KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — The United Kingdom remains the preferred choice for furthering one’s education among Malaysians, a Singapore think-tank survey revealed today.

In the State of Southeast Asia 2020 survey by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 31.3 per cent of respondents picked the UK as their preferred destination while 21.5 per cent chose the United States.

The UK and Malaysia are both members of the Commonwealth.

According to the survey, Japan and Australia both came in third place at 14.1 per cent.

A total of 1,308 respondents from all ten Asean member states participated in the 2020 survey, with 222 respondents from Malaysia.

The survey also showed that the US was the region’s top choice for tertiary education at 29.3 per cent followed by the UK 23.3 per cent and Australia at 13.8 per cent.

"The US is the most popular destination for tertiary education in six Asean member states: Singapore (41 per cent), Vietnam (38.1 per cent), Thailand (36.4 per cent), the Philippines (32.1 per cent), Indonesia (26.3 per cent) and Myanmar (25 per cent),” it added.

Meanwhile Japan was the most popular destination to visit according to Malaysians at 23.3 per cent based on the polls.

Coming in second place was New Zealand at 16 per cent followed by the European Union (excluding UK) at 14.1 per cent.

The survey pointed out that Japan was the region’s most popular destination to visit with

more than one in four respondents choosing Japan as their top choice in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Myanmar.