# Presentation: 376149

## Thailand: Educational Services Market

- Nalin  Phupoksakul
- U.S. Commercial Service
- U.S. Embassy Bangkok, Thailand

- www.buyusa.gov/thailand/en

**Notes:**
Good morning, my name is Nalin. I am a Commercial Specialist working for US Commercial Service at the American Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. I have education industry as part of my portfolio. I would like to share with you some information on educational services market in Thailand 

## Presentation Content

- Thailand’s education sector outlook
- Educational services market size, growth and trends
- Market Profile
- Best prospects and prospective buyers
- Market entry
- Market challenges
- Trade events

**Notes:**
I will talk about the sector outlook and will continue on with the market size, trend and profile. I will then touch on the market best prospects and follow by market entry issues with market challenges and will finish with trade events information. The presentation will last approximately 15 minutes and please feel free to stop me if you have any questions.

## Thailand’s Education Sector

- US Is Always No. 1 Choice
- 15,500 Students (estimated/2007)
- 10% Growth
- 65 % Post Graduate (MBA, Computer Science, Engineering)
- 20 % Undergraduate
- 15 % Language Training/Work-Study/Exchange Programs (J1)

**Notes:**
The market for educational services in Thailand is huge and estimated to be worth at about 800 million US Dollars,  growing and relatively untapped. It is an open market. Continuing higher education abroad has become a standard, a norm and a fashion among middle class families in Thailand. Study abroad has also become a social competition among neighbors and co-workers who must send their kids abroad.

US is always the first choice for Thai students whenever they think about continuing higher education. According to the Institute of International Education’s survey, students from Thailand ranked number 9 of all the international students studying in the US in 2007. We estimate the number of Thai students in the US at 15,500 in 2007, an estimated growth rate of about 10 percent. Graduate degree and MBA program in particular comprises about 65 percent of the total market. Other fields of study include engineering, computer science, and political science. Undergraduate is small at around 20 percent but it is growing as a result of growing numbers of high school graduates from over 80 international schools around Thailand. Short training programs accounted for the remaining 15 percent share.

## Market Size of Education Market 

- Market Size of Education Market

**Notes:**
Apart from the United States, there are four major countries that actively promote international student recruitment in Thailand. They include Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The Australian’s Immigration Office reported that in 2007, there were about 11,000 Thai students in Australia. We estimate approximately 1,500 Thai students in Canada, 3,500 in New Zealand, and 10,000 in the United Kingdom. In all we estimated that there were a little over 40,000 Thai students studying at schools in these major five countries. There are also some in China, Singapore, Middle East, Malaysia, and some countries in Europe, such as France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

## How Thai Students Select the Country

- Students’ Academic Background
- Peer/Relative Influence
- Parent Influence
- Agent Influence

**Notes:**
It would be interesting to know how students in Thailand choose where they want to go to continue their higher education.

I think the very first factor will be the student’s own academic background. Those with poor grade tend to start with countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Enrollment into some schools appear to be very decent. For those that have good grade, they tend to begin with the US or UK, but where they end up still depends on many other things.

Thai students also want to go where their friend go or where they have a relative that they can rely on.

Parent tend to want to send their children to where they graduated from.

Study abroad agent has a high possibility to influence the students’ decision to select country where:
-it represents some schools that pay some sorts of compensation.
-school that the student can fit in with the requirements

## Where Do Thai Students Go in the US

- Big Cities, including: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Dallas
- Cities where they have relatives
- Cities where their friends are

**Notes:**
Thai students love to pick big cities, especially when they do not know where to go. They would pick a name that they may learn from a movie. Most of them believe that only big cities, like in Thailand, that have everything they need and look for, such as shopping malls, movie theaters, good public transportation system, and so on. They do not know and probably do not have the information that Kansas City in the State of Missouri, or Hesston in the State of Kansas, or Boise in the State of Ohio also have everything they look for.

## Best Prospects and Prospective Buyers 

- Best Prospects and Prospective Buyers

**Best prospects: **
**	**- Undergraduate and specialized graduate programs.
- 	- Boarding schools.
- 	- One Year Exchange Program – High School
- 	- MBA and English Language Training remain all time
- 	  best prospect among students from Thailand

**Notes:**
The growing popularity of the international schools has created two best prospects, first is the prospect of growing undergraduate students from Thailand as a direct result of the growing high school graduates from international schools in Thailand and the second prospect is a growing demand for boarding school, as a result of the growing popularity of the international school.

MBA and English language training remains an all time best prospect for students in Thailand.

One year exchange program of high school level has become popular among Thai students. 

## Market Entry

- Attends Educational Fairs
- 	- Direct interaction with potential students and parent
- 	- No continuation of in country school promotions
- 	- Question on follow up activities
- Uses Local Agents
- In country promotion all year round
- Exposure to students
- Level of comfort for students and parents
- Multiple agents is a norm
- Compensation required
- Proactive

**Notes:**
There are two main ways to recruit students in Thailand. First is to attend an educational fair in Thailand. School representative will have direct interaction experiences with potential students and their parents at the fairs. The shortfall is the school does not have a continuation of the school promotion in country and follow up with potential students is limited.

Second is to work with study abroad agents and it is the most effective way to enter this market and to recruit students in Thailand. Most agents do not charge the students but take 10 to 15 percent cut from the first year tuition fees of that student from the school. It is a standard practice for a school to have multiple agents in Thailand. There are about 100 study abroad agents in Thailand.

