International Education

Rise of the "Asian Tigers" - What's Happening in Search?

4 min read

| 25/06/25 09:23

Jack Surtees

Student decision making is shifting rapidly in a dynamic year for global study - and that’s reflected in the destinations audiences are considering. Whilst the traditional ‘big 4’ countries remain popular, they’re giving up some ground to destinations elsewhere - including Asia.

This is reflected in Keystone’s State of Student Recruitment 2025 report, where we saw South Korea rise into the top 10 most popular destinations for the first time.

It is not just our data that suggests this trend. The PIE recently reported that South Korea - along with the other members of the "Asian Tigers" (Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan) - are increasingly aiming to capitalize on the opportunities presented by a shifting international landscape. This includes institutions aiming to boost intra-Asian mobility - via initiatives such as the "300K" Project and Korea-ASEAN AIMS - while also diversifying their student body.

So the question is, are Asian Tigers up in search? And the simple answer is, yes.

Search interest for "Asian Tigers" up 19%

Below we see a time series exploring the search intent for major Asian destinations over the previous three months. This is tracking each destinations Share of Search, effectively their 'slice of the pie' of all searches from international audiences.

The Share of Search that these study destinations collectively account for has seen near continual growth from mid-March to mid-June, growing 19% during that timespan. Asian Tiger interest is even outpacing the two most popular Asian destinations, Japan and China, who are each seeing strong growth of their own.

A 30% rise in interest in only 3 months certainly suggests that their initiatives are working, but where is this interest coming from?

Intra-Asian mobility appears healthy

Here we have the largest audiences searching for international study in South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore between March and May 2025.

We can see quite clearly that the intent to increase intra-Asian mobility is bearing fruit, with a great deal of interest coming from East, Southeast and South Asian audiences. These audiences account for 13 of the 20 largest audiences, including three of the top 5.

The fact that search is not dominated by one audience or region suggests that these destinations are building a healthy audience pipeline, one that is likely to be able to continue growing in spite of potential external influences, for example exchange rate fluctuations.

It's useful to group up these countries and identify the regions that "Asian Tiger" institutions are succeeding in attracting in order to measure how well they are achieving their secondary aim to 'diversify the student body'. So which regions are seeing the largest growth in search interest?

Opportunities for further growth

Here we see how interest has shifted in recent months for study in "Asian Tiger" destinations. The bars represent the percentage growth (or fall) in interest from each region since March, for example we see international interest from Southeast Asia grow 154% in that time.

A clear pattern emerges: Great success in attracting interest from Asia but opportunity exists elsewhere.

We again have evidence of the effectiveness of the initiatives put in place to increase intra-Asian mobility, particularly with the growth we are seeing from Southeast and South Asian audiences. However, there are clearly markets still to be tapped into.

Interest from Europe, Oceania and the Americas falls slightly, while interest from Africa sees a slightly greater drop. Currently search intent from these audiences is more likely to pivot to European and Japanese study.

Understanding student desires and effectively communicating how they can be met is vital to tapping into these markets. Fortunately, here at Keystone, we offer the insights and support to enable you to do just that. Our Keystone State of Student Recruitment 2025 report offers our most extensive analysis of student decision making yet, drawing on data from 42,000 prospective students in 150+ countries.

Together we can work to capitalize on the opportunities present in this time of change, to maximize the success of your 2025/26 recruitment drive.