Social media analysis of the UK’s prospective international students

The British Council is happy to share the results of a pioneering study we commissioned involving review and analysis of the social media activity of the UK’s prospective international students from six countries: China, India, Italy, Malaysia, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.

The British Council commissioned a UK based social media analysis agency, Convosphere, to harvest and analyse content posted online by prospective international students over a 12-month period from April 2021 to March 2022. The analysis was completed in July 2022 and was initially shared internally within the British Council. This represents the first time the British Council has conducted cross-country social media analysis of prospective international students at this scale, and we have learned much about what can be achieved with this type of research, but also about the inherent challenges and limitations.

Data sources for China include Little Red Book, Weibo, Q&A platforms, blogs and forums. Data sources for the other five study countries include Twitter, discussion forums and YouTube. While we would also have wished to include Instagram, Facebook and TikTok content, these platforms have tight limits on the data that can be legally accessed by third parties.

The project included three core research components:

1. Social media listening to determine the main social media platforms used in each country, scope out the wider influencer ecosystem, and analyse the major issues and topics trending as pertaining to views, concerns, and interest in studying in the UK.
2. Search trend and activity analysis of international students’ interest in studying in the UK, using Google and other internet search engines.
3. Student profile estimation based on the social media listening analysis, generating representative profiles of prospective international students interested in the UK.

The research findings for each country are summarised in PPT format (links below), with a separate PPT containing the executive summary and methodology. The findings provide a fascinating insight into the key priorities and issues facing the UK’s prospective international students, which can vary substantially across country. Examples of the insights to emerge from the research include:

• Concern about the cost of tuition fees, visas and the cost of living (especially from prospective international students based in India and Nigeria), with students from all countries actively seeking and sharing information on scholarships.
• Chinese students who have studied or are studying in the UK advise prospective students not to try to balance work and study, for fear of negatively impacting their grades. And while cost is a key concern for Chinese students considering where to live, safety is their main priority.
• Subject area of study is a significant driver of conversation in UAE; while countries and regions such as the US, Canada, Australia, the EU are considered as alternative study destinations.
• Peaks in social media conversation in Malaysia are driven by people sharing news of newly available PhD positions at several UK universities.
• Language proficiency is seen as a significant barrier for students from India considering UK study, amid broader discussion of the potential for culture shock.
• Prospective students from Italy discuss the UK as a multicultural hub offering significant opportunities for personal and professional growth but are discouraged by the perception of a frenetic pace of life in the UK’s major cities.
• Students from China are keen to experience the museums, galleries and music that are so easily accessible in the UK but worry about experiencing culture shock in a more interactive classroom setting.
• The UK’s introduction of a post-study work visa for international students is seen as a positive, especially by prospective students from India. Prospective students from Malaysia discuss the limited opportunities for them to gain employment in the UK after studying; while Finance & Economics students from Italy discuss the potential for a UK education could to lead to high paying jobs in London or Wall Street.

The five-year search trend analysis shows that interest in studying in the UK is stable or trending upwards for all markets except Italy, where interest appears to have been gradually waning since Brexit. Social media discussion in all markets is most likely to come from 18 to 24-year-olds, with Malaysia having the largest share of conversation from people aged 13 to 17.

The analysis also shows that young Twitter users from the UAE are overwhelmingly based in Dubai, whereas young Weibo users in China are more broadly distributed across the cities of Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu - in that order of importance.

While this research was commissioned as a pilot study - largely to expand our knowledge and competency in this area - we plan to progress to a second phase in Spring 2023. The next phase will build on the learnings of the pilot study and will be more targeted with respect to the issues and topics covered and may focus on a different mix of countries (though still likely to include the major recruitment markets of China, India and Nigeria). To that end, we would like to request feedback from the UK HE sector on the work produced so far, and what we should seek to cover in the next phase of research.

Please provide your comments and feedback to john.mcnamara@britishcouncil.org by Tuesday 31st January 2023.