## Market Entry

- Works with Education USA Advisers
- 	- Non bias
- 	- Free counseling and school promotion

**Notes:**
The other option for market entry is to work with Education USA Advisers in Thailand. The Education USA Advisers group provide free counseling to students in Thailand. The group consists with US State Department’s Educational Counselor, Fulbright Foundation, American University Alumni (AUA) and Bangkok Bank Public Company. They are non bias and typically cannot promote anyone school in particular without a student request. 
Education USA Advising Centers in Thailand comprise of Institute of International Education, American University Alumni, US Cultural and Education Affairs, Bangkok Bank, and Fulbright Foundation.

## Challenges and Barriers

**Challenges:**
**Locating potential students**
**Locating agents to recruit students and promote schools **
**Working with agents and Education USA Advisers proactively**

**Notes:**
Locating serious potential students is a major challenge and not easy. Good and decent agents will be a big help on this matter. This makes the searching of agents that you can successfully work with is also importance.

## Barriers:

**Barriers:**

**Agents require commission payment**
**Misconception on the visa rejection**
**Limitation in norm and culture**
**Growing international programs in Thailand**

**Notes:**
Many schools in the US face a limitation in compensating recruitment companies that makes the recruitment efforts less affective. Schools have to rely on educational fair and Education USA advisors.

There is a misconception among Thai students that visa application is very difficult to get. Thai students that got the visa without any difficulty have never made it to the news. Some study abroad consulting companies (especially those that promote other countries) try to enlarge this misconception in order to convince students to go to other countries than the US.

It is more like a norm to believe that children younger than 20 is too young to live far away from the family. Thai parents rarely send their kids away from home before graduating from the college at the average age of 20 years old. This limits the opportunity to build up the high school and undergraduate students from Thailand.

More than half of the 111 public and private universities in Thailand offer international degree programs, for both undergraduate and graduate, where courses are lectured in English. The tuition fee range from $8,500 to $15,000 for the whole program. Although the quality is not very good, but the programs offered by local universities offer them the opportunities to be closed to the family and to work while taking a degree programs at a very good price.

## How we step in to help?

- Locating Potential Students
- 	- Single Company Promotion – solo exhibition and promotion of school, US Embassy extend and invitation to potential students
- 	- Educational Fairs: STUDY USA,
- Locating Potential Partners and Links
- 	- International Partner Search
- 	- Gold Key Service

**Notes:**
We can assist schools from the US to arrange and set up a presentation to promote their school to a group of potential students and parents in Thailand. We will help select a venue, send out official invitation to potential students and parents, promote the event, and assist with logistic requirements.

We plan to have an educational pavilion at a Buy/Visit USA fair in Bangkok in October, 2008.

We help US schools to locate potential partners or link with other schools in Thailand. Single company promotion is what we did for ETEC delegation members in the past two years. Last year, we managed to set up 72 meetings for five schools. 

International partner search and Gold Key Service are a more personalized service designed to help individual school to obtain a list of agents or schools in Thailand, with their profile, who would like to represent or work with US schools. While the Gold Key is a customized one-on-one meetings for a US school with agents or schools in Thailand that we help set up.

## How we step in to help?

- Virtual Counseling
- 	-Webinar – counseling and meeting with Education USA
- 	Advisors, potential agents, and school representatives.

**Notes:**
We will promote the use of virtual counseling as a tool to help schools in the US to meet with potential partners, links, or agents. We have a technology to set up a virtual meeting that school representatives can meet live with potential partners or agents in Thailand and other parts of the world. 

The next virtual counseling program that we will do together with the Education Team of the Office of Domestic Operation right here in the US will be on January 30 on the topic of International Students Recruitment in Philippines and Thailand. Speakers from Thailand will include Student Visa Consular Officer, Regional Educational Advising Coordinator of the US State Department (who is also a regional director of the Institute of International Education (IIE), AUA (Education USA advising center), all three have been confirmed. One last person that we have not yet received a confirmation is the Director of Education and Training Abroad Branch of the Office of the Civil Service Commission, Mr. Punroung Puntuhong, we would like him to speak about government scholarships. 

## Regional and Local Trade Events

**Local Trade Events:**
**TIECA Int’l Education Fair – October, 08**
- _[www.tieca.com](http://www.tieca.com/)_
**OCSC Int’l Education Fair – November, 08**
- _[www.studyabroad.ocsc.go.th](http://www.studyabroad.ocsc.go.th/)_
**Regional Trade Events:**
**IIE Study America Fair – October, 08**
- _[www.iiethai.org](http://www.iiethai.org/)_

**Notes:**
There are two major local educational fairs, both of them are international with schools from various countries. The one organized by Thailand International Education Consultants Association is smaller and normally organized in late October. The other is organized by the Office of Civil Service Commission. This one is bigger and normally organized in mid November each year. 

There is one major regional educational fair organized by the Institute of International Education (IIE). It is US school only fair and will be organized in October annually.

## Thank you &Welcome to Thailand

- Thank you &Welcome to Thailand

- Nalin Phupoksakul
- Commercial Specialist
- U.S. Commercial Service
- U.S. Embassy Bangkok, Thailand
- E-mail address: nphupoks@mail.doc.gov

**Notes:**
Here comes to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your attention.