HEPI SOFT-POWER INDEX 2024: The US pulls further away, while the UK stands still and France slips back

The Higher Education Policy Institute has published the results of its eighth annual Soft-Power Index.

The Index measures the number of senior serving world leaders – defined as monarchs, presidents and prime ministers – educated at a higher level in countries other than their own.

This year’s results show:

• 70 serving world leaders received higher education in the US; and
• 58 serving world leaders received higher education in the UK.

When the Index began in 2017, higher level institutions in the UK had educated one more world leader than those in the US. But in the period since, the US has overtaken the UK and has built up a commanding lead. This year, the US has pulled further away.

In fact, there has been the biggest one-year increase in the number of senior world leaders educated in the US (+5) alongside no change in the number educated in the UK. So the gap between these two countries is now the largest it has ever been since the Index began.

• The US first overtook the UK in 2018, when there was one more world leader educated in the US than the UK.
• The US then extended its lead in each of the four subsequent years: in 2019 three more world leaders had been educated in the US than the UK, in 2020 this figure rose to five, then to seven in 2021 and then to 11 in 2022.
• The gap shrunk somewhat last year, meaning that in 2023 seven more world leaders were educated in the US than in the UK. But this year, the gap has grown bigger than ever and now stands at 12.

There are 195 countries included in the study. Given any one country can have more than one very senior leader educated abroad, the 70 very senior leaders educated in the US lead 58 different countries while the 58 very senior leaders educated in the UK lead 52 different countries. (There is some overlap, as a small handful of leaders have received education at a higher level in both the UK and the US.)

Over the entire period since 2017, 77 (39%) countries in the world have had at least one very senior leader educated at a higher level in the UK.

In 2024, both the US and the UK are far ahead of every other country, benefiting from their strong university systems and their international connections as well as having English as the most common language.

• France remains in third place, having educated 28 leaders (-2 on 2023). This is France’s worst performance since the Soft Power Index began in 2017 but the country remains comfortably ahead of Russia in fourth place (on 10, the same as last year).
• Australia, Belgium and Spain tie for fifth place, having educated seven senior world leaders apiece.
• Germany, Italy, Switzerland have educated six world leaders each, while the Netherlands has educated five.

The research for this project was conducted in August, as in past years, so any very recent change in leadership will not be captured. 

The annual Soft-Power Index has become an influential resource since it first began. It is regularly quoted by UK policymakers and in official documents as well as receiving media coverage around the world and being widely used by official bodies in other countries – for example by Campus France, which promotes international student mobility.

The Index only counts leaders educated outside their own home country. For instance, King Charles III and Sir Keir Starmer, who took their degrees in the UK, do not appear in the UK’s numbers.

The number of world leaders educated in other countries is a useful proxy for the amount of soft power held by different countries. However, the Soft-Power Index is only one measure and it should be supplemented with other information when trying to determine which countries have been most successful at welcoming international students at any point in time.

Nick Hillman, the Director of HEPI, said:

As a firm believer in the benefits of studying abroad, I am sorry to see the UK’s relative position slip – and for the sixth time since we began calculating the numbers seven years ago. What could once have been excused as a blip is now a very clear trend.

International students bring all sorts of financial, educational and social benefits to the UK but the constant flux in policy, such as the tighter rules introduced in January 2024, has confused people about whether the UK is truly welcoming. So we cannot assume that we will recover the ground we have lost relative to the US.

I hope the new UK Government, which immediately adopted much more positive rhetoric on international students, will bear HEPI’s Soft Power Index in mind as they continue evaluating whether the current student migration rules and high visa costs are fit for purpose.

The full table shows all the countries that have had a leader educated in the UK tertiary system since 2017.

Changes affecting the UK list for 2024 include:

