Caribbean Students Abroad Survey (2019)

EmpowerU’s mission is to facilitate the empowerment of young people and promote educational and financial resources for Caribbean students to attain a tertiary education. To do so, we wanted to capture an accurate image of Caribbean education today by collecting data from current Caribbean undergraduates or recent graduates about their college preparatory experience and how that played a role in their college experience. Caribbean students are often trapped in a unique college experience due to the high level of competition applying for college as international students and the high costs of a college education with minimal to no scholarship financial aid support. This report details where globally Caribbean students are attending college, what fields they are acquiring their expertise, and the good and bad in regards to what prepared them and did not prepare them for college. The hope of this document is to start a conversation by showing the region the importance of studies like this as well as create a clear image of the level of college-preparatory education, career exposure, academic resources available to students in the Caribbean.

The Caribbean due to its diversity has varying educational systems that create inequality in the level of education a student may receive in the region. In addition, many students are applying for college outside of the region and are receiving out of date or inaccurate information that results in a lot of headaches and pain for students once they move on to college. The lack of community and resources for Caribbean students often leaves students at a significant disadvantage compared to other international students. The data collected in this survey covered current college students or recent graduates that are Caribbean natives and went to high school in the region and include information regarding their high school education, their college education, and their college preparatory experience. The data was collected via Google Form survey that was distributed through our various digital platform outlets including but not limited to (Instagram, Facebook, Website, and word of mouth). Use Appendix for supplement resources for research data (e.g. country 3-letter code as well as data tables for figures).

To see the results of the 2019 Caribbean Students Abroad survey, click here.