How Many ASEAN Students Study in Another ASEAN Country Each Year
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 07, 2026 • Study in Southeast Asia
About 302,000 ASEAN students studied abroad and 235,000 international students studied in ASEAN in 2018, but under 10% of all that movement happened between ASEAN countries.
🎓 Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia sent out the most students of any ASEAN country in 2018.
🏠 Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand hosted the most international students within ASEAN in 2018.
Most ASEAN students who study abroad still leave the region entirely. Over 80% of that outbound group went to Australia, the US, the UK or Japan.
Where students do stay within ASEAN, the flow is lopsided: over 80% of Lao students studying elsewhere in ASEAN go to Vietnam, and over 90% of Indonesian students studying elsewhere in ASEAN go to Malaysia.
The Scale of ASEAN Higher Education
ASEAN's higher education sector counts close to 20 million students across more than 7,000 universities, based on 2018 data compiled from UNESCO's Institute of Statistics and ASEAN member states (Atherton et al, 2018, cited in the Study on Enhancing Intra-ASEAN University Student Mobility , ASEAN and the EU's SHARE programme, 2020). Against that base, the number of students who actually move between ASEAN countries for their studies stays small.
How Many Students Move, and Where
| Type of mobility | Number of students (2018) | Top ASEAN countries |
|---|---|---|
| Outbound (ASEAN students studying abroad) | 302,000 | Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia |
| Inbound (international students studying in ASEAN) | 235,000 | Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand |
These figures come from UNESCO Institute of Statistics data as compiled and analyzed in the 2020 ASEAN-EU study, and do not cover every ASEAN member state equally. Inbound intra-ASEAN mobility data was not available for Cambodia, Singapore, Myanmar and the Philippines at the time of that study.
Most Mobility Still Leaves the Region
The vast majority of ASEAN students who study abroad choose a destination outside Southeast Asia. Intra-ASEAN mobility grew between 2013 and 2018, but by 2018 it still made up less than 10% of all inbound and outbound student movement in the region.
Of ASEAN students who leave the region entirely, over 80% go to just four destinations: Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.
Who Actually Studies Within ASEAN
Among the smaller group of students who do stay within ASEAN, the destinations are uneven. More than 80% of intra-ASEAN inbound students land in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, with over half of that group in Malaysia alone. The pattern also runs along strong bilateral lines rather than an even spread across the region.
Over 80% of Lao students who study elsewhere in ASEAN go to Vietnam. Over 90% of Indonesian students who study elsewhere in ASEAN go to Malaysia.
Why the Gap Between Outbound and Intra-ASEAN Numbers Is So Wide
Part of the gap comes down to where the strongest scholarships, the most globally recognized universities, and the deepest graduate job markets sit. Australia, the US, the UK and Japan each run large, well-funded scholarship and recruitment systems aimed at international students, including ASEAN applicants. ASEAN's own regional scholarship programs reach a much smaller number of students each year, so the pull toward destinations outside the region stays strong even where a nearby ASEAN country offers a lower-cost, easier-to-reach option.
What Is Being Done to Grow Intra-ASEAN Mobility
Four regional scholarship programs currently support movement between ASEAN countries: the EU-backed SHARE Scholarship, the Asian International Mobility for Students (AIMS) Programme led by SEAMEO-RIHED, the ASEAN University Network (AUN) Scholarship, and the UMAP Scholarship. Combined, these four programs reached about 7,500 students between 2010 and 2018, a small fraction of the roughly 302,000 ASEAN students studying abroad each year by 2018. The 2020 ASEAN-EU study recommends a dedicated ASEAN Student Mobility Research Centre and a shared visa or student-pass framework to make regional study easier to track and access.
Data Gaps Still Limit the Full Picture
Even the most complete regional study available does not cover every ASEAN member state on every measure. Coverage gaps for inbound intra-ASEAN mobility remain for Cambodia, Singapore, Myanmar and the Philippines, and the researchers behind the 2020 study recommended a dedicated ASEAN Student Mobility Research Centre specifically because no single, complete dataset yet exists at a more granular level, covering things like field of study or funding source. Treat the figures here as the best available regional estimate rather than an exact live count.
How ASEAN's Numbers Compare to Europe's Erasmus+
Europe's Erasmus+ programme, the largest regional student exchange scheme in the world, moves a far larger number of students across European borders each year, backed by sustained EU-level funding. ASEAN's combined regional scholarship programmes reached about 7,500 students over eight years, a small scale relative to the size of ASEAN's own 20 million-student higher education base. The 2020 ASEAN-EU study points to this comparison directly when it argues for a bigger, more coordinated ASEAN scholarship framework.
What This Means for You
If you are weighing study options within ASEAN against a destination further away, you are choosing a path fewer students take. That is not a reason to avoid it.
Costs run lower, distances run shorter, and cultures overlap more than they do with Australia, the US, the UK or Japan. It does mean less peer experience to draw on locally, so lean on university exchange offices, alumni networks and programs like AIMS or SEA-Teacher for support and information before you commit.