India, May 13 -- UNESCO's first Higher Education Global Trends Report shows that the number of students enrolled in higher education worldwide has more than doubled over the past two decades, reaching 269 million in 2024. International mobility has tripled over the same period, with nearly 7.3 million students studying abroad, half of them hosted in European and North American countries. Women now outnumber men in higher education but lag behind at doctoral level. Serious geographical inequalities remain with lower enrolment and completion rates in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa.
"This new report shows increasing demand for higher education, which plays an irreplaceable role in building sustainable societies. Yet this expansion does no...