For many Bangladeshi families, “study abroad” still points in one direction: West. The instinct is understandable. Universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Europe have educated generations of Bangladeshi scholars and professionals. But that habit can obscure a major change in the global map of knowledge. Research, technology and industrial capability are now spread across regions, and Asia deserves a larger place in Bangladesh’s educational imagination.

This matters at a critical moment for Bangladesh. As the country prepares for its transition beyond least developed country status, the question is no longer simply where young Bangladeshis can obtain foreign degrees. It is where they can acquire the knowledge, research skills and international perspective needed for an economy seeking higher productivity, stronger technological capability and more diversified exports.

Bangladesh’s earlier growth was powered by garments, remittances, agriculture and infrastructure. The next stage will be more demanding. Moving into higher-value production will require stronger research capacity, advanced skills and professionals who understand structural transformation, global value chains and innovation.

Asia offers important lessons because several of its economies have undergone versions of that transformation in recent decades. Japan and South Korea became centres of advanced manufacturing and technology. Singapore developed global strengths in finance, logistics and human capital. China moved from labour-intensive production towards advanced manufacturing, digital technology, renewable energy and scientific research.

The shift is visible in research as well. In the Nature Index 2026 Research Leaders ranking, based on 2025 output in a selected group of high-quality journals, China ranks first globally by research share, while Japan, South Korea and Singapore are also among the top 20.

This does not mean Bangladesh should copy any of these development models. Countries differ in institutions, history and economic structure. The point is simpler: experiences that may contain useful lessons for Bangladesh are no longer found primarily in the West.

I write from one particular vantage point. As a Bangladeshi PhD student in Western Economics at Xiamen University’s School of Economics, my closest experience is naturally with China, and readers should weigh that perspective accordingly.

One of my courses, Labour Economics with Professor Cai Xiqian, has made the comparison particularly tangible. Discussions of employment, human capital, wages and productivity inevitably raise questions about Bangladesh. What kinds of skills will our workers need as technology changes production? How can education raise productivity rather than simply increase the number of degree holders? How can economic transformation create better jobs rather than growth alone?

Living in China also allows some of these questions to move beyond textbooks. Digital payments are a simple example. Alipay and WeChat Pay are integrated into transport, shopping, restaurants and everyday transactions. Observing the scale at which digital technology has become part of ordinary economic life makes debates about financial technology and digitalisation much more concrete for an economics student.

Academic exchange adds another dimension. Attending a conference on “International Experience on Development and LIS” exposed me to development questions from perspectives beyond my regular coursework. That is one of the underestimated benefits of international education: a student does not simply acquire information, but encounters different ways of framing problems.

For Bangladesh, those problems are increasingly clear. How can the country move from labour-intensive production into higher-value industries? How can infrastructure translate into productivity? How can domestic firms move up global value chains? What roles should trade, investment, education and technology play in the next phase of development?

Western experience remains essential to answering these questions, but it should not be the only reference point. Future Bangladeshi economists, engineers, entrepreneurs and policymakers should also understand how Asian economies have approached industrialisation, technological adoption, skills development and international trade.

Many Bangladeshi students are already looking in this direction. In July 2024, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen stated that nearly 20,000 Bangladeshi students were studying in China. The figure should not be read as proof that China is the best destination for every student or every discipline, but it does show that China is already an established part of Bangladesh’s international education landscape.

Neither scholarships nor relatively lower costs should determine university choice by themselves. Students need to examine departmental quality, supervisors, research opportunities, language of instruction, international recognition and career prospects. In regulated professions, they should check how qualifications will be recognised in Bangladesh. Quality varies among institutions in every country, and programmes should be assessed individually.

There are also difficulties. Language can be a barrier outside the classroom, academic cultures differ, and students need to think carefully about how their degrees and networks will translate into careers at home or internationally. Looking East should therefore mean expanding choices, not abandoning scrutiny.

Some Asian universities also have expertise closely aligned with Bangladesh’s national needs. Bangladesh is a densely populated delta exposed to serious coastal and climate pressures, and it needs greater capacity in marine science, environmental management and climate adaptation. Xiamen University, whose engagement with marine science stretches back more than a century, is one example of how a university’s research strengths can intersect with Bangladesh’s development priorities.

International education also produces something harder to measure. Students learn to work across cultures, question assumptions and build relationships beyond their own country. In my experience, that comparative perspective is among the most valuable outcomes of studying abroad. It changes not only what you know, but also the questions you learn to ask.

None of this is an argument for Bangladeshi students to turn away from Europe, North America or Australia. Replacing a West-only mindset with a China-only mindset would simply exchange one limitation for another. The better principle is diversification. A Bangladeshi student should be willing to look wherever the strongest academic fit, research opportunity and intellectual value can be found, whether in Boston, Berlin, Seoul, Singapore or Xiamen.

Prestige matters, but fit matters more. Scholarships matter, but academic quality matters more. And a foreign degree matters most when the knowledge behind it can eventually be put to productive use.

The success of international education should therefore not be measured by how many foreign degrees Bangladeshis collect, but by the ideas, skills, research networks and technological capabilities graduates bring into the country’s development.

Bangladesh’s infrastructure of tomorrow will still require concrete and steel, but its next economic transformation will depend just as heavily on knowledge, research, creativity and people capable of solving problems for which there are no ready-made answers. As the geography of global knowledge changes, Bangladesh’s educational ambitions should change with it.