Thai agents report strong post-pandemic recovery despite USA visa concerns

Across the two StudyTravel conferences held at the Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel this February, ST Alphe Asia and ST Alphe Secondary Focus, agents shared insights on the outbound study abroad market in Thailand, as well as the challenges that they are currently facing, with an emphasis on visa difficulties.

At ST Alphe Asia, there were 46 agents in attendance along with 26 educational institutions, and ST Alphe Secondary Focus Bangkok saw an attendance of 85 agents from 66 agencies, along with 68 educators. StudyTravel Magazine interviewed agencies in attendance along with the Thai agency association TIECA to find out more about the latest market trends.

Post-pandemic recovery: A prominent trend reported by Thai agents in attendance was the positive signs of the recovery the market has seen since the pandemic, with some agents reporting that business is back to pre-pandemic levels, and some citing even higher numbers of students applying to study abroad than pre-2020.

“The trend of Thai students choosing to study abroad this year is really good,” said TIECA president Sethaphol Rutrakool .

He continued, “The new generation of Thai students want to have the opportunity to migrate to other countries to work, but the main problem is that their limitation of the English language would be the obstruction. So, we are seeing more and more Thai students choosing go to study abroad for high school or language exchanges to improve their English skills for later in life.”

This eagerness to study abroad is also reflected in higher education statistics, which show that the number of Thai students is gradually increasing after the pandemic. For example, there were 5,007 Thai students at higher education institutions studying in the USA over the academic year 2021/22 (a year-on-year increase of 0.9 per cent) and 5,405 Thai students studying at universities in the UK (a year-on-year increase of 20.65 per cent).

Discussing this trend, Phattharaphon Bunin from Charis Study Abroad   said, “We’ve seen a big increase in numbers after the pandemic and students are eager to travel abroad to study after spending so much time locked down.”

He also said that the most popular destinations in his experience were Australia and New Zealand, where he sends between 70 and 80 per cent of his students.

Duangkamon Tonrungroj from International Education Promotions also reported a strong recovery. She said, “Our numbers are now back to the same level they were before the pandemic. Recovery and demand have been quicker than anticipated.”

For Prapai Chalermwat from Text International Experienced , business is making a moderate return. “Business is still slightly short of our pre-pandemic numbers, but we are definitely seeing a gradual increase.”

Jarurin Chayapajuk from Wisdom House Education & Travel reported,  “The market is still at 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels but definitely on the rise.” While Pimkarn Wu from Overseas Study Hub said that her company’s current numbers were “15-20 per cent higher than they were before the pandemic”.

Visa concerns: While student numbers are looking largely positive for Thailand-based agencies, visa restraints are proving the be a major challenge, particularly for students wishing to travel to the USA.

Joey Panithan Ittisan from GoUni Ltd said that, for the USA and Canada, it is “difficult to get visas approved for students – especially language, students – and only around 10 per cent get accepted”.

Jarurin Chayapajuk reported a 100 per cent visa rejection rate for the students that have applied to study in the USA. She explained that “[language student] applicants are often not taken seriously. There is an assumption that they will want to come to the USA for work rather than to study.”

While Canada and the UK have proved less of a challenge, Thai agents report slow processing times which can often lead to students’ study periods being cut short.  Annop Kanthatham from York Institute said, “Visa processing is still taking a long time for the UK and this means students’ trips are getting cut down in length.”

Because of this, he explained, he is encouraging students to plan their study exchanges much further in advance than they normally would have to.

Jarurin also said that Canadian visas had a higher acceptance rate than USA visas, but are still taking a long time to process (on average three months).

However, Duangjai Srisawat from Service Links Canada (Thailand) Co., Ltd. had experienced a more positive trend. She said, “Although Canadian visas slowed down over the pandemic, they’ve seen improvement recently. They are getting quicker and better both for secondary and university students and they are currently taking around three to four weeks on average for short language exchanges.”

Work rights: While the USA is proving a difficult market for Thai agencies, countries with strong work rights for students such as Australia are seeing a surge in popularity.

Sethaphol said , “Australia is very popular for older students because they can work at the same time as their studies, making the exchange more financially possible.”

Phattharaphon agreed: “Work rights are important for the older students we send abroad who are up to the age of 35, that’s one reason why we have found Australia and New Zealand to be so popular, as students have the right to work while they study there.”

This trend was also noted by Joey, who said, “Australia is currently the most popular destination for older Thai students such as postgraduates and PhD students, as they often want to work while studying.”

Building back confidence: As the study abroad market recovers after the pandemic, Thai families are rebuilding confidence about sending their children to study overseas. However, some agents, such as Prapai Chalermwat, report that “full confidence hasn’t quite returned yet”.

She said, “Financial concerns are one thing that is holding back families and making them more hesitant to send students abroad, especially for long-term exchanges or university courses, because families don’t know what their financial situation will look like in three years’ time.”

Pimkarn agreed, “Family confidence is still not too high. Some are worried about any future waves of Covid and the possibility of students getting stuck abroad.”

However, in Duangjai’s experience, “families are not as nervous about Covid anymore, but they are nervous about the homestay experience”. In response to this, her company which specializes in Canadian exchanges (Service Links Canada), has created an online community where students and families can get in touch with people who’ve already completed the exchange to find out more about their experience and grow confidence.

In the pipeline for agency association, TIECA: As the market has been recovering, TIECA has been busy introducing new membership options and collaborating with overseas organizations.

Sethaphol Rutrakool said, “We have signed an MoU with many organizations, such as IALC and BETA, and we are also promoting our platinum members package, which gives schools the opportunity to present at our bi-monthly meetings and also directly to selected members.

“We are also arranging TIECA Study Abroad fairs again. In 2022 we arranged the first fair after Covid and we had 1,000 participants, our highest number ever in 10 years.”