Vietnam and Nepal: the new wave of international student recruitment

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The international student market can be fickle. With so many variables in the mix – visa hold-ups, changing sentiments, and the domino effect of global instability, universities need to stay agile to keep up.

As the “Big Four” (US, UK, Australia, Canada) rejig visa rules, post-study work and student caps, families are rethinking study-abroad paths that once felt like the gold standard. Today, cost, career outcomes and policy certainty matter more than vague prestige. This is especially the case for the consistently high-outbound mobility countries of Vietnam and Nepal. But while the typical motivations and attitudes of these countries overlap, the decision cadence and the channels that convert are not the same. For student admissions and marketing teams, this is where enrolment success lies.

If you work in student recruitment, you may have noticed Vietnam working its way up to the top of many source-country tables. In Australia, Vietnamese students are now the country’s fourth largest cohort, making up a total of ~33,500 students. In the US, F-1 issuance to Vietnamese students recently reached an all-time high. While in the UK, figures have remained steady.

When it comes to policy, it’s a mixed bag for Vietnam. Take Australia, for example, a Big Four study destination which has tightened study settings with shorter post-study work rights, higher English scores, stricter funds checks, and caps on numbers. But even so, it’s still attractive to Vietnamese students because it’s close to home and the education quality is well understood. Reading between the lines, this means that Vietnamese families aren’t totally switching off the Big Four; they’re just being choosier and asking, “What’s the return here, and how certain is the path?”

In terms of what they want to study, data suggests that Vietnamese applicants lean towards Management & Commerce and IT at the university level, with hospitality and services popular in VET. This aligns with the wider career goal trends of the region: choose business and tech for upward mobility or practical diplomas for quick entry to work.

What to say & where to say it

Think like a family in Ho Chi Minh City, weighing options over dinner. They’re not starting with your glossy campus shots — they’re asking, “How much does it cost? What help can we get? And does this lead to a good job?” So lead with that. Put total cost, scholarship criteria, and payment options right at the forefront of your marketing. Then connect the dots to outcomes: what internships or co-ops are built in, which employers you partner with, and where recent grads have landed — especially for Business/Commerce and IT, where proof of industry exposure really matters. Parents are deeply involved in these choices and will often assemble a funding plan that blends scholarships, instalments, and help from relatives overseas. It’s worth noting that if you don’t spell these finance options out, they’re likely to scroll past you to a school that does.

Make it easy to digest. Create a Vietnamese-language page that answers the key topics in one place: fees, scholarships, visa steps, housing, and safety. Short videos are great for doing the heavy lifting, whether it be a 45-second Reel on “How scholarships work”, “What an internship looks like,” or a walkthrough for students (and parents) who want the finer details.

Timing and channels are predictable for this target market, so use that to your advantage. The national exam cycle drives big September/February starts, so plan your conversion pushes around those windows. And head to where Vietnamese students actually are: Zalo for direct messages and event RSVPs, Facebook for broad reach, YouTube for deeper tours, and TikTok for quick explainers. You may have seen that Threads is gaining ground with the 15 to 24-year-old market, but at this stage, it’s still a nice-to-have as opposed to an essential channel. To put it simply: meet Vietnamese students in familiar spaces, serve answers in their language, and sync your cadence to their calendar.

Think of Nepal as a young market that’s already looking outward. With more than half the population under 25, and with an exceptionally high outbound mobility ratio of ~19%, families are actively comparing routes, prices, and outcomes for overseas study. Their destination choices are diversified: the UK is growing quickly, Japan has long hosted a large Nepali cohort, and students are exploring Europe, South Korea, the UAE and Thailand too. This is especially the case as Australia tightens its study settings and sentiment towards US visas fluctuates.

For most families, costs are the make-or-break. Education loans, scholarships and discounts are often stitched together, so the return on investment isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s pretty much the whole conversation. Add in a crowded agent ecosystem, and you get a market where universities that curate a small, compliant partner network and move quickly on paperwork win. Meanwhile, branch campuses are expanding inside Nepal, which raises expectations: if studying partly at home is getting more credible, your on-campus offer overseas needs a crystal-clear value story.

What to say & where to say it

When it comes to your messaging for this market, lead with the answers parents are asking for: how much, how we’ll fund it, and what happens after graduation. Put scholarships front and centre with plain-English eligibility, amounts and deadlines, and show how they sit alongside common loan options. Then make the “after” concrete by explaining post-study work options. A simple comparison graphic and two or three short alumni stories that show the path from first semester to first job would work well here. Reduce perceived risk by clearly outlining what the first 90 days look like. Spell out housing guarantees, airport pickup/arrival support, student societies, and where the Nepali community is on and off campus.

Channel-wise, the mix matters. Go to where Nepalese students and parents do their research: TikTok and Instagram Reels for myth-busting, Facebook for parent-friendly carousels and event invites, and WhatsApp for case handling between your team, agents and families. Spotlight programmes with obvious earning power, from Healthcare and Engineering to Data/AI and Business. Keep English as the primary language, but add short Nepali explainers for important visa steps, document checklists and fees — small touches like this signal care.

Like any target market, timing your messaging push to cover exam, results and enrolment periods is essential. Before results are released, warm up demand with “what to expect next” content, then ramp up high conversion activities such as offer-holder webinars in the weeks following. About 3-6 weeks after is the window to get visa appointments booked while confidence is high, so push visa filing, accommodation selection, and “first 90 days” checklists.

The student recruitment and admissions teams that win lead with the facts, localise key info where it counts, and match cadence to exam and result windows. Platform-native execution combined with concrete employability proof will increase qualified interest and strengthen international student enrolment across the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.

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