destination therefore makes it one of the hottest destinations. The UK economy that is related directly and indirectly to the education sector is booming. There are allied services starting from air ticketing, education agents, transfers from airport, fooding and accommodation, groceries, placement agents, banking and foreign exchange which are of tremendous importance for the international students. This has generated additional income to the economy and has provided sustenance to many in the British heartland.  The earnings in the UK in the education, therefore stems from the need of the arriving students, and those who get admitted to the course. Fee wise the UK is expensive, when compared to many EU countries not charging any, while the challenge from free online education is the biggest change the country is yet to experience.

Emerging markets from Asia are chief contributors to the number of mobile international students at all stages of their educational career. Going forward the education sector when compared with Australia, US are likely to witness higher growth when it comes to higher research areas. Apart from the all that in financial the level and standard of education in the UK with respect to research contributing to the applied side is a key attractiveness quotient for students to drive this education sector growth.

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