Top 10 Places to Study Abroad 2022 - Rankings Rationale
Curious on how we came up with Top 10 Rankings to Study Abroad? Here we breakdown the list of important factors that we use as the framework for our rankings.
At educations.com, our mission is to help everyone in the world find the right education. We know that international students have special considerations when choosing an ideal university and program, and our Top 10 Places to Study Abroad rankings are a major step towards helping them find their ideal study abroad destination!
In August 2021, we conducted a survey of over 10,000 students from around the world and asked about their top reasons for studying abroad. This resulted in the list of factors they considered most important which was then used as the framework for our rankings.
This is the fourth ranking of this kind, and to compare how the importance of the seven factors has changed since last year, check the 2021 rankings and rationale page.
These seven factors are:
- To access higher-quality teaching
- To achieve my career goals
- To develop myself personally
- To experience a new culture or lifestyle
- To make new friends or for professional networking
- To learn a new language
- To have an adventure
We then assigned the factors their corresponding quantitative metric (or weight) according to how many students selected that factor as important in their decision-making process. For example, 17.25% of students surveyed said it was important to experience a new culture or lifestyle. Hence, the 'to experience a new culture or lifestyle' factor makes up 17.25% of each country's overall score.
Each factor's score is made up of sub-scores based on a selection of external data sources (listed below). Each of these sub-scores was averaged out and added together to create a final score for that factor.
From there, the factors were weighted and added together to create a final score for each country. The top 10 places for each list are the countries with the highest final score.
View 2022 rankings by region
Data sources and score weighting
1. To access higher-quality teaching
- Score weighting: 26.82%
- Data sources:
2. To achieve career goals
- Score weighting: 19.91%
- Data sources:
3. To develop myself personally
- Score weighting: 18.43%
- Data sources:
4. To experience a new culture or lifestyle
- Score weighting: 17.25%
- Data sources:
- Cultural Influence sub-rankings - U.S. News
- Heritage sub-rankings - U.S. News
- Cultural Influence rankings - CEOWORLD Magazine
- The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report - World Economic Forum (Cultural resources & business travel opportunities, tourist services infrastructure)
5. To make new friends or for professional networking
- Score weighting: 7.15%
- Data sources:
- Friendliest Countries Ranking - World Population Review
- The Legatum Prosperity Index - Legatum Institute (The Social Capital pillar)
- The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report - World Economic Forum (International openness)
- Expat Insider - InterNations (Ease of settling in, finding friends)
6. To learn a new language
- Score weighting: 5.37%
- Data sources:
- World's Most Multilingual Countries rankings - Ethnologue
- Foreign Language Training - U.S. Department of State (Language difficulty)
- Countries by Languages - Nations online (Number of countries with these as official languages)
7. To have an adventure
- Score weighting: 5.07%
- Data sources:
- Adventure rankings - U.S. News
- UNWTO World Tourism Barometer (Growth in international tourist arrivals)
- Best countries to visit - Condé Nast Traveller
- The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report - World Economic Forum (Adventure competitiveness)
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Keystone Team
Author
The Keystone Team is comprised of experienced educators and advisors dedicated to providing valuable resources and advice to students all over the world.