Emerging Study Abroad Destinations to Watch
Countries outside the main 15 destinations, worth watching for how they’re investing in international students. These are sourced, but not checked every 3 hours the way the main comparator is — treat them as a starting point for your own research, not a verified rule.
-
🇰🇿
Building itself into a regional education hub
Hosted 35,075 international students in 2025–26, up 11% year over year. Its Bolashak government scholarship saw applications rise 17.3% to 16,098 (from 71 countries) while awards held flat at 550. In 2026, it granted its first-ever scholarships to students from the US, Italy, and Germany.
-
🇺🇿
Launching a fully-funded scholarship for foreign students
The “New Uzbekistan Scholarship” will offer up to 500 tuition-free places a year to foreign students at public universities, starting the 2026–27 academic year, alongside a new “Study in Uzbekistan” application platform.
-
🇹🇷
Scholarship applications hit a record high
Türkiye Scholarships received nearly 200,000 applications in 2026, up from about 10,000 when the program launched in 2012 — a roughly 20x increase in just over a decade.
-
🇦🇪
Dubai targets 50% more international students by 2033
Dubai’s “Education 33” strategy, launched in November 2024, aims to grow international student numbers by 50% and move the city from 72nd into the world’s Top 10 student cities.