What impact has the pandemic had on students travelling for education?
Education is a big driver of demand in global property markets. Amid the prevailing travel restrictions and the rise of remote work, we weigh up the outlook for overseas students travelling to Britain.
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Education is now the primary driver of 4% of residential purchases by ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) globally (those with US$30 million in wealth or more), according to The Wealth Report 2021. For a sense of what that means, that equated to £2.3 billion of purchases across London alone last year.
Demand varies by geography. A greater proportion of education-driven purchases take place among Asian, African and Middle Eastern UHNWIs, however it is clear there is enough demand created by top quality education to impact property markets – particularly across London and other key cities.
Travel restrictions and the growth of remote learning has sparked much conjecture as to whether the pandemic has meaningfully altered demand for overseas education. To find out more, we crunched the latest numbers and spoke to industry experts to find out what the future holds.
UK universities remain in focus
Demand to seek higher education abroad remains largely undimmed. Some 14% of UHNWIs were more likely to send their children overseas because of the pandemic. More than half said the crisis had no effect. The UK, home to a number of world class universities, is a key destination for higher education and is likely to remain so. London leads our City Wealth Index for metrics covering the number and quality of universities.
Applications for the 2021/22 academic year confirm our data. According to UCAS – the organisation that processes British University applications, the number of applications to UK universities rose by 22,500 for the year, with a 17.1% increase from non-EU residents.
After UK nationals, the greatest demand comes from those residing in the Chinese mainland, India, the US and Hong Kong. For the January UCAS deadline, applications from these four nations increased by 25% with Chinese mainland residents accounting for 4.2% of all applications (up 21.5% on the year before).
Positive prospects for UK schooling
UK schools also feed into a substantial pool of demand for property, particularly for markets around London, the south east and south central, where more than half of the UK’s independent schools are located. In this case, the pandemic has led to some reassessment, some 45% of UHNWIs were less likely to send their children abroad. Meanwhile, just over half of UHNWIs did not change their plans to send their children overseas for secondary education or were more likely to do so.
A census of almost 1,400 schools by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) revealed a small decline in the number of international students with parents residing overseas. Any declines are likely to be “more of a blip rather than a fundamental change,” notes Will Orr-Ewing, director at Keystone Tutors. “The UK is still attractive with some of the best schools in the world with no signs of this letting up,” he adds.
Richard Northey, managing director at The Education Consultancy, agrees: “whilst some nationalities have been quieter due to travel restrictions, we are now seeing a return and ultimately the UK is viewed favourably for the educational system and the opportunities that creates.”
In a similar pattern to university applicants, the largest number of non-British pupils are those from the Chinese mainland, of which 71% have parents living overseas, Hong Kong, where 92% have parents overseas, whereas with US pupils, in the opposite fashion, 90% have parents living in Britain.
Whilst the number of students from the Chinese mainland declined in 2020, the number of Hong Kong pupils increased 6.6% to 5,466 according to the ISC Census. Both Orr-Ewing and Northey noted an uptick in enquires from BNO passport holders as enrolments in Hong Kong’s schools saw the biggest decline in over a decade, with 15,000 fewer across primary and secondary students.