• The addition of Hun Manet, who has been the Prime Minister of Cambodia since late 2023. He completed a PhD at the University of Bristol in 2009 on What determines the firm size distribution and structural integration? A cross-county study. He also studied in the US.
• The removal of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, who abdicated in early 2024. As she studied at both Girton College, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics (LSE) in the 1960s, she previously appeared in the total for those educated in the UK.
• The addition of Sylvania Burton, the first female President of Dominica (since late 2023). She studied as a postgraduate at the University of Manchester in the 1990s. As her predecessor, Charles Savarin, studied in the UK too, the number for Dominica does not change.
• The addition of Alexander Stubb, who was elected as the new President of Finland in early 2024 and who studied at the LSE in the late 1990s.
• The addition of Halla Tómasdóttir, who was recently elected as President of Iceland and who studied at Cranfield in the 2000s. As her predecessor, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson studied at both the University of Oxford and Queen Mary, University of London, the number for Iceland does not alter. 
• The removal of Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who was the Emir of Kuwait until his death in 2023, and who was believed to have had some higher level education in the UK.
• The addition of the new Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Luc Frieden, who studied Law at Queen’s College, Cambridge, in the 1980s. He also studied in France and the US. This raises the number for Luxembourg from one to two because Grand Duke Henri studied at Sandhurst.
• The removal of Abdullah of Pahang, who had studied at various UK, and whose term as sixteenth Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King of Malaysia) ended in January 2024.
• The addition of Mohamed Muizzu, who was awarded a PhD in Civil Engineering in 2009 at the University of Leeds and who was elected President of the Maldives in 2023, taking office in November of that year.
• The removal of George Vella, who studied Aviation Medicine in the UK, and whose period as President of Malta came to an end in April 2024.
• The removal of Hage Geingob, the former President of Namibia who had studied at the University of Leeds in the 2000s, who died in office in February 2024.
• The addition of Asif Ali Zardari, the President of Pakistan since March 2024 (but see below).
• The removal of Mohammad Shtayyeh, who was the Prime Minister of Palestine until March 2024, who studied at the University of Sussex in the 1980s.
• The removal of Ana Brnabić, who served as Prime Minister of Serbia until February 2024 and who studied at the University of Hull at the turn of the millennium. She is now the President of the National Assembly of Serbia but this post does not count in the Soft-Power Index as we only include monarchs, presidents and prime ministers.
• The removal of Lee Hsien Loong, who studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, in the 1970s, who stood down as Prime Minister of Singapore in May 2024. While he is now the country’s ‘Senior Minister’, this post does not count towards the Index. As the new President of Singapore since September 2023, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, studied at the LSE and also Wolfson College, Cambridge, a quarter of a century ago, the number for Singapore does not change.
• The addition, for the first time, of Slovakia as the country’s Prime Minister since October 2023, Robert Fico, studied East European Studies at University College London (UCL) in the 1990s.
• The addition of Jeremiah Manele, the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands since May 2024, who was a postgraduate student at the University of Oxford in the mid-1990s.

The 70 world leaders from 58 countries educated in the United States head the following countries:

Bahrain (2); Belgium (2); Belize; Bhutan (2); Botswana; Bulgaria; Cambodia; Costa Rica; Denmark; Dominica; Dominican Republic; East Timor; Egypt (2); Finland; Georgia; Greece; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana; Haiti; Iceland (2); Ireland; Israel (2); Ivory Coast; Jordan (2); Kuwait; Latvia; Lebanon; Liberia; Luxembourg; Malawi; Malaysia; Marshall Islands; Micronesia; Moldova (2); Monaco; Mongolia; Montenegro; Namibia (2); Nigeria; Palau; Palestine; Panama; Paraguay; Philippines; Rwanda; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Sierra Leone (2); Singapore (2); Slovenia; Somalia; South Korea; Spain; Sri Lanka; Switzerland; Tanzania; Thailand; Togo (2); and Tonga.

Compiling the Index is a much harder job than it might sound because there are not always clear information sources available. Among the specific challenges we faced this year are the following:

• The new Emir of Kuwait, Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, studied at Hendon Police College in the 1960s – we have excluded this as we believe it was unlikely to count as higher education but others might disagree with this and we would be open to new information on it.
• The President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, is said to have studied at the London School of Economics and Business but it is not entirely clear which institution he claims to have studied at – we have nonetheless included him in the UK total.

Notes for Editors

1. World leaders are defined as heads of state and heads of government (such as monarchs, presidents and prime ministers). Countries typically have more than one very senior leader, such as a president or a monarch plus a prime minister.
2. Countries are included if they are members of, or observers at, the United Nations, currently numbering 195 places. This means, for example, that Palestine is included but Northern Cyprus is excluded even though the President of Norther Cyprus, Ersin Tatar, studied at Jesus College, Cambridge in the 1980s.
3. The Soft-Power Index is a measure of tertiary education only. In general, this is defined broadly, but distance learning and transnational education are excluded on the grounds that the soft-power benefits – but not the educational benefits – are considered to be lower.
4. Leaders change throughout the year, so we provide a snapshot for August 2024. For example, the fieldwork was undertaken prior to the recent Sri Lankan presidential election, which was held on 21 September 2024 and led to a change.
5. Each country is treated equally and we do not claim each individual result provides good evidence of positive soft power. No one is excluded on moral grounds. 
6. Some people are educated in more than one other country and they can therefore count towards the totals for more than one country.
7. While we use multiple sources to obtain information, the educational background of some national leaders is opaque. HEPI particularly welcomes any feedback that would enable us to build up a more complete picture. When new information comes to light, we update the figures.
8. King Charles III is the head of state for 14 Commonwealth countries other than the UK and, arguably, all 14 could therefore be included in the total for the UK. Were this to occur, it would put the UK in first place. However, King Charles’s higher education was delivered in the UK (at the University of Cambridge), the country where he was born and lives, and he is head of state of other countries in part by virtue of his position in the United Kingdom. So we have opted to exclude this information. This matches how we have always treated the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, who is one of the heads of state (Co-Prince) of Andorra.
9. The University of the West Indies (UWI) serves 18 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos Islands. Attempting to unpick the place of study for those world leaders who studied at the UWI is beyond the scope of this study. Therefore, we have assumed that each one studied in their home nation. This is the same practice as was followed in earlier years.
10. HEPI’s other work on international students, much of which has been undertaken with other organisations, can be found on the HEPI website. In recent months, this this work included research on the Graduate Route visa and the net economic contribution of international students using the new parliamentary constituency boundaries. Earlier editions of the Soft-Power Index remain available to see (at no cost) on the HEPI website.