This project was conducted upon the request of the Center RS za mobilnost in evropske programe izobraževanja in usposabljanja (CMEPIUS), which is the Slovenian national organization responsible for the internationalization of higher education. The specific objective of the study is to conduct a data-driven comparative market analysis to advise the national body on its choices of target markets suitable for future promotion of master’s level English-taught programmes (ETPs) offered by Slovenian higher education institutions. The project started with a list of 16 markets taken from the Strategy of Internationalisation of Higher Education in Slovenia (2016) and an initial trend analysis based on the mobility data obtained from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). These are: India, China, Brazil, USA, South Korea, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Egypt, Argentina, Iran, Ukraine, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and Tunisia.  With the aim of assisting CMEPIUS to sharpen its geographical focus by means of a tested data-driven ranking methodology adapted to the Slovenian context (e.g. the economic internationalization strategic foci on R&D, logistics and green technology), the study resulted in a ranking and a comparative analysis of the chosen countries along four main axes:

• cooperation potential (academic and beyond);
• mobility potential (mostly incoming);
• push and pull factors (social and economic); and,
• system potential (demographic factors and enrolment).

28 indicators were used for this research and data were collected from various international sources.

The results of the study were presented to Slovenian higher education stakeholders in Ljubljana in September 2019. Recommendations have been made to include Slovenian higher education data to top up the preliminary study using the same methodology.

The study was also presented at the Study in Europe meeting of higher education promotional agencies, which took place on 14 and 15 March 2019 in Brussels. During the meeting, the presentation of the study sparked a lively discussion on best practices, common challenges and shared experiences among the participants representing different countries.

This project was delivered by ACA Project Manager Queenie K.H. Lam and ACA Director Bernd Wächter, in collaboration with Rita Morais, an independent data analyst.