Youngest Mexican ‘Neso generation’ so far
16 Dec 2010
The Mexican ‘Neso generation’ is the student generation going to the Netherlands with the help of the Nuffic Neso office. The typical Mexican student from the ‘Neso generation’ coming to the Netherlands to study in the 2010-2011 academic year is 24.5 years old. This makes it the youngest ‘Neso generation’ from Mexico so far.
This is one of the outcomes of the survey that was conducted during the Pre-departure meetings held by Nuffic Neso Mexico in July. The survey was filled out by 67 students who departed to the Netherlands in August 2010 (the ‘Neso generation 2010’). This is about one-third of all Mexican students going to the Netherlands in 2010.
General Profile
Most of the respondents of the survey are male; they represent 62% of the total. Although the average age was slightly lower, the difference with previous years is minimal. The younger age of the surveyed students seems to suggest that students are looking to study abroad at a younger age.
Students come from private as well as public institutions, with the most important universities being UNAM and Tec de Monterrey, just like in previous years.
Scholarships
The respondents do not tend to save money to study abroad: only 8% study using their own funds. 64% of all surveyed students receive a scholarship to finance their period abroad. The majority of scholarships were provided by Dutch universities (49%) and the Mexican Council for Science and Technology 'CONACyT' (28%).
Study destinations
The Netherlands was the primary destination for almost three quarters of the students that participated in the survey. The other quarter mainly had Germany as their primary destination. The second option (for students that chose the Netherlands as their primary destination, as well as for students with another country as primary destination) was a tie between Canada, the US and the United Kingdom.
Some of the respondents were also interested in other European countries, such as Spain and the Czech Republic, but also Asian counties, such as Japan.
Study programmes
Almost half of the respondents is going to the Netherlands to follow an engineering programme. A popular study programme in this field is renewable energy, which makes a programme such as Sustainable Energy Technology offered by the three technological universities a favourite among Mexican students. Another 24% prefer programmes in the economics and business fields.