Market Intelligence Brief - Thailand 2018-19

Thailand has made considerable strides in its social and economic development since the 1980s, from a largely agrarian, low-income country to a relatively diversified upper-middle-income economy. As its consumer class has grown and ties have strengthened with the West, the demand for English-language education has also increased. This has led to a rapid increase in the number of international schools and English-language programmes offered by private and public high schools, along with a rise in the number of Thai families sending children abroad for education, particularly for higher education. In 2016, UNESCO recorded a 14 per cent increase in the number of Thai students studying abroad since the previous year, two-thirds of whom were studying in countries were English is the main language. Enrolments in UK institutions have fluctuated between 6,600 and 6,800 over the past few years, with the UK overtaking the US as the top English-speaking destination for Thai students in 2012, based on comparable national statistics.