The presented diagram provides information about the number of international students from the USA, China, Japan, and Russia applying to an European university between 2004 and 2008.
In general, it is readily apparent that Japanese and American applicants exhibited an upward trend for choosing Europe for higher education, whereas the reverse was true for China. Noticeably, Russia’s proportion recorded almost no changes over the period.
In the first two years, the number of students pursuing tertiary education was relatively similar, with the dominance of Chinese applicants, ranging from 21,000 to 26,000 students. Roughly 15,000 applicants coming from the USA registered to this university, which was double that of Japan, at just around 6,000 for both years. Meanwhile, Russia boasted a significantly lower number, with slightly 2,500 students applying to the European educational system.
In terms of the last three years, China underwent a gradual decline to about 17,000 in 2006 and later to slightly over 16,000 in 2008. In contrast, the USA overtook the first position previously occupied by China, increasing rapidly and reaching nearly 30,000 in the final year. The figures for Japanese and Russian pupils were much lower, standing at around 8,000 and 2,500, respectively. While Japan reached its peak at 10,000 students in 2008, Russia experienced no changes until 2007 before increasing minimally by about 1,000 in the final year.