Nigeria ranked third in the world for the number of students studying abroad in 2023, according to a new UNESCO report, ahead of Vietnam, Uzbekistan, the United States, France, Pakistan, and Nepal.
The finding appears in UNESCO's first-ever global higher education trends report, which draws on data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics to rank the top 10 countries by outbound student mobility.
China is first, India is second, and Nigeria is third.
Together, the top 10 countries account for approximately half of all 7.3 million internationally mobile students tracked by UNESCO in 2023, a number that has nearly tripled since 2002.
- China — 37%
- India — 29%
- Nigeria — 5%
- Germany — 5%
- Vietnam — 4%
- Uzbekistan — 4%
- United States of America — 4%
- France — 4%
- Pakistan — 4%
- Nepal — 4%
Nigeria's position on the list is structurally different from that of countries like Germany and the United States, which also appear in the top 10.
Both of those countries receive far more international students than they send out, suggesting globally competitive domestic institutions.
Nigeria receives negligible numbers of inbound international students.
The report's broader data puts things in perspective. With more than 200 million people and one of the world's fastest-growing youth populations, Nigeria faces a structural shortage of university places.
The National Universities Commission has reported more than 1.8 million applicants competing for roughly 500,000 places.
The UNESCO report identifies "push and pull factors" as the primary drivers of international student flows.
Push factors, the conditions that motivate students to leave, include inadequate university capacity, concerns about programme quality, and poor job prospects linked to domestic credentials.
Pull factors include globally recognised degrees, post-study work visa rights, and the prospect of better long-term earnings.
The United Kingdom has consistently been the top destination for Nigerian students, with Canada, the United States, Ireland and Cyprus also seeing significant increases in Nigerian enrolment.
The UNESCO report notes, however, that growing visa restrictions in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States have introduced uncertainty into mobility flows that millions of students now depend on.
